Research paper feelings repression through sex and other addictions

Feelings repression through sex and other addictions based on the love in the time of cholera. character analysis - Research Paper Example This particular work of Marquez has been declared an eccentric love story where the lovers unite at the end of novel around 51 years and 9 months later when they are in the last stage of their life. Florentino Ariza, the main character, has been portrayed as an obsessive lover who vows to stay faithful to Fermina Daza but indulges into a spree of sexual encounters with hundreds of women. This paper aims at proving that Florentino’s countless affairs were an escape route and his method of suppressing the repressed feelings and void that he felt after being rejected by Fermina. Love in the Time of Cholera’s story revolves around the couple Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza who fall in love during their early teens but eventually get separated because Fermina choses to marry a more suitable match Dr. Juvenal Urbino (Pelayo 135). The backdrop of the setting and location has been kept a mystery in the novel and the only aspect that is revealed is that the country is plagued by Cholera. In this way, the author has compared love to a disease that like any other illness can have a drastic impact on an individual if the feelings are not welcomed and respected. Florentino Ariza can be easily categorized as a hypocrite and a liar since he vows for â€Å"eternal fidelity and everlasting love† to Fermina despite his countless affairs but actually he is a heart-broken man who sought to mend his heart through love (Marquez 50). Sex, in this novel, is not used in its erotic concept but symbolizes a medicine which Florentino used to overcome his pain that Fermina’s rejection and eventual marriage caused to him. It is the struggle to eliminate the feelings of void, loneliness, loss and pain that overcome the otherwise faithful and devoted personality of Florentino (Fahy 23). The treatment of love as a disease becomes clear when Florentino falls in love with Fermina and the symptoms of both the disease and love match. â€Å"His examination revealed th at he had no fever, no pain anywhere, and that his only concrete feeling was an urgent desire to die† and these were declared as† so much as the devastation of cholera† (Marquez 62). Here the term devastation is important to acknowledge since at another point later in the novel, Florentino states that he and Fermina fell into â€Å"devastating love† (Marquez 68). This shows the author’s intention of presenting love as a form of plague or disease which if not treated timely can produce unfavorable results or compel a person to behave in a drastic manner. When Marquez compares love with cholera, he attempted to present sex and addiction to love as a cure or healing mechanism for Florentino due to which he was able to survive (Koenig 131). Getting involved with other women was his way of taking refuge from the otherwise painful scenario where his love Fermina was enjoying a blissful married life with her husband while he had to suffer in solitude. The no vel Love in the Time of Cholera is set in an era when cholera was actually a â€Å"devastating disease that had no regard for color and background† (Panisset 125). Therefore, the similarity shared by love and a disease like cholera is explicitly narrated by Marquez. Just like Urbino was trying to find the cure for cholera in the same way Florentino’s obsession towards women shows his search for the cure of his heartache. Florentino is a character who is deeply in love with Ferm