A Tragedy in Love

The situations in Love in the Time of Cholera are presented in an overly dramatized fashion, which makes the readers feel that this novel has transcended everyday realism. Though these situations may have been written to express the loving relationships of one another, they also seem too far-fetched. It is unrealistic and almost disturbing that Florentino would stalk and spy her early morning routines to compose and memorize pages of flattering commentary. As the novel progresses, we are saddened that these characters accept age and are nostalgic for the past–when they loved each other more than ever as compared to the future when their love gradually subsides. For example, Florentino views Urbino’s death as an opportunity to expect Fermina to love him as they did fifty years ago. Realistically, it would not be appropriate to try rekindling a past relationship after a loved one has died. In the early aspects of the novel, Florentino’s attempts to adulate Fermina seem as if it alluded to a fairy-tale love story. Though it seems romantic, their courtship shares a resemblance with Shakespeare’s plot in Romeo and Juliet, in that the two characters fear a publicly loving relationship. As Fermina is leaving for an expedition in Lorenzo’s attempts to erase her memory of him, the dramatized scene in which she cuts off her braid to give to him reminds me of “Repunzel.” Instead of depicting that his chance of uniting is possible, this scene symbolizes the end their opportunity of coming together.


Behind Urbino and Fermina’s conflicts are motives to digress in time when their relationship was in harmony. It is ironic to note that Dr. Urbino and Fermina have been married for so long, yet a trivial argument possibly could have broken their marriage. Their unwillingness to reconcile and to accept responsibility is completely contradictory to how much they love each other. As a result of their unwillingness to agree with each other, she threatens to return to her father’s house, hoping to relive the nostalgic time when Urbino treated her with tremendous amounts of care and kindness in his attempt to court her. However, Urbino’s childish antics only enraged Fermina more, which also subtly displays their desire to relive a time of the past when nothing disturbed their unconditional love. On the other hand, his deliberate vexing and annoyances of dressing and awaking Fermina suggest their disturbances within the marriage.

Throughout many of these situations, Marquez incorporates gratuitous descriptions that not only emphasize key elements of the novel, but also provide comical relief to a depressing plot of aging and rejection. This commentary enhances our understandings of what the characters are thinking. For example, the anecdote of young Urbino participating and winning urinating contests alleviates our depressing moods of his acceptance of progressing time and death. The comment in which Fermina accepts (agreeing to marry on the condition that he does not force her to eat eggplant) Florentino’s engagement proposal was odd, random, and unexpected. Exemplifying her slow changing disinterest early in the novel, this comment creates an effect that the love was progressing and gradually becoming mutual. At first she was indifferent to his love and ignored his letters, but once she realized Florentino’s devotion, she began to admire and adore him as she incessantly sent him letters. Marquez incorporated numerous subtle descriptions, which, with close scrutiny, allows us to receive an insight of the novel. (566)