The final line of chapter 6, “And
that was all,” marks the end of a protracted phase of Frédéric’s
life, but it has historical resonance as well. Madame Arnoux makes
her final visit to Frédéric in 1867; in 1870,
France’s Second Empire ends. When Frédéric and Deslauriers reminisce
about better days in chapter 7, their nostalgia
mirrors some of the nostalgia the French had for more peaceful times. Although
the layers of historical references are beyond what appears explicitly
in Flaubert’s text, this general idea of parallel endings—the end
of an era for Frédéric as well as for France—gives Frédéric’s love
story a grander context than it would have on its own. The parallel
works in two ways: it gives a personal context to political events,
and it intensifies the importance of political events in individual
lives.
