Stalker?? Not so much..

At the end of my last blog entry, I began to touch on the idea that Fermina does not truly love either Florentino or Dr. Urbino. After having read more the novel, I stand by my initial thoughts—Fermina does not love either man and Dr. Urbino does not love Fermina. I have changed my views on one thing however. After finishing the section on Florentino and his various lovers, I have come to the conclusion that he really does love Fermina in a normal way rather than an obsessive way.

I believe that Marquez used a whole section to describe some of Florentino’s relationships because he wanted to show the reader that Florentino repeatedly has the opportunity to fall in love with these women, but does not act upon it. When he meets Olimipia Zuleta, he even says, “it was the only time, since his youngest days, when he felt himself run through by the lance of love (216).” It seems that in each relationship, Florentino goes all out but then when it starts to get serious, he gets scared and runs away. I think that to him, he feels that true love is a mental thing and that he is not truly cheating on Fermina as long as he does not get emotionally attached to any woman. When Olimpia is killed he feels no sympathy towards her. Rather, the first thing that comes to his mind is, “what will Fermina think?” Florentino knows that Olimpia’s husband killed her, “he kept track of the prison term of the murderer, who knew him…but is was not so much fear of a knife at his throat or a public scandal as the misfortune of Fermina Daza’s learning about his infidelity (217).”

In our society, we see that having sex with someone other than our partner in life is considered cheating; however, because Florentino lost his virginity in such a loveless fashion, I do not think that he associates true love with sex. To him, it is just a physical pleasure that has nothing to do with love. If you look at all of his relationships, they are all based on sex. Once he feels as though the women are getting too attached, he runs away.

One thing that I have been trying to figure out is why Fermina married Dr. Urbino. The most obvious idea that comes to mind is that Urbino has the ability to provide a stable life for her; he has the money to give her anything she ever wanted. At the beginning of their relationship, I thought that the only reason Fermina even looked at Urbino was because of her father, which makes me think that her father could be another possible reason to their union. Fermina is a very insecure girl; she is always second-guessing herself. There are many times in the novel where we find her trying to decide whether she made the right choice between Urbino and Florentino. I think that she is sometimes controlled too much by the thoughts of those around her. (510)