Monday, December 3, 2007

What is love?

Love in the Time of Cholera expresses the notion of love in many forms. There are many ways of loving someone, and after reading this novel, I am not completely sure if there is such a thing as having a “one and only” someone. Florentino has dedicated himself to Fermina, but has he continued this dedication from puppy love out of habit, or is it really in truth? It becomes a habit for Florentino to be able to have promiscuous relations with many women, but justifies it with having a true love at one point in his life that he says fulfills him. It would be sad to think of not having anyone to truly care about you. Florentino has a notion of love that is made up from love letters, but has nothing to do with reality. He comes up with this idea of love which has everything except the input from Fermina. Florentino learns all about other women, but only sees the excitement with Fermina that was cut off, and the sexual relations that he lacked with her. He was never able to develop anything past excitement, so he looks back at Fermina as a relationship that was more than it really was. He embellished what his relationship lacked, and he blamed Fermina’s decision on being forced to marry Dr. Urbino, when, if she wanted to, she could have defied her father, but it was too hurtful to think that she really did not want Florentino.

It is sad to think of Florentino living an unfulfilling life, full of fruitless ventures after someone who may never had thought of him as anything more than a shadow. All of the women he has had sexual relationships with are tough widows who can manage by themselves except for fulfilling their sexual needs, which is where he knows he is always needed. He calls these women birds, and suffices himself by making sure he has convinced himself he is useful.

Fermina is bothered by the fact that she knew Dr. Urbino was a good husband, but she was unhappy. He may have been everything she needed, and respected her wishes, but she was not fully satisfied mentally. Every person is relative, and it is not weird that someone who appeared so perfect was in fact not perfect for her. She is unsatisfied at the hurried lovemaking of Florentino, but she is somehow still happy with the outcome. After they have physical relations, she and Florentino do not do it sporadically because at their age, they realize that each other’s company will suffice. Florentino realizes how selfish he has been all of his life as he takes from someone who is not a strong widow, but a fragile young girl. He has led a young girl to death from the way he was once treated. He wants to escape with his prize for the rest of his life, which is numbered.

This book was very confusing in that it left me knowing that love has no true definition. In this book, it would seem that Florentino would be unsatisfied with Fermina, and she with him, but sometimes love works out in weird ways, and sometimes people have more than one love, or maybe they do just have one. The ending left me confused at whether Florentino had more than one love, or he in fact did only dedicate his heart to Fermina all of his life. Maybe he did not let himself open up to any of the women he slept with, or let them get to know him, or vice versa. I believe that was the author’s point. That Florentino only developed relations with women that he had gotten to know before sex, like Olimpia, Leona, and Fermina. When he had time to think about where his love was taking him, rather than go with passion, he realized what kind of women these were, and how he was attracted to strong women he could never have, and who were better off without him. This must have torn him up that no one needed him. Not even the widows who were using him for his sex. I think he relied on Fermina’s youth to need him to be her all-time suitor. (709)