I think I have read something like a roller coaster. In the contrast to the previous two readings, the dramatic transition in the relationship and emotion of the characters was excessively described, which really caught my attention. In that sense, I enjoyed reading it more than the two we have read. I felt like I was watching a romance drama film which would be great if projected in a black-and-white. The story was written in a concrete manner which makes it easy to read even though tracking all the relationships of the characters in the story was kind of difficult for me.
The first impression I got as I finished it was that there are a lot of deaths and anguish and sadness. I would say the keywords in the reading are; betrayal, the eyes, and the confession. As I mentioned earlier, there is so much going on throughout the story in which the characters experience severe emotional up and down. The most well-described betrayal I have seen was the scene of Antonio kicking Ana’s blue leather shoes with fury and she accidentally saw it (on page 225). The scene really depicts the core sadness of betrayal which is that betrayal is revealed when the person and action appears and occurs at the wrong time and place. There is always some madness they cannot be aware of below the surface. People act more naturally when they think they are alone and it exposes the essential part of the person. The contrast between the mask he wears when he’s with her and the true him he shows when he’s not with her results in generating more hatred and sadness in her. That is why I think the eyes play a somewhat key role here. The story contains many of the descriptions of the eyes of the characters when the narrator talks about how they are so beautiful that attract each other. But I think it links to the sadness of seeing something they do not want to see. The confession in the chapter plays a significant role in the end. And interestingly, the confession is taken at two places; at the church and at their private place. Religious aspects of their life is well written in the story as joy and unity, but, because of that, the confession in their own private space emphasizes its helpless and mad situation whereas the confession to Gods leads to some kind of rescue.
Here’s my question,
Did Ana Maria genuinely justify her own suicide by regarding it as a way of escape without any hesitation?
Hi Tsuyoshi,
I like your points about what we do in private. Perhaps it is also worth considering which is worse, the accidental revelation of truth from Antonio, or the undisguised apathy he showed towards Ana Maria?
To tackle your question, perhaps it would have been an escape from the suffering of life. There is an interesting parallel between Silvia and Ana Maria. Both are heartbroken and attempt to take their life in the same way, but Silvia has the “courage” to do it while Ana Maria did not. Perhaps she could have been spared from the suffering if she did?
Hi. I’m not sure that Ana Maria commits suicide… rather, she seems to suffer from some kind of illness, and ultimately has a stroke. She intends to commit suicide as a younger woman, but finds she can’t. On the other hand, two other characters do kill themselves: Silvia and Inés (Fernando’s wife; I agree that it can be hard to keep track of the characters).