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1. In Chapter I, what is ironic about the conversation between the two sisters?

The country sister believes that temptation is more likely to be found in town, and that in the countryside they are safe from temptation. She specifically mentions that gain and loss often happen in turns, and she is content with a rough but steady life.The devil, however, is in her own home and is about to lure her husband into ruin through that exact cycle of gain and loss she mentions.

2. In Chapter I, what is ironic about where Pahom is while he listens to his wife and her sister talk?

Pahom listens to his wife and sister talk while he is lying on the stove. No reason for this is given, but the reader can imagine that it is because he is trying to keep warm or because there is not enough space for him elsewhere in the room. Either possibility points out his poverty, and gives him a motive to boast to himself that he would not feat even the devil if he had enough land. What he does not know is that the devil is hiding behind the very stove that he is lying on, and having overheard, begins plotting his downfall.

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