This will not make you laugh
An ironic idea appears in the prologue of the play, with the narrator claiming that the people who came to witness the play will remain unsatisfied with the result. The narrator admits that many people go to see a play and expect to see a play which will make them laugh. The narrator claims that, ironically, the opposite will happen and many will eventually cry at the end of the play.
He will be the one to die
In Act I, Scene I, one of the characters, Lord Buckingham, watches from afar as Cardinal Wolsey passes by them, followed by a large group of men. Lord Buckingham expresses his disdain for the Cardinal, while also expressing his wish to see him dead. Ironically, the character who will die in the end is the Lord himself, after the Cardinal ordered his death on grounds of treason.
Pitying the Queen
King Henry meets Anne for a first time during a masquerade ball and falls in love with her immediately. Soon after their first meeting, the King arranges to have people brought to the court who will stand by him when trying to divorce his first wife, Catherine. During this time, the narrator suggests that maybe Anne had no idea about the King’s infatuation with her and, ironically, showed her sympathies towards the way in which Queen Catherine was treated by the King and by the rest of the people at court.
Betrayed by the one he trusted the most
From the beginning of the play, King Henry made it clear the man he trusts the most is Cardinal Wolsey. Time and time again, the King takes the Cardinal’s side when someone were to criticize him or a controversial decision he may have taken at one point or another. Ironically, the biggest betrayal the King has to face comes from Wolsey himself, who apparently supported King Henry when it suited him while also conspiring against him with the Pope.
