Happy Days Title
One of the most glaring examples of irony in Beckett's plays is often the title.This is most true in the titling of his play Happy Days, when neither of the characters in the play is happy. Winnie is almost the polar opposite of happy, and the play is not really the bundle of laughs advertised by its name either. A play with the word "happy" in its title could be assumed to have at least a little joy within it. This play is absolutely joyless, which makes its title all the more ironic.
Heavenly Day Proclamation (from "Happy Days")
In many of Beckett's plays, the lines spoken by the characters are ironic. One of the most ironic is the opening line of Happy Days, when Winnie proclaims that it is "another heavenly day". Winnie is stuck in a heap of dirt, with a miserable life and a husband she does not get along with. Her day is anything but heavenly - yet she does not speak the line as an irony herself, which makes her observation all the more ironic from the perspective of the audience.
A Use for Rope ("Act Without Words")
In a play that builds irony upon irony, the lifesaving items that the man relies upon are ironically useless and actually better designed to hasten his death. An example of this is the rope, which is provided to him so that he can somehow lasso the water carafe and bring it close enough to drink from. He is unable to do this and so ends up trying to hang himself with the rope instead.
Water in the Desert ("Act Without Words")
Although the dehydrated man is struggling to find any kind of oasis in the desert, he does stumble upon the view of a carafe labeled WATER. This would seem like incredibly good fortune, but he is actually unable to reach it however hard he tries. He uses up an extreme amount of energy in attempting to get hold of the carafe, which also provides another irony in that it contains so little water that it would probably not be sufficient to save his life anyway, meaning that it gives him hope, without any real foundation to back it up.
Play
Another play in which the title seems entirely ironic, Play is really not a play at all. In fact, if the title did not tell the audience that it was a play, they would likely not consider it to be one. There is no exchange of dialogue, scene changes, perceptible acts. The action on the stage is not really action either. There is no action, because the characters are all trapped inside large urns and unable to move. Everything that is considered to make a play, a play, is absent from this work, which makes the title the biggest irony of all.
