One Hundred Years of Solitude: Paradox 2 key examples

Márquez uses a simile that paradoxically suggests that Aureliano Segundo is cheating on his mistress with his wife. After he temporarily returns to his family home following his near-death at the end of his eating contest with The Elephant, Márquez writes that: 

He did recover, indeed, in less than a week, and two weeks later he was celebrating the fact of his survival with unprecedented festivities. He continued living at Petra Cotes’s but he would visit Fernanda every day and sometimes he would stay to eat with the family, as if fate had reversed the situation and had made him the husband of his concubine and the lover of his wife.

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Márquez uses the surprising and paradoxical notion of a “widow whose husband had still not died” to characterize the difficulties that threaten to undermine the marriage between Fernanda del Carpio and Aureliano Segundo. As Aureliano Segundo begins to transfer his life to the home of his lover, Petra Cotes, Márquez writes that: 

First, with the pretext of taking the burden off his wife, he transferred his parties. Then, with the pretext that the animals were losing their fertility, he transferred his barns and stables. Finally, with the pretext that it was cooler in his concubine’s house, he transferred the small office [...] When Fernanda realized that she was a widow whose husband had still not died, it was already too late for things to return to their former state. Aureliano Segundo barely ate at home and the only appearances he put in, such as to sleep with his wife, were not enough to convince anyone.

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