Love and Death in Love in the Time of Cholera - 1767 Words

For readers familiar with Love in the Time of Cholera, the themes of love and death would be constantly visited and revisited again by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his novel, with a tad of heavy reliance on the cholera pandemic (as the title suggests not so subtly) and going so far as to intertwine them into a single notion (more often than not) throughout. Such a combination (and comparison) is most visible in Florentino, and helps shapes our emotions and thoughts about him as a character. Yet, in seeing how the author allows these themes to interact as merely a vehicle to power his characters and novel would be too simplistic an idea; instead, one should perhaps consider the alternative viewpoints of these themes addressing deeper concerns†¦show more content†¦In this instance, love, like cholera, produces an actual physical illness in Florentino which, at the same time inflicts him mentally, eventually consuming him wholly, as we would learn through the course of the novel. This â€Å"illness† can be read from his eating of gardenias and drinking of cologne so that he can know Fermina’s taste. This episode also sets the comparison of Florentino’s love to that of flowers in the Love in the Time of Cholera – where his ingestion of these flowers could be seen as a symbolism of him ingesting Fermina’s affections, and one which render him violently ill, just like how this love brings upon him both mental and physical anguish and suffering. Like the ravages of cholera which, at the turn of the century, spelt certain death (with no cure known yet), love had been similarly portrayed as such by Marquez in his novel. More importantly, the wrong diagnosis of cholera in this chapter foreshadows the conclusion of the novel, as we would come to learn of later. Reading the novel from henceforth, however, readers are introduced to a new angle of death and love by Marquez. While it would be too simplistic to summarize the third chapter as just Florentino bidding his time to declare his love for Fermina again, it also, once again, brings forth the notion of aging (as first seen in Saint-Amour’s letter) and death, associated with love. Florentino, for much of thisShow MoreRelatedLove In The Time of Cholera Analysis Paper820 Words   |  4 Pages Love in the Time of Cholera In the novel, Love in the Time of Cholera written by Gabriel Garcà ­a Mà ¡rquez, there are many symbols to represent, literally, love in the time of cholera. These symbols are flowers, birds, and rain. Mà ¡rquez uses these similar terms to describe the effects of love and cholera throughout the novel by using all of those symbols ultimately represent or foreshadow anguish and unfortunate disasters that Cholera can bring. Cholera was a contagious disease affecting most ofRead MoreThe Symptoms Of Love And Cholera1656 Words   |  7 Pagessymptoms of love equated in the novel with the symptoms of cholera? What literal and metaphoric functions does the cholera plague serve in this novel? How does it change the characters attitudes toward life? What light does it shed on Latin American society in the nineteenth century? a. Throughout the novel, the symptoms of love and cholera are seen as being one and the same, especially in Florentino’s case. At the beginning of he and Fermina’s early romance, Florentino’s mother mistakes his love sicknessRead MoreThe Time Of Cholera By Gabriel Garcia Marquez Essay1665 Words   |  7 Pagesnovel, Love in the Time of Cholera, truly a â€Å"love story†? 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These feelings can often affect people more strongly than the actual event did. As a result, nostalgia can often cause people to interpret reality in distorted, unhealthy ways. In his novel Love in the Time of Cholera, Mà ¡rquez tells the story of Florentino Ariza, who attempts to win the love of Fermina Daza solely on theRead MoreLove in the Time of Cholera Essay1296 Words   |  6 PagesLove is a powerful emotion that can cause people to act in abnormal ways. In the novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, the main character Florentino Ariza falls passionately in love with Fermina Daza. He immediately spends hours composing poetic love letters to Fermina as his entire life becomes dedicated to loving her. Fermina’s father, who greatly disapproves of the relationship between the two, decides to take his daughter to travel throughout the Caribbean. After many years of separation, when