Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman see Manley as a "simple" man, that he's not that bright since he's just a young man selling Bibles to anyone he can, that he can't do much else. But after the encounter with Hulga, the audience knows that he is indeed smarter than he looks as he said. Manley is a manipulator and uses religion to get what he wants by trying to pass as a "good country person."

Is terminating a party extravagant or going to large extents to hold a party for the upper class when a man just died outside the gate extravagant? It seems ironic here.

Another case of dramatic irony here, when Mrs. Sheridan and the other girls seem to be the ones who are "tactless", ignoring and being insensitive to the suffering taking place around them.