" (pg.189) Mr. Bennet turns his wit on himself during the crisis with Whickham and Lydia: "let me once in my life feel how much I have been to blame. I am not afraid of being overpowered by the impression. It will pass away soon enough."(pg. 230).
Elizabeth's irony is lighthearted when Jane asks when she began to love Mr. Darcy: "It has been coming on so gradually that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberly" (pg.163). She can be bitterly cutting however in her remark on Darcy's role in separating Bingley and Jane: "Mr. Darcy is uncommonly kind to Mr. Bingley, and takes a prodigious deal of care of him." (pg. 202) The author also independent of any character, uses' irony in the narrative parts for some of her sharpest judgments The Meryton Community is glad that Lydia is marrying such a worthless man as Whickham: ". and the good nature wishes for her well doing, which had proceed before from all the spiteful old ladies in.
Meryton, lost but a little of their spirit in this change of circumstances, because with such a husband, her misery was certain." (pg. 270) Austen uses irony to provoke gentle, whimsical laughter and to make veiled, bitter observations as well; in her hands' irony is an extremely effective device for moral evaluation: "She has Elizabeth say that she hopes she will never laugh at what is wise or good." (pg.143).
The characters on Pride and Prejudice are full of moral, social and human values. Every character is measured against the intelligence and sensitivity which eighteen century people called good sense, and they stand and fall by common consent of the evaluation made by the author. The characters themselves, the sensible ones, accept this standard, and their relationships are determined by it, Mr. Bennet cannot be happy with his wife because he does not respect her: "Mr. Bennet saw his wife, he was thinking about how obstinate she was, how money made her so happy, and how hypocrite she was.