I really enjoyed reading The Shrouded Women (1938) by Maria Luisa Bombel mainly because it was entertaining and almost felt like a soap opera. Also because it’s interesting to read a novella where the main protagonist is already dead. The story begins with Ana Maria’s funeral where all her friends and family gather to say goodbye. It continues with the dead Ana Maria narrating points of her life. The prevalent themes that I did notice were patriarchy and the different expectation of each gender. The oppression of women is noticeably and subtly mentioned in The Shrouded Women. For instance, Maria Griselda was forced to marry Alberto (Ana Maria’s son), and he barely let her out of her room (p 188). Maria Griselda is described as she is so beautiful that it is a curse because all men fall in love with her beauty. Fred and Don Rodoflo’s fascination and love with Maria Griselda and Fred’s poems to her only lead Fred’s wife Silvia to kill herself. This part of the novel portrays women as overly emotional and insecure but disregards the patriarchal efforts to embed beauty standards for women. What I mean by this is that the men were the ones to define who is beautiful and what standards of beauty it takes to achieve that. For example, Maria Griselda is beautiful because is pale, long-legged, has black hair and has green eyes. And by placing these standards in the first place they embed the idea that to be beautiful you much appear a certain way.
Furthermore, Economic gain was a theme that I found in both genders. Like how Ricardo wanted to go to Europe to gain new skills in scientific farming so he could come back and perform better at his job. For Ana Maria, marrying Ricardo would allow her to own her own property, or have money. Because during 1910 in Chile, women who were married had more agency than unmarried women. Even though Ricardo leaves Ana Maria to go to Europe, she still gets married later on in her life to Antonio. My question relates more to the plotline of the story. Do you guys think Ana Maria still loved Ricardo because when Ricardo married Sofia later on, Ana Maria felt “distressed” after hearing of the news of their marriage (p 232)?
“because it was entertaining and almost felt like a soap opera.” – Yes! This was, in fact, a topic of discussion in class today!
And, I am intrigued by what you have to say here: “the oppression of women is noticeably and subtly mentioned in The Shrouded Women.” There seems to be a paradox, between something being noticeable and subtle. Are you perhaps suggesting that this was an underlying tension in the narrative? Or was it move overt? Or were there certain characters (like Maria Griselda) in whom we see the theme of oppression more clearly, while in others not?