The Shrouded Woman takes on a super naturalistic approach to death as the main character (Ana Maria) lays deceased, yet she takes her audience through her most important past events in her life. What stuck out to me with this story was the many failed loves Ana Maria had experienced throughout her life. She points out the men she has loved in her life- Ricardo, her sons, and Antonio- and how her love towards them was never returned to her in the way she desired. I will first touch on her relationship with Ricardo- this was her first love as a young woman. Since they were both young, it was more of an infatuation/obsession sort of love. However, Ricardo chose to pursue his opportunity to study scientific farming, which broke Ana Maria as he rejected her idea that she would move with him. Because of this, she felt betrayed and unwanted by Ricardo, as she felt that she would do anything for him, and for them to stay together, but he was not willing to make those sacrifices as well. Then there is Antonio- Ana Maria’s husband. Her love with Antonio was always being held up to standards with her love for Ricardo- to which she felt did not ever meet her expectations of how the love between them should be. She feels there is a lack of passion between the two. Another contributing factor as to why she felt less passion with Antonio was because Antonio split his focus between his wife, as well as his love for other activities. This point is illustrated on page 225 when the narrator states, “She realised she was, she had always been, only one of Antonio’s many passions, a passion circumstances had shackled to his life. He tolerated her, that was all;” This made me question why Ana Maria stayed with Antonio, if she did not get what she felt she deserves? Was she willing to accept the love she didn’t deserve in fear of being alone? Ana Maria felt that she had to suppress her love when it came to the men in her life that mattered most to her, Ricardo, Antonio, and her sons. “For it would seem that not to love too much might be the best proof of love which can be given to certain people.” Over the years she had adapted her ways of showing love and affection towards her husband and sons in a way that they wanted, but not in the way she felt she wanted to express her love for them. It seems like she was having to make the majority of the adaptations for the people around her, without them returning the favour.
Hi Sophie! You make a great point. I hadn’t considered to what extent Ana Maria is adapting to other’s ways of showing affection until reading this and doing some reflecting. I think her relationship with Antonio is particularly interesting; until his outburst at the end about Ana Maria’s love for Ricardo, we didn’t get to hear as much from his perspective. Though his love for her is certainly there.
Hi Sophie! I enjoyed reading your thoughts on the themes of love/passion/relationships in Bombal. These would make great tags for your blog.
Also, a reminder to pose a question in each post to your readers (peers). You will see that we compile these each week for possible in-class discussion topics. You can see the list of questions that are already generated from your blogs here: https://rmst202.arts.ubc.ca/bombal-questions/.
Hi!
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on Ana Maria’s relationships with the different men in her life. I also agree with the fact that these relationships forced her to change parts of herself to better accommodate them.