Irony of Isabelle Mauriac
Isabelle is a hero of the underground, who completes dozens of deadly missions ferrying fallen soldiers across the French border and into Spain and avoids capture each time. She’s eventually imprisoned and tortured by Nazis under harsh conditions, and is finally released from prison after the liberation of France: only to die days later, in the safety of her sister’s home, not from a gunshot or torture, but from malnutrition and disease.
Irony of Captain Beck
Captain Beck is a Nazi soldier stationed in Vianne’s home. As a Nazi, he should be a pinnacle of evil and be completely monstrous, but in fact, he’s polite to Vianne and Sophie, and ends up developing a relationship with them that develops a friendship. Rather than being shown as a monster, he’s shown as a morally grey character, whose actions aren’t justifiable, but understandable.
Irony of the Mauriac father
Isabelle and Vianne’s father abandoned them after their mother’s death: he left them in the care of an orphanage and went to live by himself in Paris. He also rejects Isabelle when she comes back to him at the start of the war and attempts to make her leave. In spite of this rejection, when Isabelle is imprisoned by the Nazis, he goes to the prison, claims to be the Nightingale instead, and takes her place. After a lifetime of abandoning his daughters, he sacrifices himself so one of them can go free.
Irony of Antoine
Antoine is Vianne’s husband, who survives fighting in the initial attacks on France and then several years in a prisoner of war camp. After surviving all of these horrible things, he dies of cancer, a common, run-of-the-mill cause of death for older adults.
Irony of the nightingale
Nightingales sing at night, and because of that, they tell of impending darkness. Isabelle’s code name in the resistance is the Nightingale, and while the bird may bring to mind images of darkness, Isabelle is a symbol of freedom for the people she helps.
