Modest woman on the kerbstone (Dramatic and Verbal Irony)
Mabel hesitates to go to her sister Lucy's home to live, and her brother Joe says that “she must make up her mind between now and next Wednesday ... or else find your lodgings on the kerbstone” (201). Malcolm also suggests that if he were in Mabel's situation, he would just become a nurse. The brothers' statements demonstrate a dramatic irony in the sense that they, themselves, are not consciously being sarcastic, and yet their ignorance is so plain to the audience. Joe suggests that Mabel become a servent, and Malcolm suggests nurse; meanwhile, Joe has never cleaned up after himself, and Malcolm, as Lawrence notes in this passage, is the "baby" of the family.
Joe also engages in cruel verbal irony when he says she will find lodging on the kerbstone, because the curb is outside and technically the opposite of lodging.
Love in the cemetery (Situational Irony)
When Jack and Mabel share their intense eye contact from afar which foreshadows their eventual passionate love, they are looking at each other from across a cemetery. A cemetery is typically a place of endings, not beginnings. Cemeteries generally symbolize loss and mourning, not lust and love. But, part of Lawrence's dark charm is seeing the romantic potential for these gloomy settings.
Father’s shame (Situational Irony)
Joseph Pervin, the father of the family, was “a man of no education, who became a fairly large horse dealer” (203). He used to handle all the work himself without any help. However, after his death, his children, who have been provided with the best of everything, fail to be able to manage the business. Ironically, Joseph could manage his large business himself, but his three strong sons cannot even manage to keep the house. Mabel is the most capable of them all.
