Irene Westcott initially replaces her old radio with a new one to create a sanctuary of escape; she wishes to listen to Mozart in the evenings with a low volume and in a quiet space. The irony is that the new radio shows the discord in the lives all around her as it broadcasts her neighbors' private lives into her own personal space. Instead of a peaceful sanctuary, Irene is unable to turn off this intrusion and allows it to control her emotions, pulled to the radio each night to spy on the lives of her neighbors.

Later while listening to the radio, she comments to her husband, "They're really such nice people, aren't they? They have such nice faces. Actually, they're so much nicer than a lot of the people we know." Of course, the irony is that all of these people do not live the pleasant lives she at first envisions; she soon overhears a man beating his wife as it is broadcast into her living room and begs her own husband to go intervene.

Thematically, these examples of irony and others support the idea that the image families present to the world are not necessarily indicative of their private lives. People often present one face to the world at large and live quite differently when they think no one is watching or listening. The Westcotts also function with a lot of resentment and anger bubbling just under the surface of their own relationship, which the argument over the radio brings to light at the end of the story.