Love in the Time of Cholera: Blog 1

One of the novel’s most prominent and powerful themes is, not surprisingly, love. However, love is not portrayed as a wonderful, simplistic, union of two people who share each other’s passions without question. In "Love in the Time of Cholera", love is portrayed as a plague comparable to cholera that can devastate your life. We can see from Florentino Ariza that love is sometimes single sided and agonizing. He becomes so lovesick that he must endure not only emotional hardships, but also physical pains similar to those of cholera as he woos over his beloved Fermina Daza. Marquez’s novel suggests that lovesickness is not only a state of mind, but is a literal illness that can consume your entire life.

As chapter two progresses, we can see that Florentino is literally plagued by love. Every second of his life he can only think of Fermina. Although he only catches glimpses of her walking to and from school, for two weeks straight he thinks of nothing else but her. He even spends his time alone writing pages and pages of letters to her in hopes that one day he will find the courage to give them to her. Florentino goes to the extent of memorizing entire books of love poems only to find better ways of expressing his unconditional devotion to his secret love. His obsession with Fermina becomes so unbearable that he must unleash the weight of his secret to his mother. Since it is Florentino’s first experience with what he believes is true love, he turns to the only person that can guide him in the right direction.

When Florentino finally gives Fermina the letter confessing his love, he is instantly sick with worry. As soon as Florentino, "began to wait for the answer to his first letter, his anguish was complicated by diarrhea and green vomit, he became disoriented and suffered from sudden fainting spells and his mother was terrified because his condition did not resemble the turmoil of love so much as the devastation of cholera." (61) His lovesickness was so much like cholera that his godfather, a homeopath, mistakes that Florentino was infected with the illness. Yet, they finally conclude, "the symptoms of love were the same as those of cholera." (62) Florentino again complicates his emotional pain with physical agony when he vomits after eating roses and drinking perfume hoping to "taste" Fermina’s forbidden scent. He is so delirious over her letters that he, "spent the rest of the afternoon eating roses and reading the note letter by letter, over and over again (68)." Florentino even compromises his job as he works absent mindedly at the telegraph office and makes costly errors for the company. Florentino goes so far as to risk his life only so he can play love songs on his violin to Fermina during the Civil War. He is eventually captured by government troops, is accused of being a spy, and barley escapes execution after serving jail time for his senseless acts of love. As their relationship, solely through letters, progresses Florentino proposes to his love. Of course, Fermina’s father is enraged that a lower class boy would ruin all that he has provided for his daughter. He can only hope that if he takes her away for many years, she will forget about Florentino completely. Although they keep in contact secretly and she maintains her fidelity for years, Fermina knows she never truly loved him as soon as they are reunited in the market. All she can think to say to Florentino is "No, please, forget it (102)." After all of those years of devotion and non-stop love sickness, Florentino is finally faced with the fact that his love is one-sided. Fermina tell him in a simple letter that, "Today when I saw you, I realized that what is between us is nothing more than an illusion (102)."

Contrary to many other novels focused on love, "Love in the Time of Cholera" shows us that love is not always the wonderful experience that everyone should look forward to experiencing. More often that not, love can be one-sided and can consume your entire life as you brood over lost love. As we learned from the first chapter, even after fifty years of rejection, Florentino is still convinced of his everlasting love for her. Florentino’s lovesickness is not only an emotional and physical pain, but also a psychological illness that leads him to compulsively obsess over Fermina. (744)