The metafictional element
The novel is not just a story. Rather, the plot is embedded in a broader philosophical conversation about what the ontological implications of a story really are. First, they express the struggle to make meaning out of life, because life is so strange and complex that until a story is told, one struggles to encapsulate the relevant information from life. Then, the story happens, and the story is about a struggling woman who wants to find something eternal and meaningful, but instead she finds people and their brokenness, and the reader might begin to see that the story is designed as an anti-story. Indeed, the anti-climax happens when she dies with no rhyme or reason.
The innocent victim
Macabea doesn't struggle less because of her innocence. Instead, she struggles more. Because she is sincerely convinced that every human being is beautiful and good, she waltzes right into an abusive relationship where she loves and loves, but only to be returned with violence and disappointment. He betrays her by leaving, but that's the best part of the book as far as the reader is concerned. She is innocent, so she suffers, and there is a painful theme in the irony of that.
The evil husband
In a story like Macabea's, one might expect that the husband will bring some kind of redemption or meaning, but instead, it is the opposite. He brings pain and frustration into her life. Instead of helping her life to be fulfilling and meaningful, he teaches her how much damage and abuse he can cause. He is an ironic inversion of her expectations, and the dramatic irony of her relationship to him is that he is secretly powerless and weak compared to her, because he can't manage to be loving the way she can.
The false prophet
Macabea looks to the wise words of Madame Carlota for some kind of encouragement, but as far as prophets go, she couldn't be more wrong. She predicts a happy life of wealth and a romance with a new suitor named Hans. Instead, Macabea walks down the street and gets hit by a car and dies. The prophetess Carlota is especially wrong, underscoring the futility of hope and speculation. There is nothing awaiting the protagonist but death, and that's the absurdist element of the plot. In light of death, everything else in the prophecy seems silly and shortsighted.
Death and meaninglessness
The death of Macabea is ironic in a critical way. On the one hand it is ironic because she is the main character of a plot that is about meaning and life, but she just dies. There is no fanfare for her, and she doesn't die doing anything heroic. She just is dead one day. Her quest for meaning comes up hysterically short. In another way, the story is not ironic—it is straightforward, and it is life itself that is ironic. The novel is directly calling the reader's attention to the issue of death, because Macabea's death is symbolic. It refers to the death of the reader too, especially because of the narrator's opening opinions.
