Hanna's Attitude Towards Promotion
Hanna is a hard worker and a good leader in the workplace, which makes her a great candidate for promotion. However, Hanna does not want promotion, and in fact she will go to any lengths in order to avoid it. This is ironic because it is the polar opposite of what the majority of hard working and responsible people go to work and perform well for; after all, most people chase promotion.
The Reader
At the start of the novel, its title, "The Reader", refers to Michael, because he is the one who reads aloud to Hanna. However, ironically by the end of the novel, it refers to Hanna, because she has become the eponymous Reader that the book is all about.
Hanna Admitting She Is Illiterate
When it doesn't matter - when she is in jail - Hanna finally admits she is illiterate, and learns to read. This is ironic because it is her refusal to admit that she cannot read that has completely governed her life, and essentially ruined it completely. Had she admitted it earlier, and accepted help earlier, she might not have ended up in jail in the first place.
Hanna's Honesty In Court
Hanna believes that the best course of action in court is to be honest at all times. This is ironic, though, because it is her honesty that makes things worse for her, the only person who is actually believable getting the harshest punishment because being brutally honest makes her look more and more heartless and guilty of evil.
Hanna Values Education
Hanna is to all intents and purposes uneducated, and Michael is a smart, educated kid with academic parents who encourage and value education and academia. The irony of this is that Hanna values education far more than Michael does, threatening to stop seeing him all together if he does not buckle down and take catching up with his missed studies seriously. Ironically, Hanna values what she doesn't have far more than Michael, who finds studying easy, values what he does have: education and the ability to read and write.
