Complicated Love In Their Novels example essay topic

The examination of complicated love in The House Of the Spirits, and Like Water For Chocolate. The purpose of this assignment is to show the importance of complicated love in two of Latin American novels. This theme introduces a great deal of family drama and indeed makes the novel more interesting. Complicated love basically revolves around love that was either incomplete or it did succeed in the end, but after a series of conflicts and complications.

This theme helps in the development of the plot. Through it we are taken on a journey of the Latin American culture. This is because the traditions and the different social status lead to all the conflicts in love, and that is why Latin American culture influences this theme in many ways. It also suggests that love does not always win, readers also feel very disappointed by the fact that there is not always a happy ending. Basically it converts a dull love story into a page-turner, and probably this is why both the authors use complicated love in their novels. Both the novels The House Of The Spirits and Like Water For Chocolate provide many examples of unsuccessful love.

This theme helps us to compare reality to fiction. In both the novels the authors provide various kinds of love that are complicated. This means love on family relationships. This gives the reader a broad view of how this love revolves from relationship to relationship, and also helps us to compare the consequences and emotions of each feeling. In the novel The House Of The Spirits the author Isabel Allende uses several examples of unsuccessful love.

It can be said that Esteban, who is the protagonist of the novel, has been a victim of complicated love more than once. Esteban is greatly in love with Clara, but she on the other hand is free spirited and in her own world. It can be seen that Clara does not really love Esteban no matter what he does. "The more distant I became, the more I needed her love. The desire I had for her when we married had not diminished...

Her spirit wasn't with me, our life became a torment"1. It can be seen that Esteban really wanted Clara, but she was not the least interested. "She calmly explained that our marriage had deteriorated and that she had lost her natural inclination for the pleasure of the flesh. She concluded that if we had nothing to say to each other, we would also be unable to share a bed... ". 2 Despite the growing tensions between them, Esteban was still greatly in love with Clara.

This example proves how complications in love can truly bring the downfall of a person. By using this situation the author creates great intensity in the novel, because she does not create a happy ending, as people would expect. "Clara never spoke to her husband again. She stopped using her married name and removed the gold ring... ". 3 She did this because Esteban treated his own daughter Blanca very harshly, here we can see conflict in family, where the mother and the daughter do not want to have any relationship with their husband and father.

This is where complicated and incomplete love really is acknowledged. In the novel Like Water for chocolate, we come across the love of John and Tita, this love was one sided similar to Esteban from the House of the Spirits. Tita was not sure if she loved John because she still has strong feelings for Pedro. And in the end Pedro wins, but John never looked upon him as his rival. By adding this relationship to the novel the author Laura Esquivel definitely makes the novel more interesting although sad. As John truly loved Tita, but he could not have her love in return.

Another example for complicated love is between Esteban and Ferula. From the very beginning in The House Of The Spirits, it is shown that Ferula was extremely jealous of her brother, Esteban. This was because Esteban was allowed to do whatever he wanted, but Ferula had to take care of her mother, and she had sacrificed her entire life in taking care of her mother, as this was part of the Latin American culture. This shows that there is a great importance of cultural setting and it is reflected in many areas of the novel. This brings in a feeling that a pure relationship like that of a brother and sister, is overwhelmed by jealousy, it definitely shows that conflicts and complications can occur in blood relationships as well and it gives the reader something to think about. "It bothered her to have to stay up locked up within these walls that stank of medicine and age, to be kept awake at night my the moans of her sick mother...

While her brother had no taste of such obligations. Before him lay a destiny that was bright, he could marry and know what love was"4 Later on in the novel Ferula and Clara become really close, this greatly upsets Esteban and he is jealous of Ferula. It can be seen that there is a reverse feeling between the two, and he feels about Ferula they way she felt about him before. He discards Ferula and asks her to leave their house in reaction Ferula curses him. "I set my curse on you, Esteban, You will always be alone! Your body and soul will shrivel up and you " ll die like a dog!" 5 This curse is mainly a result of complicated love.

It can be seen that the characterization leads to conflict, and in this way the author greatly intensifies this situation, and it is hard to believe that there can be such hatred in this kind of relationship. This can be compared to the relationship between Tita and Rosaura in Like Water For Chocolate. There was great jealousy between them, as they both wanted to be with Pedro. ."..

I married him because that's what he wanted. If you had the tiniest scarp of pride you would have put him out of your mind forever... Let him go to a loose woman like you for his filthy needs"6 Rosaura had really developed great hatred for Tita and this was indeed a result of complicated love, because of jealousy among two sisters as they were in love with the same man. The author Laura Esquivel creates a temperamental relationship between a mother and a daughter in Like Water for Chocolate.

Tita did love Mama Elena, but since the time she wants to get married, this is where all the problems begin. "You don't have an opinion, and that's all I want to hear about it. For generations, not a single person in my family has ever questioned this tradition, and no daughter of mine is going to be the one to start"7. Here the author again portrays the Latin American culture, where women are meant to be at home and look after their parents. This is exactly the same as the example of Ferula in The House Of The Spirits. The characterization of Mama Elena is portrayed to be extremely strict, and a mother that would be hated by her own daughter.

This is actually the backbone of this novel, as without this conflict the story would not go on. Thus we see the importance of complicated love. Being a female reader it makes me very disappointed to learn about the harsh family traditions that were practiced, which seem unfair to the women under this culture. It makes a very sad state for Tita, and creates great sympathy towards her. Another example of unsuccessful love in this novel is that of Mama Elena and Jose Trevino. "Jose was the love of her life.

She had not been allowed to marry him because he had Negro blood in his veins... When Mama Elena's parents discovered... they forced her into immediate marriage with Juan De la Garza... ". 8 Here again cultural setting has affected love, as she was not allowed to marry someone with Negro blood in him.

This shows that Mama Elena's family was of a high social class and would only let her marry someone who was pure blood of the similar class. This relationship is also a turning point in how Tita felt about Mama Elena, as she was living a life with frustrated love. Mama Elena must have been tormented by this all her life, which would have probably been the basis of her strict and sometimes heartless character, as she did not receive all the happiness she wanted. Lastly, it can be said that this theme greatly affects the novel, and it iss a very good technique used by the authors. This theme also conveys a great deal about the Latin American culture and traditions, and their attitude towards women.

Complicated love of course, does not always have a happy ending, and this is where the novels are quite different from others. As said before it compares fiction to reality, and shows us that love does not necessarily win. 1. Allende, Isabel. The House Of The Sprits. Great Britain: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1985 2.

Esquivel, Laura. Like Water For Chocolate. Great Britain: Doubleday, 1993.