One of the central themes in the novel Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez is the idea of love. He addresses many different levels of this well-known emotion throughout the story. Márquez creates a love so devastatingly powerful it completely consumes those affected by it, more specifically Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino loses all sense of self when he falls in love with Fermina, who quickly becomes his only world. In the beginning he spends all of his time thinking about her or watching her, for just seeing Fermina was enough for him (56). The problem is since now he has made this one person his everything, when she leaves, he is left with absolutely nothing. We develop an almost negative view of Fermina because we see how much Florentino loves her and how he pines for her, and she does nothing to stop him when her feelings do not mirror his, “In reality they were distracted letters, intended to keep the coals alive without putting her hand in the fire, while Florentino Ariza burned himself alive in every line” (69). Even though it is not Fermina’s fault that she does not love Florentino as much as he loves her, we still feel some resentment towards her. This resentment only increases when she is able toss aside her love for Florentino so easily, “She came back . . . stunned by the revelation that one could be happy not only without love, but despite it” (87).
Along with a life filled with overwhelming love, Márquez discusses what a life would be like with very little or no love at all. Much like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, there are several marriages in Love in the Time of Cholera that lack love. The first thing Márquez mentions about the marriage of Lorenzo Daza and his wife, who was also named Fermina, was that there was no foundation of love between the two, “Aunt Escolastica was a refuge of understanding and affection for the only child of a loveless marriage” (58). Since her parents were not in love when they married, it is much easier for Fermina to quell her feelings for Florentino and enter a loveless marriage to Dr. Urbino. Despite it never being directly stated, one can assume that there was no love between Florentino’s mother, Tránsito Ariza, and his father, Don Pius V Loayza. If Loayza never acknowledged his son past the money sent to support him, it is difficult to believe that he truly loved Tránsito. “Although he always took care of his expenses in secret, he never recognized him as his son before the law” (53). Yet Florentino reaction to his first encounter with love is much different from Fermina’s. While she is much more reserved in showing her feelings, he can hardly contain them. Florentino never stops loving Fermina, even when she moves away to marry the doctor. Why the two characters interact with love so differently, despite their parents having similar, love-less marriages, is a mystery.
(507)
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
Stick to the code, the Southern code
In Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, the members of the Compson family are constantly worrying about how the appear to society. I believe it is this unrelenting anxiety severely influences the family’s dysfunctional tendencies. Focusing more specifically on Mrs. Compson, Caddy, and Quentin and the belief that they must follow the “Southern code” causes the family to fall apart.
The most obvious character concerned about their social standing in Mrs. Compson. We see this very early in the novel when she is upset about Bengy getting past the gate in he garden. On the surface it seems the front gate is kept closed to keep Bengy from getting out and possibly hurting himself. Yet it could be speculated that the real reason Mrs. Compson is so adamant about keeping Bengy in the garden is so no one will see him. She is ashamed of her challenged son and is worried if people saw him, they would gossip, “I thought Bengy was punishment enough for any sins I have committed” (103). Although the reader still has the right to dislike Mrs. Compson for being embarrassed by Bengy, it is not entirely her own doing. Mrs. Compson was raised in an environment where society was only viewed as two extremes, “I was taught that there is no halfway ground that a woman is either a lady or not” (103). Her worry of what others think stays with her throughout the entire novel, especially when she is raising Miss Quentin. Her illegitimacy causes enough stress to last Mrs. Compson a lifetime, but Miss Quentin’s wild behavior only results in her fretting even more, “But to have the school authorities think that I have no control over her, that I can’t—” (180). Mrs. Compson’s lifelong attempt to fit in with a higher social level only causes emotional and physical health to deteriorate.
Mrs. Compson’s focus on social appropriateness carries over to Caddy and how she handles certain situations. Although Caddy does many things that are considered to be social taboo, she does try to adhere to social standards when her antics become out of control. Her scandalous pregnancy and ignorance of who the father is forces Caddy to give in to something it seems she has been fighting her entire life: the rules of high society. She enters a loveless marriage to a man of awful character because according to society good young ladies don’t get pregnant before marriage. Her ironic fate ultimately ostracizes her from her home and her family.
The other child affected greatly by the norms of the upper social levels was Caddy’s brother Quentin. Quentin’s deep love for Caddy and preoccupation with social morals drive him to depression, intense thoughts of incest, and eventual suicide. Since Caddy has associated herself with an especially nasty social ill, an illegitimate pregnancy, he tries to protect her from horrible gossip he knows will spread like wildfire. When Quentin attempts to confide in Mr. Compson about Caddy’s disregard for social morality, he only learns that his father does not care about their social status either. This affects his depression the way gasoline would a fire. The fear of society thinking poorly of them is the Achilles’ heel of the Compson family and the characters that try the hardest to “fit in” end up suffering the most.
(557)
The most obvious character concerned about their social standing in Mrs. Compson. We see this very early in the novel when she is upset about Bengy getting past the gate in he garden. On the surface it seems the front gate is kept closed to keep Bengy from getting out and possibly hurting himself. Yet it could be speculated that the real reason Mrs. Compson is so adamant about keeping Bengy in the garden is so no one will see him. She is ashamed of her challenged son and is worried if people saw him, they would gossip, “I thought Bengy was punishment enough for any sins I have committed” (103). Although the reader still has the right to dislike Mrs. Compson for being embarrassed by Bengy, it is not entirely her own doing. Mrs. Compson was raised in an environment where society was only viewed as two extremes, “I was taught that there is no halfway ground that a woman is either a lady or not” (103). Her worry of what others think stays with her throughout the entire novel, especially when she is raising Miss Quentin. Her illegitimacy causes enough stress to last Mrs. Compson a lifetime, but Miss Quentin’s wild behavior only results in her fretting even more, “But to have the school authorities think that I have no control over her, that I can’t—” (180). Mrs. Compson’s lifelong attempt to fit in with a higher social level only causes emotional and physical health to deteriorate.
Mrs. Compson’s focus on social appropriateness carries over to Caddy and how she handles certain situations. Although Caddy does many things that are considered to be social taboo, she does try to adhere to social standards when her antics become out of control. Her scandalous pregnancy and ignorance of who the father is forces Caddy to give in to something it seems she has been fighting her entire life: the rules of high society. She enters a loveless marriage to a man of awful character because according to society good young ladies don’t get pregnant before marriage. Her ironic fate ultimately ostracizes her from her home and her family.
The other child affected greatly by the norms of the upper social levels was Caddy’s brother Quentin. Quentin’s deep love for Caddy and preoccupation with social morals drive him to depression, intense thoughts of incest, and eventual suicide. Since Caddy has associated herself with an especially nasty social ill, an illegitimate pregnancy, he tries to protect her from horrible gossip he knows will spread like wildfire. When Quentin attempts to confide in Mr. Compson about Caddy’s disregard for social morality, he only learns that his father does not care about their social status either. This affects his depression the way gasoline would a fire. The fear of society thinking poorly of them is the Achilles’ heel of the Compson family and the characters that try the hardest to “fit in” end up suffering the most.
(557)
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