Love in the Time of Cholera
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Love in the Time of Cholera (El amor en los tiempos del cólera, 1985) is a novel by Gabriel García Márquez about a fifty-year love triangle between Fermina Daza, Florentino Ariza and Doctor Juvenal Urbino set in the late 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century (roughly 1880 to 1930). The novel, a picturesque tale of unrequited love, which is written in Márquez's trademark form of magical realism, deeply explores the idea that suffering for love is a kind of nobility.
Plot summary
The novel begins as Dr. Urbino comes to examine the body of his close friend Jeremiah Saint-Amour. Jeremiah killed himself at the age of 60 in order to avoid growing old. Upon returning to his home, he finds his beloved pet parrot atop a mango tree. While trying to retrieve it, he falls to his death.Florentino Ariza takes this moment to proclaim his love for Dr. Urbino's aged wife, Fermina Daza, but she is repulsed by his outburst and more than a little scared at the feelings she has engendered. When she was young, she and Florentino had written passionate love letters to each other and had even decided to get married. Upon seeing Florentino, however, Fermina is overcome with disgust for him and rejects him.
Florentino maintains an obsession for Fermina (see Pierre Abélard) and intends to stay a virgin until they are together, but soon finds himself using sex to mitigate the pain of their separation. Fermina marries Dr. Urbino and becomes a respectable wife to him. Dr. Urbino does likewise except for a brief affair.
Only after Dr. Urbino's death is Florentino able to revisit his love for Fermina. He is able to--with the power of his writing--slowly rekindle their relationship. On a river voyage together, the elderly couple finds themselves in love. Fermina fears the scandal this will bring so the Captain of the ship raises the yellow flag of cholera, dooming them to exile but also to be together forever.
Characters in \"Love in the Time of Cholera\"
- Florentino Ariza - Obsessed with Fermina Daza, Florentino is a poet much in demand on the Arcade of Scribes for his love letters. He falls in love with Fermina and waits more than 50 years for her husband to die so he can declare his love again. He becomes a president of the boat company founded by his uncle.
- Fermina Daza - Haughty, stubborn, and beautiful, Fermina grew up in a comfortable atmosphere that her father paid for by shady business deals. After marrying Dr. Urbino she is still able to maintain a sophisticated lifestyle. She despises the Church but has a great weakness for animals and flowers.
- Dr. Juvenal Urbino de la Calle - Dr. Urbino maintains an aloof, aristocratic air but also a general decency and loyalty towards his wife. He dies while climbing a ladder to capture his beloved parrot.
- América Vicuña - a young girl, who was sent to study secondary education, with Florentino Ariza to be her guardian. She falls in love with Florentino and becomes depressed, when he grows distant from her after Dr. Juvenal Urbino's death. Eventually she commits suicide after failing her school exams and Florentino Ariza is forced to admit loving her as well.
- Leona Cassiani - a black woman, who becomes a trusted friend of Florentina Ariza, helping him to rise in career ranks of the river boat company. They are never romantically involved, however.
Major themes
Love as an Emotional and Physical Disease
Garcia's main notion is that lovesickness is a literal illness, a disease comparable to cholera. Florentino Ariza suffers from this just as he might suffer from any malady. At one point, Florentino conflates his physical agony with his amorous agony when he vomits after eating flowers in order to imbibe Fermina's scent. In the final chapter, the Captain's declaration of metaphorical plague is another manifestation of this. The term cholera as it is used in the Spanish, Cólera, can also denote human rage and ire. It is this second meaning to the title that manifests itself both on the level of Florentino Ariza's hatred for Doctor Juvenal Urbino as well as the theme of social strife and warfare that serves as a backdrop to the entire story. Gabriel García Márquez thus extends the theme of Love as a disease to the socio-political context of Colombia.Aging and Death
Jeremiah Saint-Amour's death inspires Dr. Urbino to meditate on his own death, especially the infirmities that accompany it. It is necessary for Fermina and Florentino to transcend not only the difficulties of love, but also the societal view that love is a young person's prerogative.Suffering for Love
Florentino's penchant for the high drama as a poet and a lover is portrayed as both ridiculous and serious. He may go to outlandish lengths for love but in the end the absurdity is enobling and his suffering has a kind of dignity. He also endures physical pains.
Allusions/references from other works
This novel is the one that Jonathon (John Cusack's character), in the film Serendipity (film), must find in order to retrieve Sara's (Kate Beckinsale) phone number.In the movie High Fidelity, Rob Gordon (also played by John Cusack) makes reference to this book along with The Unbearable Lightness of Being, saying that he's not the smartest guy in the world, but can't be the dumbest, having read these books and thinking he's understood them.
Steve Martin, in his rather humorous essay "Writing is Easy," talks about why Love in the Time of Cholera does not make a very good title. It's all tongue-in-cheek of course. The essay can be found in his book Pure Drivel.
In the 21st episode of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, lead character Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) describes his ideal wife as having Love in the Time of Cholera as her favorite book.
Movie Adaptation
Currently New Line Cinema holds the rights to produce a film version of the book and Mike Newell has been choosen to direct it. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has signed on to write a faithful screen adaptation. Filming is planned to be done in Colombia starting in fall 2006.Release details
- 1985, ?, Spanish edition ?, Pub date ? ? 1985, hardback (first edition)
- 1988, USA, Alfred A Knopf ISBN 0394571088, Pub date 1 January 1988, hardback (Eng trans. first edition)
- 1989, USA, Penguin Books ISBN 0140119906, Pub date 7 September 1989, paperback
Links
http://eskpe.eltiempo.terra.com.co/secc_eskpe/cine_eskpe/otrasnoticias/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR_ESKPE-2566318.html
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