The only use out of people
Miss Amelia was regarded as a calculating woman and the narrator underlined this characteristic of hers: “ the only use that Miss Amelia had for other people was to make money out of them. And in this she succeeded ”. The irony lies in depiction the attitude of the protagonist toward other people. They are not friends or even acquaintances; they are just potential sources of money.
Looking for something to sue about
Miss Amelia was the richest woman for miles around. She could be as rich as congressman, says the narrator, but she had one bad habit that was her passion for lawsuits and the courts: “ She would involve herself in long and bitter litigation over just a trifle ”. And it was said that if Amelia was much as stumbled over a rock in the road she would glance around instinctively as though looking for something to sue about it. The irony is used in the depiction of her weakness .
The unpredictable and incredible event
When the hunchback, Miss Amelia’s cousin, came first at her store and claimed kin with her, he suddenly sat down on the steppes and suddenly began to cry. Miss Amelia was confused; the first her thought was that t was not a common thing to have an unknown hunchback walk to the store at midnight and then sit down and cry. This situation is depicted with the help of irony in order to show the confusion of the feelings of Miss Amelia and describe the hunchback as sensitive and vulnerable creature.
Rumors in the small town
As nobody has seen the hunchback for a few days, people started talking it through and then suddenly Merlie Ryan “a man of not much account — sallow, shambling, and with no teeth in his head” told that he knows that Miss Amelia had killed her cousin for something he had in his suitcase. People believed in it as in an official version of the investigation and soon they were telling this story to each other, with adding their own weird details and remarks. Here the irony is used for the satirical highlighting of people, who have pleasure when rumoring of each other.
The hunchback – a great mischief maker
Cousin Lymon enjoyed every opportunity to spoil relationships between people: “ It was due to him that the Rainey twins had quarreled over a jack-knife two years past, and had not spoken one word to each other since. He was present at the big fight between Rip Wellborn and Robert Calvert Hale, and every other fight for that matter since he had come into the town”. Every night he came to café, reached the exact center of the room and threw a quick gaze on the “emotional material at hand” that night. Here the irony is used for the highlighting of negative features of the hunchback, his love to manipulate other people, in particular.
