Situational Irony: The Island of Peace
Orin bemoans the life he has stepped back into—a destroyed relationship with his mother, a dead father—and proclaims, "I should have never come back to life—from my island of peace!" (310.) This is ironic because Orin's "island of peace" was actually the war in which he nearly died and had to brutally murder others.
Dramatic Irony: The Cleaning of the Pistol
After he has decided to kill himself, Orin tells Peter, "I'm just going in the study to clean my pistol. Darn thing's gotten so rusty" (366). The reader/audience knows that he is actually intending on killing himself, making this casual comment ironic. Simply cleaning a rusty pistol is a lot different than killing oneself.
Dramatic Irony: Brant's Plan to Sail Away
There is dramatic irony in Brant's comments on the Blessed Isles and sailing away with Christine because the audience knows that he is never going to make it there; Orin and Lavinia are planning on killing him.
Dramatic Irony: Hazel's Love of Orin
Dramatic irony is also discernible in regard to the audience's awareness of what Lavinia has actually done and Peter's lack of this knowledge and his desire to want to marry her and show her love and comfort. This is the same as the situation with Orin and Hazel; the audience knows what horrific things Orin has done and it is ironic that the pure and lovely Hazel bestows her love upon someone who is the complete antithesis of the person she deserves.
