"In.. what.. way.... does the author's use.... of the prison..... symbolize the protagonist's struggle? And, how does this... relate to our discussion of the uses of irony?"
Mr. Knowlan is an English Teacher and a minor character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He is played by Del Close.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off 
Edit
Mr. Knowlan appears in a scene where he is teaching the sleep-deprived students, and one of them is Sloane Peterson. When Florence Sparrow walks in the classroom, she goes up to him, and asks him if she can talk to Sloane for a moment outside.
