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.
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2 comments:
Natalie Garagiola, I think you raise a good point as to how sympathetic Florentino can be in relation to Fermina, who is portrayed to be heartless though the first few chapters. In addition, I like the way you juxtaposed Florentino's love with the loveless marriages around him. As you move along further in the book, I think your view of Fermina will change.
Natalie--I'm growing rather fond of Prof. Khera's comments. For one thing he always ends each one with a prediction of how the reader/blogger will react to later information in the novel, even though I'm not sure he has any of that information himself. Still, very amusing.
About your blog--You've got me thinking about my reactions to Fermina. I think I'm not as disappointed as you because I saw her as too young to realize what was going on in her heart until after her long journey, when she has matured enough to realize that whatever it was that existed between them is something she has outgrown and left behind. In other words, I guess I'm thinking her reaction was natural and pretty much unavoidable.
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