Brideshead Revisited

In Part 1, Chapter 3, Sebastian writes to Charles, summoning him to Brideshead and claiming that some sudden disaster has struck. Charles worries that Sebastian's life is in danger and makes haste to the Flyte family's estate, only to learn from Julia that Sebastian's "emergency" is a slight ankle fracture. The following is a prime example of situational irony:

“Didn’t he say? I expect he thought you wouldn’t come if you knew. He’s cracked a bone in his ankle so small that it hasn’t a name. But they X-rayed it yesterday, and told him to keep it up for a month. It’s a great bore to him, putting out all his plans; he’s been making the most enormous fuss [...]."

[...]

“How did he do it?”

“Believe it or not, playing croquet. He lost his temper and tripped over a hoop. Not a very honorable scar.”

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During his first year at Oxford, Charles finds himself ensconced in a friend group that includes both Sebastian Flyte and Anthony Blanche. The latter boy is infamous amongst Oxford undergraduates, so much so that Charles’s cousin Jasper warns him against associating with Anthony. Given the intense scrutiny Anthony’s peers subject him to, what occurs after he leaves Oxford is a prime example of situational irony. Note the following passage from Part 1, Chapter 5, which brings this irony to light:

Anthony Blanche’s set broke up and became a bare dozen lethargic, adolescent Englishmen. Sometimes in later life they would say: “Do you remember that extraordinary fellow we used all to know at Oxford—Anthony Blanche? I wonder what became of him.” They lumbered back into the herd from which they had been so capriciously chosen and grew less and less individually recognizable.

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