As you might have guessed from my comments in class, I believe that Ariza's feelings towards Fermina should be labeled as an obsession rather than as love. Towards the end of class, someone pointed out that we do not actually get to read any of the letters that Ariza and Fermina write to one another. Depending on how each of us felt about Fermina and Ariza's relationship (whether it was love or not), each of us seemed to imagine the letters differently. The following is what I imagine one of Ariza's letters to sound like (with a few of my own slightly cynical comments in parentheses):
My dear Fermina,
It gives me such pleasure to watch you from the bench in the park as you walk past me each day (what a creep). Each time I look at you, your beauty astounds me as if I were witnessing it for the first time. The sheer grace of your stride makes you appear to be an angel, gliding through the air. I long to touch you gorgeous, shiny hair to see for myself if it is as silky soft as it appears to be. While we almost never make eye contact, I follow your eyes with mine; they captivate me. Once your eyes did seem to meet mine, and my heart stopped beating for that instant. Your smile and mouth, however, are what draw me to you the most. When you laugh or open your mouth to speak to your aunt, I imagine how wonderful it would be to speak to you myself. If only I were permitted to do so, I would surely be beside myself with glee (he is obsessed with a girl who he has barely ever spoken to).
As you know, I admire you so fondly, and I long for the day when we can be together. Surely, it will be the happiest day of my young life (because he does not allow himself to be happy at all; all he thinks of his obsession with Fermina; he even seems to enjoy punishing himself with his “love” for her). While I suffer greatly because we cannot be together, it is surely worthwhile because one day we will be together and I shall be eternally overjoyed. My mother even encourages my suffering because she too believes that one day you and I will be together and that my suffering will sweeten our future love all the more (his obsession is UNHEALTHY, and this is bad parenting on Mother’s part; she should encourage him to court Fermina in a more natural and low-key way and to experience other parts of life as well).
I shall now conclude this letter and leave it underneath the porch of your house as we had planned. I hope to find your reply buried in the ground underneath the bench in the park under on which I sit and admire your loveliness. Once again, my darling, I would like to declare my undying love for you. I hope this letter finds you well. I shall see you as you walk to school tomorrow, and I hope to hear from you soon (he sees her nearly every single day but never speaks to her; they have no verbal communication).
Fondly (obsessively),
Florentino Ariza
Basically, I believe that Ariza and Fermina do not have enough face-to-face interaction to call their feelings for one another love. They simply do not know each other well enough. Therefore, Ariza can fill his letters only with compliments about her beauty and descriptions of his obsession with her. (582)
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1 comment:
Ally, one of my most favorite things about this blog experiment happens when a blogger (in this case you) uses her creativity to find a new way to write about the text. In this case, since the letters are referred to but never quoted, what a great idea to put into your blog what has been left out of the novel itself. Brava!
Still one thing I can't quite get, though: you say Florentino needs "to court Fermina in a more natural and low-key way," but I can't imagine, given his poverty and the restrictions placed on her by her father and a 19th century Latin American Catholic upbringing, what that style of courtship might involve.
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