Isabel’s decision to marry Osmond is an example of situational irony for a few different reasons. First, she accepts his proposal after turning down two other men (Goodwood and Lord Warburton)—not because she doesn’t like them, but because she wants to keep her “liberty.” This is ironic because, in marrying Osmond, she completely forfeits this liberty.
Isabel’s choice of husband is also ironic because Osmond—unlike Goodwood or Lord Warburton—only wants to marry Isabel for her wealth. While she thinks she is choosing the man with strongest character and values (based purely on Osmond’s status as a middle-class art collector), she is actually choosing the one who cares about her the least and cares about status and sophistication above all else (an example of his harmful Old World European values).
A further layer of irony is that Isabel believes she is making the choice to marry Osmond of her own free will—using that “liberty” that she values so much—but she has actually been actively manipulated by both Osmond and Madame Merle into marrying him so that their daughter Pansy can live off of Isabel’s wealth. This becomes clear near the end of the novel when Madame Merle announces to Isabel in a heated moment that she had “everything” to do with Isabel’s relationship with Osmond.
In an example of situational irony, Ralph asks his father, Mr. Touchett, before he dies to leave a significant sum of money to Isabel so that she can be “free,” as seen in the following passage:
“Her marrying—some one or other? It’s just to do away with anything of that sort that I make my suggestion. If she has an easy income she’ll never have to marry for a support. That’s what I want cannily to prevent. She wishes to be free, and your bequest will make her free.”
This moment is ironic because, as becomes clear over the course of the novel, Isabel inheriting Mr. Touchett’s wealth is the very thing that strips her of her freedom. While Ralph wants Isabel to use the money to explore the world and to forego needing a husband for financial stability, the wealth is what leads her to settle down with Osmond. This is because, on learning of Isabel’s inheritance, Madame Merle schemes with Osmond on how to trap her in a marriage with him (so that Madame Merle and Osmond’s secret love-child Pansy will be financially secure).
Isabel’s new wealth also leads her to integrate into upper-class European society, throwing and attending the types of social events in which she used to be disinterested. Ultimately, rather than her uncle’s inheritance leading to her independence as a free woman, it leads to another patriarch’s personal empowerment and to her own enmeshment in elite European society.
In an example of situational irony, when Isabel joins Mrs. Touchett on a visit to Paris, she judges the American expatriates harshly for flaunting their wealth, as seen in the following passage:
She made up her mind that their lives were, though luxurious, inane, and incurred some disfavour by expressing this view on bright Sunday afternoons, when the American absentees were engaged in calling on each other
[…]
“You all live here this way, but what does it lead to?” she was pleased to ask. “It doesn’t seem to lead to anything, and I should think you’d get very tired of it.”
Isabel’s judgment is ironic because, in just a handful of years (after she marries Osmond and settles down in Italy), Isabel will become the American expat who throws extravagant parties and has little in her life outside of these gestures of wealth.
While Isabel starts the novel with no money to her name and a desire to be free and explore the world, she ends up becoming trapped by the wealth she inherits from her uncle (marrying the cruel and dismissive Osmond who keeps her isolated in his villa). In the process, Isabel becomes like the very people whose lifestyles she judged and rejected.
In an example of both foreshadowing and irony, several different characters in the novel tell Isabel not to marry Osmond since, they believe, he is just using her for her wealth and she will end up unhappy.
This is an example of foreshadowing, as Isabel does go on to be very unhappy in her marriage to Osmond, who wants her money but does not value her as the independent person that she is. It’s simultaneously an example of situational irony because Isabel believes incorrectly—yet confidently—that she knows Osmond better than anyone else, viewing him as a humble art collector deserving of her love and financial support.
The following conversation between Isabel and Ralph captures the irony of Isabel’s resistance to her loved ones’ critiques of her fiancé:
“How little you trust me!”
There was a moment’s silence; the warm noon-tide seemed to listen. “I trust you, but I don’t trust him,” said Ralph.
She raised her eyes and gave him a wide, deep look. “You’ve said it now, and I’m glad you’ve made it so clear. But you’ll suffer by it.”
Here, Isabel tell Ralph that he’ll “suffer” for speaking ill of Osmond when, in reality, it’s she who suffers for the fact that she didn’t listen to Ralph. This is also an example of dramatic irony, as readers know by this point that Osmond and Madame Merle have intentionally been targeting Isabel for her inherited wealth (even if readers don’t yet understand why). This means that readers are on the same page as the characters who don’t trust Osmond.
In an example of situational irony, near the end of the novel Osmond believes that Isabel is trying to stop Pansy’s engagement to Lord Warburton because she is jealous, when really she is trying to save Pansy from marrying a man who is using Pansy to get to Isabel.
Part of the irony of this situation is that Osmond accuses Isabel of sabotaging the engagement and she denies it, despite the fact that she has sabotaged it, just for reasons completely counter to what Osmond suspects. The irony comes through in the following passage when Osmond accuses Isabel of “working against” him and she has trouble figuring out how to respond:
“If you really wish hands laid on Lord Warburton you must lay them yourself.”
For a couple of minutes Osmond answered nothing; then he said: “That won’t be easy, with you working against me.”
Isabel started; she felt herself beginning to tremble […] “I think you accuse me of something very base,” she returned.
“I accuse you of not being trustworthy. If he doesn’t after all come forward it will be because you’ve kept him off.”
The irony beneath this entire dynamic is that Osmond and Isabel fundamentally do not trust each other despite the fact that they are married—Isabel, in particular, cannot tell Osmond the truth about Lord Warburton’s feelings for her because, even though she does not feel the same way for him, she knows she her husband will accuse her of it anyway. Here, James is showing how Victorian marriages trap women, as women must twist themselves into whatever their husbands want them to be.
In an example of situational irony, the American-bred, independence-oriented Henrietta Stackpole marries the British Mr. Bantling and settles down with him in London. The follow passage shows how Isabel and Henrietta both see the irony in Henrietta’s choice:
[Isabel] greeted with a quick laugh the image that her companion had raised. She immediately recovered herself, however, and with the right excess of intensity, “Henrietta Stackpole,” she asked, “are you going to give up your country?”
“Yes, my poor Isabel, I am. I won’t pretend to deny it; I look the fact in the face. I’m going to marry Mr Bantling and locate right here in London.”
“It seems very strange,” said Isabel, smiling now.
“Well yes, I suppose it does. I’ve come to it little by little. I think I know what I’m doing; but I don’t know as I can explain.”
The reason Isabel gives “a quick laugh” and gently mocks her friend with the question, “Are you going to give up your country?” is the same reason Henrietta says she doesn’t know if she can explain her choice—they are both shocked by the irony of Henrietta settling down in Europe. Despite being intrigued by Europe and enjoying writing about its culture and customs for American newspapers, Henrietta is notorious for believing the United States to be superior to Europe.
That Henrietta marries at all is also ironic, since she is constantly criticized for being too “modern” in her decision not to prioritize romantic relationships. One final ironic element is that the ambitious Henrietta marries the humble and bumbling Mr. Bantling—he is kind but not very smart or sophisticated.
