The king's behavior (Verbal Irony)
"When every member of his domestic and political systems moved smoothly in its appointed course, his nature was bland and genial; but whenever there was a little hitch, and some of his orbs got out of their orbits, he was blander and more genial still, for nothing pleased him so much as to make the crooked straight, and crush down uneven places" (45).
The line above constitutes verbal irony because it subverts the reader's expectations for how the sentence should end to comic effect. The coordinating conjunction "but" suggests to the reader that the king's behavior will change from "bland and genial" to something less agreeable when things are not going his way. Instead, the narrator informs us that the king becomes even more bland and genial when things veer off course, since he finds great pleasure in making things right. This gives us a funny view of the king and inserts a humorous tone early in the story that ironizes the king and underlines the fact that he does not generally act in an expected manner.
The olden-times vs the present (Situational Irony)
“Never before had such a case occurred; never before had a subject dared to love the daughter of the king. In after years such things became commonplace enough, but then they were in no slight degree novel and startling” (47).
This passage is a moment of situational irony that gives us a bit of the voice of the narrator. In the first line of "The Lady, or the Tiger?" the narrator situates us in "the very olden time" (45). The reader expects for the story to be entirely situated in this "olden time" as they are given elements that are commonly associated with fairy tales, such as a princess, her handsome lover, and a terrifying beast. Despite this, the narration brings us to the present with the passage above to comic effect. In the same breath, the narrator asserts the uniqueness of the situation in the story and then subverts that very uniqueness by saying that readers today will find it "commonplace enough." The result is a humorous moment that distances the narrator from the events of the story and introduces a contemporary or modern point of view.
"Perfect fairness" (Verbal Irony)
"This was the king's semi-barbaric method of administering justice. Its perfect fairness is obvious" (47).
Depending on the reader, the use of "perfect fairness" in the passage above could constitute verbal irony. The system of justice as the king designs it leaves the fate of prisoners up to chance. However, as the story shows us, this system is not perfectly fair. In fact, it can be corrupted by those who have enough power to do so, such as the princess. Additionally, contemporary readers—including readers from Stockton's time—might raise their eyebrows at the idea that a system of justice that is based on chance and deals out punishments or rewards arbitrarily is "perfectly fair." What about prisoners who are falsely accused of crimes? Also, what about prisoners who are obviously guilty but nevertheless chose the door with the reward?
