In Chapter 4, Equiano uses dramatic irony to foreshadow his great disappointment when Pascal decides to sell him instead of freeing him. Equiano describes the misguided hope that built while he was aboard Pascal's ship:
[Pascal] even paid attention to my morals; and would never suffer me to deceive him, or tell lies, of which he used to tell me the consequences; and that if I did so, God would not love me. So that from all this tenderness I had never once supposed, in all my dreams of freedom, that he would think of detaining me any longer than I wished.
Pascal treated Equiano kindly—except, of course, for the part where he kept him legally enslaved. Equiano notes that, as he saw it at the time, Pascal even took an interest in his spiritual well-being and moral instruction. After all, why else would Pascal worry about helping Equiano retain God's love? Dramatic irony is at play here. The astute reader can see that the young Equiano is probably being manipulated. Even if Pascal does care about Equiano's morals, it is awfully convenient for him if a child he has enslaved is afraid of lying to him. Furthermore, according to Christianity as Equiano comes to understand it, God's love is not conditional in this way. Still, Equiano was young enough at the time that he believed Pascal at face value.
Equiano goes on to write that, because Pascal had him so convinced of his benevolence, he could not imagine that the older man would hesitate to free him whenever he asked. This statement foreshadows the fact that, when it comes down to it, Pascal will do exactly what the young and trusting Equiano cannot imagine, trading him for money to a new enslaver and a new fate. A heartbreaking sense of betrayal begins to build here. Young Equiano still believes in a better world than the one in which he lives. In fact, part of Equiano's education and "civilization" involves coming to understand that the economic system of slavery corrupts everyone who comes into contact with it. Whereas many of the people Equiano encounters through his life claim to use Christianity and the Ten Commandments as their north star when they are navigating life's difficult decisions, many of them actually allow their commitment to slavery and the riches it brings to enslavers to make their decisions for them.
