Privilege and victimhood
If this novel had a warning label, it would read, "Not a character you will like very much." The reader finds at the center of this narrative a character who is defined by high expectations. Why does she feel entitled to have things the way she wants them? Because she was spoiled by her enormously happy and privileged childhood. In fact, she had such a good childhood because of her father that when he dies, she is stunned by his bank account. Ironically, her privilege makes her play the victim of her own father's death.
Ironic intentions
Melladore uses Glicera for sex under false pretenses of love and commitment. This goes to show that intentions are literally ironic, because people do what they do for unknown reasons, and often people are skillful at betraying trust, making ironic intentions even more dangerous and frequent. Glicera realizes that love is ironic because a person can never be entirely sure that they are not attaching themselves to a future of disappointment and regret.
The risk of poverty
To make matters worse, Glicera has the instinctual suspicion that if she were more powerful and wealthy, she would not have been the victim of sexual betrayal. This is doubly ironic; it is ironic that everything can be related to her insecurity about poverty and her hubris about that, and it is also ironic if she is correct, which she honestly might be. That second irony is that poverty, which is difficult enough, allows life to become even more difficult by exposing a person to more risks.
Glicera's vengeance
When Glicera finally attains some status in the novel after a lengthy season of chaos and frustration, she immediately uses that leverage for vengeance. There is only one problem; she treats all men as inherently the same as one another, so she takes her hatred out on an innocent victim, betraying him in precisely the way she was betrayed. Her vengeance is an ironic extension of her false belief that she is in fact a victim of the universe or her fate. The poor guy doesn't have a chance against this femme fatale.
Humiliation of the victim
Also, she does not have to humiliate her own sexual victim. For some reason, she projects all her own insecurities on her victim to humiliate him publicly in front of another woman acquaintance of theirs. The evil of their laughter at his expense is a manifestation of great irony. Glicera not only plays the victim, but she becomes the predator she alleges to hate. Not only is she not really a victim, she seriously harms other people because of the hatred she affords only by playing the victim.
