A united front of marital dignity
Madame Loiseau, Madame Carre-Lamadon, and Countess Hubert de Breville were horrified. They had to share the coach with the “loose” woman. According to them, she was an embodiment of a sin, a woman without morality, it even seemed to them that her sinfulness was contagious. Of course, three of them, respectable women with immaculate reputations, had to unite against that disgrace in a person of Dumpling. They were “a united front of marital dignity!” The irony was none of them was better than Dumpling. They were heartless enough to discuss her, without even realizing that it was their families’ money that protected them from hunger and dangers. Dumpling had neither rich parents nor a rich husband, but – contrary to Madame Loiseau, Madame Carre-Lamadon, and Countess Hubert de Breville’s opinion – she had both a big heart and a soul.
It’s no wonder
Not only poor farmers were recruited into the army. Rich and successful people had to join the army too. However, unlike their less successful comrades, they were “appointed as officers.” Those “former drapers or com-merchants, one-time dealers in tallow or soap” earned their positions because of “their money or the length of their moustaches.” The irony was that they knew nothing about the army. It was no wonder that they were losing the battles. Not to mention that those so called officers often went “in fear of their very own men, who were often immeasurably brave, but who plundered and debauched, and deserved to be hanged.”
Peaceful folks
The soldiers who had been passing through the town had “high-sounding names” such as “Avengers of Defeat,” “Citizens of Tomb,” and “Brothers to Death.” The irony was that they all looked more like “bandits”. It seemed that those names mocked the listless and exhausted troops of the defeated army. Some of them were peaceful farmers who would be happy to avoid a war, but were recruited against their will. Those names were supposed to support soldiers’ self-esteem, to plant seeds of proudness in their hearts, but the reality turned out to be different. They were victims.
