And that takes us to our third irony. If M. Lantin hadn#8217;t stopped going to the theatre with his wife, then another man wouldn#8217;t have had the opportunity to flirt with her, and become her lover. In every other way, other than the theatre, and later the jewelry, M. Lantin#8217;s wife devoted herself to him. In paragraph five, it says that #8220;It would be impossible to conceive of any attention, tenderness, playful caress which she did not lavish upon her husband#8230;#8221; She was in love as well as loving her husband. She devoted herself to him, except for her time at the theatre. So, if M. Lantin had been at the theatre with his wife, then his very presence would have stopped any affairs, if only because his wife#8217;s attention would have been on him or on the theatre, not another man. (Intermission would have been long enough for anybody to get it on! Not to mention while M. Lantin was at work.)
And then of course, there is the jewelry itself. The fact that the jewelry is real, while she had been acting like it was fake. Even so far as to let the light catch the crystal, and say, #8220;Now, look at them - see how well the work was done. You would swear it was real jewelry.#8221;, when he would scold her for wearing the jewelry instead of being #8220;adorned with one#8217;s natural beauty and grace.#8221; I#8221;m sure she had fun dressing her husband in the jewelry and laughing at him wearing her lover#8217;s gifts.
Then when she died, and M. Lantin found out that the jewelry was real. The jewelry that the wife#8217;s lovers gave her paid for M. Lantin debauchery. After he realized he was rich, M. Lantin forgot all about his wife#8217;s affairs, and deluded himself that all was okay as long as he was rich. So much so, that six months after his wife died, he remarried to a good upstanding woman that made his life miserable.
That is the ultimate irony of this story and in life. That we are happiest having fun and not worrying about what we do or who we are doing it with. That we laugh, play, and enjoy life to the fullest whenever and wherever we find ourselves. And when we confine ourselves to a certain moral standard with no room for change, understanding, or at least the ability to agree to disagree; we end up making our lives and the lives of everyone around us miserable. This is the ultimate irony of life!
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