Tag Archives: Love

Bombal – Shrouded Woman

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Impressions

This week’s reading on Shrouded Woman was written in a poetic style with an imaginary and descriptive expression. The literature was like a fusion between a poem and a novel. The usage of literary devices such as similes and anaphoras, instills a vivid scenery. For example, the word falling is used in the following passage, “falling and sliding like tears […] falling on her heart and drenching it, dissolving it into sadness and languor” (Bombal, p. 159). I found that with sections of the literature where poetic expressions were used, such as the example, makes the reading easier to follow and illustrates the imagery that the author wants readers to have glued to them. This does not mean that being easier to follow meant it was easier to interpret because to be frank, I had to reread some passages and look through for missed details. This makes me wonder, if what I’m reading is within the intent to be understood or is it a subjective experience where we report our interpretation of what is the meaning.

I found this reading quite compelling because of the way I would imagine Ana Maria being behind a dome and watching her life events in a movie, from her first love whom she could not marry to the spiral of conflict she faces. Just like the title, it felt like the narrator’s life was shrouded and went downhill after not being able to be with her first love, Ricardo. This was a result of Ricardo’s mother disapproving the marriage, illustrated with the passage, “she is afraid that you will marry me […] she thinks I’m not well brought up” (Bombal, p. 166). Ana’s marriage with her latest husband, Antonio, was one that was met with conflict. In the scene where Antonio confronts Ana with the past love letters from Ricardo and tosses every item reminiscing the times with Ricardo. Although evidently a troubling marriage, it was not one she could freely emancipate from, assuming that societal expectations and stigma were an additional conflict and barrier for if she sought to divorce.

 

There were instances of the book that would ring a bell on how societal ideas imposed on women, such as not having them being taken seriously. A passage that captures this in the literature is when Antonio talks about how “he can’t follow how you women talk and their usage of the word betrayal” (p. 247). It felt like almost a strange relief for Ana Maria when the narrator says that she finds herself immersed into the second death. This to me felt like it was a final shut off of the events she had to recollect as she is dead, but as the chapter ends, so does the pain and suffering she so wanted to emancipate from.

 

Question:

If Ana Maria had married Ricardo, do you think that she would not have felt like life was despairing?

Combray by Proust – attachment style

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Impressions

My first impression upon reading Combray was that it is one perplexing piece of literature, especially given that it is the first one we are reading. Not only was I met with a spiral of confusion, but also I would feel lost with the more pages I frantically read, although there were some parts that made sense when I reread it. The expression of the text is not a conventional style of writing or at least a style I have previously seen. For example on page 8, there was plenty of detail in writing, but sentences felt like they were eternally descriptive and verbose. This was not the case throughout the texts, but was head scratching to try and understand all at once.

 

Aside from my initial impressions of the readings, I had interestingly thought about the narrator’s Mama and their relationship growing up. As someone who is from a psychology background and has taken some family studies courses for my minor, I’d thought to myself what kind of attachment style would best describe their relationship? There were drops of hints throughout the first section of the literature where I had sensed the bond between the mother and the narrator leaning towards being secured. One example is that the narrator describes that mama is the one who would say goodnight to them (page 29). Other examples such as mama being the one to read books aloud to him or when Francoise sees that mama is holding his hand while he’s crying, yet seem to remain a tranquil composure as mama seems to provide comfort through being present (page 38). Mama also demonstrated as being a protective figure and somewhat stoic to possibly shield her genuine emotions, as she holds back herself from crying when seeing the narrator cry. All of these examples and the general responsiveness of mama indicate that there is likely a secure attachment style between the two.

Overall thought

Despite the reading for this week being complex, I look forward to seeing what other readings have in store. If I had not frantically tried speed reading in an attempt to get the reading over with, I’d think I would find myself indulging more of this sort of reading and being able to be more meticulous with my analysis. I will say that it’s very compelling and to such an extent helpful to see if you can relate or connect the literature to other things that pertain to you such as your own experience, in order to be better perceptive to what you’re reading.

 

Question:

Not necessarily related to the reading itself, but how did everyone here find themselves taking a note of what was going on? Were you just as lost as me?