Irony occurs when situations turn out the opposite way than one might expect or when words mean the opposite of what was intended. There are small and large examples of irony throughout Jane Eyre.

It is ironic in a larger sense that Jane ends up the happiest and most successful of the children in the Reed household when she was the one abused and constantly told she was worthless. It is ironic that although Jane is sent to the Lowood School to be humbled and abased, she ends up married to a wealthy man and rises up in society to be above the people who humiliated her, like Mr. Brocklehurst.

Smaller ironies show up at the beginning of the novel. As we will later find out, it is ironic that when the kind doctor questions her, young Jane rejects the idea of going to live with her Eyre relatives. Mrs. Reed has told her they are very poor and lower class, and Jane has believed this lie. Ironically, if she had been reunited with them, she would have found out they were kind, educated, middle-class people and saved herself a world of misery at Lowood. It is ironic that, too, that when Bessie gives the child Jane the pheasant plate she had long begged to hold, she no longer wants it.

The novel shows that life can turn out in unexpected ways. It shows the truths that the last can become first and that adversity can be the making of us.

Irony exists in everyday life in many of the things people do or say. There is always an implied meaning different and often opposite from the literal meaning. It is a literary device used widely in literature, and it adds drama, depth and often humor to a situation. It requires the reader or audience to analyze a scene, chapter or event for meanings that lie beneath the surface or beyond the immediate surroundings.

In verbal irony, characters often say something that they know contradicts their words or actions. In Jane Eyre, a young Jane sneaks in to Helen Burns' room as Helen is dying towards the end of chapter 9. Jane wonders why Helen suggests that she has come to say goodbye (which Jane interprets to mean that Helen must be going home). Helen explains to Jane that she is going "home—my last home." Helen has taken Jane's reference to home and altered it to mean heaven. 

Examples of verbal irony can be found in chapter 13 when Jane has her exchanges with Mr. Rochester over her "cadeau" (a present). The talk of the "furniture" in reference to Jane's abilities with water colors also indicates the kind of relationship that will develop between Jane and Mr. Rochester. In both these instances, neither Rochester nor Jane is actually speaking about the thing that is being referred to.  

Dramatic irony exists when characters are unaware of or confused by something whereas the reader is already making assumptions as...