After Nicholas misbehaves by putting a frog in his breakfast, his aunt tries to punish him by letting his cousins and brother go to Jagborough Cove (a nearby beach) without him. In an example of situational irony, the trip to Jagborough is a miserable experience for the children and Nicholas, despite being trapped at home, has a great day (as he is able to explore the lumber room).
At the beginning of the story, the narrator describes how the aunt set up the trip “in order to impress on Nicholas the delights that he had justly forfeited by his disgraceful conduct at the breakfast-table.” The following passage from the end of the story captures the irony of how the trip actually turned out:
The tide had been at its highest when the children had arrived at Jagborough Cove, so there had been no sands to play on – a circumstance that the aunt had overlooked in the haste of organising her punitive expedition. The tightness of Bobby’s boots had had disastrous effect on his temper the whole of the afternoon, and altogether the children could not have been said to have enjoyed themselves.
This ironic twist highlights how foolish the aunt is to try to assert her will over the force of nature. While she tries her best to punish Nicholas and reward the other children, nature undermines her—the high tide and Bobby’s growing feet are, much to her chagrin, not under her control.
In an example of situational irony, the aunt tells Nicholas not to enter the gooseberry garden, only to urgently request that he do so in order to help her get out of the water-tank (into which she has accidentally fallen). The irony comes across in the following exchange between the two after the aunt has called for help:
“Who’s calling?” he asked.
“Me,” came the answer from the other side of the wall, “didn’t you hear me? I’ve been looking for you in the gooseberry garden, and I’ve slipped into the rain-water tank. Luckily there’s no water in it, but the sides are slippery and I can’t get out. Fetch the little ladder from under the cherry tree –”
“I was told I wasn’t to go into the gooseberry garden,” said Nicholas promptly.
Nicholas’s simple response to the aunt’s request for help—“I was told I wasn’t to go into the gooseberry garden”—demonstrates that he is both aware of the irony of this situation and willing to use it against the aunt. He is, after all, frustrated with all of the ways his aunt controls and punishes him, and finds himself in a situation where he has the upper hand. It is notable that Saki doesn’t present Nicholas as needlessly vengeful here, but as an intelligent child who forces the aunt to face the consequences of her cruel behavior toward him.
There are a few other layers of situational irony in this scene as well. First, the fact that the aunt has slipped into the tank while looking for Nicholas in the gooseberry garden is ironic as Nicholas never had any intention of going into the garden—his interest was always in the lumber room (where he had a fantastic afternoon). Another layer of irony centers on the fact that the aunt has, throughout the story, presented herself as an all-powerful and controlling force in the children’s lives, only to end up vulnerable and at the mercy of the young Nicholas.
