The Age of Innocence: Dramatic Irony 3 key examples

After Archer has accepted that he is in love with Ellen (and they have started trying to plan secret alone time together), Ellen’s aunt Medora approaches him to ask him for his assistance in reuniting Ellen with her husband. This is an example of dramatic irony, because Archer and readers know that he is the last person who wants to see Ellen go back to Europe to be with her cruel husband.

Archer’s inner reaction to Medora’s request captures the irony of this moment:

He would have laughed if any one had foretold to him that his first sight of poor Medora Manson would have been in the guise of a messenger of Satan; but he was in no mood for laughing now, and she seemed to him to come straight out of the hell from which Ellen Olenska had just escaped.

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On the night of May and Archer’s wedding, Mr. van der Luyden offers that they stay at Skuytercliff since there’s a leak at the house where they were supposed to be staying. In an example of both situational and dramatic irony, May is delighted at this news (since Skuytercliff is known to be a very beautiful estate) while Archer is distraught by it because, as he and readers know, this is the very house where he and Ellen revealed their feelings for each other not long ago.

The irony comes across in Archer’s reaction to learning about this offer from a member of Mr. van der Luyden’s staff:

Archer stared at the speaker so blankly that he repeated in still more apologetic accents: “It’ll be exactly the same, sir, I do assure you—” and May’s eager voice broke out, covering the embarrassed silence: “The same as Rhinebeck? The Patroon’s house? But it will be a hundred thousand times better—won’t it, Newland? It’s too dear and kind of Mr. van der Luyden to have thought of it.”

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In an example of dramatic irony, May proposes to Archer near the end of the novel that they host a farewell dinner for Ellen before she leaves New York. This is ironic because, as readers and Archer know, he is in love with Ellen and does not want to see her leave, much less celebrate her departure at an event he is hosting with his wife. The irony comes across in Archer’s reaction to May’s proposal for the dinner:

It was that evening, on his return home, that May announced her intention of giving a farewell dinner to her cousin. Madame Olenska’s name had not been pronounced between them since the night of her flight to Washington; and Archer looked at his wife with surprise.

“A dinner—why?” he interrogated. Her colour rose.

“But you like Ellen—I thought you’d be pleased.”

“It’s awfully nice—your putting it in that way. But I really don’t see—”

“I mean to do it, Newland,” she said, quietly rising and going to her desk.

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