Exploring Florentinos Use of Sexuality to Eliminate the Void Caused by Rejection - Research Paper Example

Exploring Florentino’s use of Sexuality to Eliminate the Void caused by Rejection Love in the time of Cholera holds a significant position in the contemporary era literature because of the unconventional themes it embarked upon and the distinct storyline. It was penned by one of the most revered Latin-American authors of the twentieth century, the Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez from Columbia. Love in the Time of Cholera was originally written in Spanish language and was published as El Amor en los Tiempos del Colera in 1985 whereas its English version was published in 1988. This particular work of Marquez has been declared an eccentric love story where the lovers unite at the end of novel around 51 years and 9 months later when they are in the last stage of their life. Florentino Ariza, the main character, has been portrayed as an obsessive lover who vows to stay faithful to Fermina Daza but indulges into a spree of sexual encounters with hundreds of women. This paper aims at proving that Florentino’s countless affairs were an escape route and his method of suppressing the repressed feelings and void that he felt after being rejected by Fermina. Love in the Time of Cholera’s story revolves around the couple Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza who fall in love during their early teens but eventually get separated because Fermina choses to marry a more suitable match Dr. Juvenal Urbino (Pelayo 135). The backdrop of the setting and location has been kept a mystery in the novel and the only aspect that is revealed is that the country is plagued by Cholera. In this way, the author has compared love to a disease that like any other illness can have a drastic impact on an individual if the feelings are not welcomed and respected. Florentino Ariza can be easily categorized as a hypocrite and a liar since he vows for “eternal fidelity and everlasting love” to Fermina despite his countless affairs but actually he is a heart-broken man who sought to mend his heart through love (Marquez 50). Sex, in this novel, is not used in its erotic concept but symbolizes a medicine which Florentino used to overcome his pain that Fermina’s rejection and eventual marriage caused to him. It is the struggle to eliminate the feelings of void, loneliness, loss and pain that overcome the otherwise faithful and devoted personality of Florentino (Fahy 23). The treatment of love as a disease becomes clear when Florentino falls in love with Fermina and the symptoms of both the disease and love match. “His examination revealed that he had no fever, no pain anywhere, and that his only concrete feeling was an urgent desire to die” and these were declared as” so much as the devastation of cholera” (Marquez 62). Here the term devastation is important to acknowledge since at another point later in the novel, Florentino states that he and Fermina fell into “devastating love” (Marquez 68). This shows the author’s intention of presenting love as a form of plague or disease which if not treated timely can produce unfavorable results or compel a person to behave in a drastic manner. When Marquez compares love with cholera, he attempted to present sex and addiction to love as a cure or healing mechanism for Florentino due to which he was able to survive (Koenig 131). Getting involved with other women was his way of taking refuge from the otherwise painful scenario where his love Fermina was enjoying a blissful married life with her husband while he had to suffer in solitude. The novel Love in the Time of Cholera is set in an era when cholera was actually a “devastating disease that had no regard for color and background” (Panisset 125). Therefore, the similarity shared by love and a disease like cholera is explicitly narrated by Marquez. Just like Urbino was trying to find the cure for cholera in the same way Florentino’s obsession towards women shows his search for the cure of his heartache. Florentino is a character who is deeply in love with Fermina and therefore, the rejection brought along feelings of emptiness and this compelled him to get his sexual desires fulfilled from women of all sorts. He wanted to fill the gap created by the emotional wreckage through physical love. “Florentino becomes a mysterious "hunter" of innumerable women in an effort to substitute sexual desire for his more spiritual fidelity to Fermina” (Magill 291). Sex became a tool for him that helped in eliminating the pain and emptiness left by heartbreak as he felt in-control of himself, which he was incapable of otherwise because his heart was not at peace. He wanted to overcome the feelings of emptiness through love in its physical form so that he “manage[s] to endure the burden of the past.” (Marquez 106) Florentino was not just dating with young girls or beautiful ladies, which is an important aspect showing that he was not eyeing young women as objects for fulfilling sexual desires but only trying to get some solace in his emotional life in the company of females. Florentino was an extremely passionate person and through sharing his passion he aimed to find the route for eliminating the void that he felt. He got involved in sexual acts with widows, teenagers, married and unmarried women even older ones (Pelayo 138). He was actually trying to shut his cognitive environment by indulging himself into sexual encounters because he longed for Fermina’s love and wanted to divert his mind towards another woman. For Florentino, sex became something that drug would be to an addict. It happened so because being a passionate person there was so much love nurturing within him, which he could not share with the one he wanted to. “Florentino Ariza wrote everything with so much passion that even official documents seemed to be about love” (Marquez 167). Sex took the form of a therapy through which he was able to harmonize the passion building within him. Since his devotion to Fermina was of an obsessive kind, therefore, he was unable to devote himself to anyone else emotionally. Another reason behind Florentino’s urge to fulfill his sexual desires with as many women as possible was that he wanted to believe that he is not a worthless being (Butler and Jasmin 271). He was deeply in love with Fermina and when she rejected him, he became psychologically disturbed. His ego was badly hurt and by befriending with other females he wished to restore his lost pride. It is the urge to feel worthy enough that took over him. The author mentions in the novel “we men are miserable slaves of prejudice,” which depicts that satisfying personal ego through desperate measures was a common norm in the prejudiced mindset of males (Marquez 168). Florentino wanted to curb the pain by inducing even more pain and anguish over himself. “There is no greater glory than to die for love” was Florentino’s firm belief and for such an intense lover there can be no greater ordeal than to see his love completely ignorant of his existence (Marquez 82). Therefore, he embarked on a womanizing spree so that he could induce suffering on himself by giving his body to others, in other words by violating his commitment to Fermina, to eliminate the intense feelings of love and longing. He was disappointed to learn that nobody can ever replace Fermina and the fact that he could not get her love made his life even more miserable. It can be concluded that Florentino Ariza was a sensitive, emotional and passionate character who was truly devoted to his love interest. The deprivation from Fermina’s love due to his poverty and lowly status in society nurtured aggression and depression and this compelled him to take the forbidden route. His actions may not be looked upon as positive or productive but sex served as an antidote for him, which alternately provided him enough courage to spend half a century without Fermina and acquire a respectable position in society instead of becoming hysterical or sadist. Works Cited Butler, Robert, and Claude Jasmin. Longevity and Quality of Life: Opportunities and Challenges. [Proceedings of the Congress Worldwide Revolution in Longevity and Quality of Life, Held May 18-20, 1999 in Paris, France]. Springer, 2000. Print. Fahy, Tom. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. Continuum, 2003. 20-40. Print. Koenig, Rhoda. "The Sickness Unto Death." New York Magazine. 25 Apr 1998: 131-132. Print. Magill, Frank N. Masterpieces of Latino literature. HarperCollinsPublishers, 1994. 291. Print. Marquez, Gabriel G. Love in the Time of Cholera. Penguin Books, 1989. Print. Panisset, Ulysses. International Health Statecraft: Foreign Policy and Public Health in Peru's Cholera Epidemic. University Press of America, 2000. Print. Pelayo, Ruben. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. Print. Read More