Oh the Irony!

In Barnes' novel, Flaubert's Parrot, Braithwaite expresses extreme hatred for coincidence in literature. He even goes so far as to say if he were 'dictator of fiction' he would ban all coincidence from books. Yet, Braithwaite is quite the fan of coincidence's more elegant sister, irony. Perhaps what fuels Braithwaite's passion for irony is the impact it had on Flaubert's life and, ultimately, his own opinion (what we see in Barnes’ writing). The cab scene, for example, shared by Emma and Léon directly correlates with Flaubert’s love affair with Louise. However, the irony in this scene is that while Flaubert would ride around in curtained cabs trying to avoid any sexual confrontation with his lover, Emma Bovary finds a safe haven with her lover behind the same curtained cabs. Beyond irony, one cannot help but feel that perhaps Flaubert was not ironically describing his current situation with his own love, but that he was somehow channeling his frustration and longing into Emma and, in specific, this cab ride scene. It would seem much too predictable for Flaubert to simply give us this irony on a silver platter; by presenting us with this clear display of irony, maybe he is actually satirizing the fact that his true feelings of love are, coincidentally, masked by the same curtains that masked his love for Louise.

This in itself could launch into a whole other argument if whether Flaubert was a true realist or simply a bitter romantic—but then, isn’t it ironic that by writing with such detail, which is typical of realism, that he unmasks this bitter romantic that he may have been trying to hide?