Magical realism is a
genre in which there is combination of unreal elements with the real. It can be
found in visual arts and films. In fiction a character lives beyond normal life
span. These impossible, fantastical details are presented naturally. A realistic
setting is invaded by events that are too strange to be believable.
In Love in the time of cholera Marquez is constantly blurring the line
that divides the “rational” world from a world of irrational events and
desires. In a sense love, it is an irrational force which constantly erupts
into and overturns an ordered predictable, structured world; it is the fulcrum
of the novels “magic realism”
There is exaggerated
entreaties of love between Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. She refuses to
reveal the identity of her secret sweetheart when confronted by the father she
locks herself in her room, without eating and drinking. The father moves with her
to another country but it is strange how Florentino has been following her
moves even after she is married to Dr. Jovenal. Even after the fifty years of
love the two do not get married.
Juvenal Urbino’s
medical conception of the body as an object for study is controverted throughout
the novel: his relationship with Fermina Daza and with Barbara Lynch is rooted
in a medical examination, and the consummation of his marriage to Fermina Daza
is made possible by masking it as an anatomy lesson. Dr. Juvenile says he was
aware that he did not love Fermina Daza instead. He had married her because he
liked her haughtiness, her seriousness, her strength and also because of some
vanity. Yet at the end Juvenal Urbino’s vulnerability in old age is a secret
shared only b his wife, whose acts of love resemble a mother nurturing a child.
Dr. Juvenal is shocked
to discover Jeremiah Desaint Armour had a wife. He had thought he was a
bachelor. Lorenzo Daza hides from his past by organizing the marriage between
his daughter and Juvenal Urbino in order to give legitimacy to his new
gentility. This brings out the fact that the government has so many secrets
that it keeps from the people they govern
Love in the time of
cholera begins with an event close to the end of the chronological story. Juvenal
Urbino’s death on Pentecost Sunday, “the most important holiday in city consecrated
by the holy spirit”. The doctor falls off a ladder while trying to get his
wife’s pet parrot back into its cage. This is magical realism. The last word
with the parrot are Ca y est compared to the last words of the Jesus. The
parrot is purchased from Carribean black market and it is groomed to speak
French, the parrot is considered polished and sophisticated in the eyes of
early 20th century Colombian society
At the wake of Urbino’s
death Florentino Ariza, the main character of the story declares his love for
Fermina Daza, even though they are both in the twilight of their lived.
“Fermina, I have waited for this moment for over a half a century, to repeat to
you my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love”. Fermina responds coldly,
“Get out of here. And don’t show your face again for the years of life that
bare left to you”. Here we find exaggerated irony the reader does not expect
strong romance between two old people or pick up upon a fresh widow of a
courtship initiated with such vicious rejection to end so well. This is the
essence of magical realism.
There is also magical
realism where Gabriel Marquez’s discuss about cholera causing death of a
quarter of the urban population in less than three months. It is ironical that
among the victims is Dr. Juvenile’s father who was also highly esteemed
physician. The readers expect him being a doctor not to be prone to such
diseases as cholera which is known to be caused by poor living conditions and
poor sanitation. This episode is used to satirize the government where those
who are knowledgeable are supposed to be the light of others. Despite the fact
that Dr. Juvenal Urbino being from a wealthy class he never accepted the public
positions that were offered to him with frequency and without conditions and he
was a pitiless critic of these physician who used their professional prestige
to attain political office. It is also strange that he marries a beauty from
the lower classes, without name or fortune.
He leaves the former palace of the Marcaquis de Casalduero which had
been the family mansion for over a century and moving to a new house in a
neighborhood of Noiveaux riches.
Another essence of
magical realism is how the plight of women is brought out. A woman is said she
cannot bear the desire to go to bed with the first beggar she met on the
street, with any miserable drunk who would give her what she wanted with no
pretensions and no questions. It is ironical how Florentino Ariza is led to bed
by a woman cleaning the house while he had kept his virginity for Fermina Daza.
The description of the women in town is exaggerated, “it was a daily fiesta
that lasted until dusk, when the naked women marched singing towards the
bathrooms, asked to borrow soaps, tooth brushes, scissors, cut each other’s
hair, dressed in borrowed clothes, painted themselves like lugubrious clowns,
and went out to hunt the first prey of the night”.
Marques discuss
prostitution in a very light tone which is an essence of magical realism.
Characters are said to use magic tricks for their survival Euclides was able to
defend himself against sharks because he had magic tricks of frighten the
sharks away. A paper seller who was demonstrating magic inks red inks with an
ambience of blood, inks of sad aspect for messages of condolence,
phosphorescent ink for reading in the dark, invisible inks that revealed
themselves in the light. She wanted all of them so she could amuse, Florentino
Ariza and astound him with her wit.
Magical realism is also
evident where in Misericordia Hospital people were superstitious where they see
standing beds in pots of water to prevent diseases from climbing up the legs or
requiring evening wear. They could not tolerate the young newcomer’s tasting a
patient’s urine to determine the presence of sugar.
Dr. Juvenal was aware
of all the problem in the healthy sector. His obsession was the dangerous lack
of sanitation in the city. He was aware of the mortal threat of the drinking
water. He fought in vain so as the poor could learn how to build their own
latrines. It is also strange how for a long time the water in the cisterns had
been honoured as the cause of scrotal hernia that so many men in the city
endured not only without embarrassment but with a certain patriotic insolence.
Men who had ruptures sitting in their doorways on hot afternoons fanning their
enormous testicle as if it were a child sleeping between their legs. It is
abnormal the way many people die of cholera and they are not ready to change
their habits. This reflects the pertinent issues affecting the society
The birds that are
presented in the novel are strange. “There was an invisible sound of running
water and pots with carnations quotation on the cornices, and cages of the
strange birds in the arcades. The strangest of all were three crowns in a large
cage, who filled the Potio with an ambiguous perfume every time they flapped
their wings. People believes in being protected by birds and dogs. It is strange
how a cat interferes with two lovers who are together and disrupts them and
they are afraid of the claws of the cat.
Patriarchy is brought
out in an exaggerated manner where Sara Noriega who had several occasional
lovers but none with intentions of matrimony because it was difficulty for a man
of her time and place to marry a woman he had taken to bed. She never imagined
of getting married after her first formal fiancé whom she loved with the almost
demented passion, he broke the engagement one week before the date they had set
for weeding. Because of that betrayal, the woman lives a life of a prostitute.
This is magical realism. It shows how men justify oppression of women. They
believe in having affairs with girls before getting married
It is humorous how
Transito Ariza dies in the conviction that the son she had conceived in love
and raised for love was immune to any kind of love because of his first
youthful misfortune. On contrary he was fond of mystic ceremonies and strange
lotions, shared the suspicion that he was immune not to love but only to women.
It is strange how
Floretino Ariza believe that “love no matter what else it might be was a
natural talent. Florentino Ariza did not like having the furious cat in bed
with them, although Sara Noriega had his claws removed so he would not tear
them apart while they made love” this is an essence of magical realism.
In conclusion Marques
use of magical realism creates humour in the readers. Through use of “magical
realism” Marques expands the visible spectrum of humanity. He has succeeded in
using magical realism to give message about everyday life of human beings. This
magical realism represent the contemporary realities.
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