I cannot with a clear and confident mind say that Fermina Daza does not love Dr. Urbino. Although this love does not move me, it is present and burning. I could first tell that Fermina loves Dr. Urbino when she is genuinely upset about the affair he is having with Barbara Lynch.
Throughout the first part of the marriage, I feel as though it is Fermina’s time to recover from her love with Florentino, but I realize that she is not only recovering, but falling in love all over again. I think that I chose to ignore the signs of her passion because I feel for Florentino’s character and desire. Florentino’s path to love and acts of adoration run far deeper and travel much further than those of Dr. Urbino’s. Everything that surrounds Florentino’s love is so bright and powerful while I see Dr. Urbino’s love as having a perpetual overcast. Maybe I feel this way about Dr. Urbino because his initial meeting with Fermina was introduced to me after Florentino’s irresistibly luring and convincing courting of Fermina. To me, the reader, this is the shadow that makes Dr. Urbino’s love dark— the reader’s condolences lie with Florentino throughout the entire novel.
Gabriel Garcia’s choice to first show the arguments present in Fermina and Dr. Urbino’s marriage and then show the more favorable man being rejected allows the reader to think that Urbino is not actually in love with Fermina. This is not in fact the case. Being a enormous advocate of Florentino Ariza’s, it took me until the moment that tears fell from Fermina’s face when she learned of the affair to face the truth that Urbino and Fermina Daza are truly in love. This love does not begin to travel to the supernatural level of the love of Fermina and Florentino, but it is not to be denied or pushed aside as superficial.
I now see that I can use the love between Fermina and Urbino as a “foundational love”. I view this love as basic and predictable. With this basic love present, I am able to see how truly dominant the love is between Fermina and Florentino. These loves stand as foils for each other in my mind. I am able to see similarities in the beginning, but these loves grow apart and distinguish themselves as separate entities. The love between Florentino and Fermina clearly translates through the novel as the most prevailing and important character. (447)
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Abigail, what interests me most about your blog is the way you can see how your own prejudices, for lack of a better word, influence your reactions toward other characters. You are predisposed to sympathize with Florentino, perhaps because there is something about him which resonates with a key part of your temperament, and therefore you have to work a little harder to see that we cannot dismiss the relationship between the Doctor and Fermina but have to find a way to see that also as a form of love. I think it's important because it shows your honesty as a reader, and the way you are aware of how your own preconceptions influence you and have to be taken into account. A good entry.
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