Love+versus+Lust+(perverse+desire)

=Love versus Lust (perverse desire) = = = = = ** Uncle Marcos and Cousin Antoinetta ** Comical representation of love, readers can visually imagine the Latino lover singing outside the balcony. How society reacts to it – this becomes the talk of the town. (p. 10) Light hearted rendition. ** Esteban Treuba and Rosa ** – He is struck by her external beauty, and proclaims to be truly, madly, deeply in love. But since he did not truly know her, (it was more like attraction at first sight) is he justified in proclaiming that he loves her? Is this love true love? However he does say on pg. 24 that ‘for Rosa I was prepared to do all that, and much more’. And he was overcome with grief upon hearing news of her death. What is ironical about Rosa is that, as her mother herself says, ‘Despite her awesome beauty and innumerable virtues, Rosa had no other wooers. No one felt fit enough to spend his life protecting her from other men’s desire.’ (p. 23) Esteban Trueba takes up this responsibility, yet as we see later, he is the one from whom people had to protect their daughters and wives. (double irony) ‘The night before he had dreamt of Rosa. It had been a long time since that had happened.’ (p.70) The only times he dreams about her is when he wants sexual activity. That would imply that he wanted her for only her body too. Pg. 27 – ‘Assistant began to pant’, ‘his eyes drunk with love’ – this was not love, this was lust (contrast with Dr. Cuevas, who looks at her tenderly and lovingly like a child, and mourns for her loss – ‘dried his tears’, a ‘gesture of infinite sadness’) but the assistant lusted for her – he ‘kissed Rosa on the lips, the neck, the breasts and between the legs’ (p. 38) This necrophilia is extremely perverse and disgusting for the reader. How sexual frustration was building up within Esteban Trueba – he ceases to have any control over his sexuality, as even ordinary things appeared to him as parts of the female form, as can be seen on p. 55 – and when this frustration reached its limit he raped Pancho Garcia. We can see from the brutality inherent in the way he deals with her that he doesn’t love her, but lusts for her only, even as he grows gentle on p.58, he is still using her to fulfil his sexual desires, as a ‘hygienic method to relieve the tensions of the day and get a good night’s sleep’ (p. 62) because once she becomes pregnant, he is ‘repulsed’ (p. 62) by her, and immediately latches onto another woman. So the initial care he apparently displayed may be because he was feeling guilty for just having used her (?) His promiscuity becomes evident later, as he started ‘sowing the entire region with his bastard offspring’ (p. 63) and ‘he never knew the exact number of his bastard children’ (p. 66) It is simply outrageous the way Esteban treats women and subjects them to his basal instincts just because of his social authority in the Tres Marias hacienda. (p. 71) ‘He had never really loved his mother or felt at ease in her presence’. This is very ironical since it s from the mother than comfort normally stems. But when she is dying and he comes to see her, he is filled with guilt and regret – tenderly says “Mama”, like a kid once more. He regrets not being there when she needed him. So maybe he does love her after all.  ** Barrabas and Clara ** – <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">‘p.77 – always hanging around her like a gigantic shadow as silent as the little girl herself’ – he is the last remnant of her Uncle’s memories, apart from the books she read so often. She develops an intense attachment for him. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">When he is dying, he comes into the hall and falls into Clara’s lap, looking at her with ‘love-sick eyes’. He loves her so much that he wishes to spend the last few minutes of his life with her. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Clara and Barrabos develop a deep bond, he was her best friend (because she had no one she could relate to, and because he was one of the last reminders of Uncle Marcos, whom she loved so much) She was naturally horrified when Esteban thought Barrabas’ fur as the perfect rug to adorn their bedroom. She was stupefied and was almost about to faint, because she could not bear such degradation of Barrabas’ perception. Shows both how materialistic Trueba is, and how sensitive she is. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"> -   Because of his mother <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"> -   Because he was lonely, and needed someone to satisfy his desires <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"> -   For Esteban, love is acquisition, dominance over others, and a means of ostentatious flaunting of his wealth – does he ever love anyone but himself? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Ferula supposedly loves Clara and develops intense attachment towards her – but isn’t this out of selfishness, because Ferula gains happiness from doing so. Even when she performs all her chaste and pious acts (like charity, reading out verses from the bible, taking care of her invalid mother) it may appear as if she is doing all of this society. But actually she is doing this to fulfil her own desire to be loved and accepted, her need for admiration, and her compulsion to stick to her character once she has established it. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Ferula was never exposed to society and had never experienced love from another. The only person she recieves love from is Clara. The only love she knows of is that of Clara. Therefore, although she denies desires and love she appears to have homosexual feelings towards Clara. She comes across as a lesbian.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Contrast between love and lust – when Rosa dies  **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Esteban’s relationship with his mother –  **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Barrabas = Esteban Trueba  **
 * // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Barrabas // || // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Esteban Trueba  // ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">‘His reproductive instinct declared itself only when he sniffed bitch in heat in his close environs’ (p. 78) || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">No woman could evade the inescapable promiscuity of Esteban Trueba – ‘not a girl passed from puberty to adulthood that he did not subject to the woods, the river bank or to the wrought iron bed’ (p. 63) ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Leaving her to die in the middle of the courtyard || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">He refused to acknowledge any bastard children of his, sent back any women who came asking for justice ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">‘Hangs over her like a shadow’ (p. 77) || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Possibly foreshadowing Trueba’s association with Clara ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Why does Esteban marry Clara?  **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Ferula – Clara  **

Ferula's sexual frustration is seen as a sin (perverse desire). In contrast Esteban's sexual frustration is seen as his manliness


 * QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS… **
 * Did Esteban truly love Rosa?**
 * Who killed Barrabas?**
 * Why did Clara agree to marry Esteban, was it just because she foresaw it?**