Love in the Time of Cholera: Dec 9, 2007

I like the way Jessica talks about Florentino Ariza’s love is like a fire that will burn out if he did not do anything to it and that it would become a dark state of loneliness. It is true that Florentino Ariza’s dream and hope are based on Fermina Daza and that they are only imaginary because they are unreachable. However, I believe that the love and feeling Florentino Ariza has for Fermina Daza is so “magical, true, and romantic.” However, a frequent question often arises in me. If Florentino loves Fermina so much, why would he have relationships with other people? The following passage relates to this.

“No sooner did he leave his office at five in the afternoon than he began to hunt like a chicken hawk. At first he was content with what the night provided. He picked up serving girls in the parks, black women in the market, sophisticated young ladies from the interior on the beaches, gringas on the boats from New Orleans. He took them to the jetties where half the city also went after nightfall, he took them wherever he could and sometimes even where he could not, and not infrequently he had to gurry into a dark entryway and do what he could, however he could do it, behind the gate” (175).

I understand that he has been trying to recover himself from the wound he has due to his broken up with Fermina. He tries to forget her by having relationship constantly with other ladies. However, is this the right way to forget something?