Summary

“Memories of my Melancholy Whores” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez concretizes the seemingly overtly romantic idea that one is never too old to fall in love. Set in the early 1960s, the novel revolves around the central character, a 90-year-old journalist, who, on his ninetieth birthday entertains the thought of celebrating his natal day through an ecstatic night with a virgin.

To materialize his desire, Rosa Cabarcas, the owner of the town’s most reputable brothel gives him a 14 year-old girl with whom he eventually builds a whilst non-conversational, intimate relationship. For several nights, he arranges trysts with the girl, whom he calls Delgadina. On each tryst, he brings items such as books, paintings etc., transforming their room into a seemingly special love nest. He brings her gifts, reads to her stories and writes her love notes, showering her with love that he never knew in his ninety years of existence. Delgadina, on the other hand remains asleep, tired from her work of sewing buttons in a factory in town. She gives limited responses yet continues to meet with him on their regular rendezvous.

In the patient unfolding of their love story, the persona gives an account of his nujerous sexual encounters and regular visits to brothels. He also recalls his closest experience of a formal intimate relationship, which he abandons on the day of the wedding. He explicitly relates his life as a bachelor, and his daily routine as a mediocre, aging, and ugly journalist. He narrates his maturity in the writing profession, especially his current job as a weekly columnist. As his love for Delgadina develop, he starts to write columns on love, which capture a great number of readers, spark debates and elicit amorous responses.

A crime in the brothel forces them not to see each other for weeks. When the girl returns to him, he senses that she has been with someone else, thus, he decides to abandon her. Later, he reconciles with her, more passionately as Rosa Cabarcas tells him that the girl too, is in love with the old man. He once again fixes their room and showers the girl with gifts while finalizing arrangements with Rosa Cabarcas about the girl’s future. The story ends with him deciding to live on towards his one hundredth birthday with his young love.

Formalist and Structuralist Reading of “Memories of my Melancholy Whores”

Weaving of Character and Imagery

One of the evident strengths of Marquez’ “Memories of my Melancholy Whores” is its in depth depiction of the characters. However, the extent and style of the depiction of the major characters significantly differ. The persona, who is the also the narrator, is comprehensively presented starting with the basics – his family, his childhood and his occupation – down to the maturity of his old age. His present state is acutely portrayed with the elucidation of the details his routine, from his mornings plagued with a burning asshole, to the fragrance he uses, to the flavor of lozenges he prefers, to state a few. Significant in the development of the persona’s character is the meticulous illustration of the persona’s home, including its physical condition and furniture, especially the dominant paintings and books that constitute to the scholastic and artistic character of its resident. The depth of the persona’s character as a writer is presented in the detailed illustration of his working table, dictionaries and books.

In contrast to the exhaustive depiction of the persona, the portrayal of Delgadina is limited to the persona’s view of her. The reader gets to know Delgadina specifically from the point of view of the persona, thus tainted by the persona’s intimate feelings for her. These descriptions are mostly physical and sensual, carefully scattered in the length of the narrative. Putting together the given descriptions, the reader can surmise Delgadina to be frail and malnourished, with high cheekbones, delicate lips, short curly hair and tanned skin. Very little is given of her character other than her preference to popular boleros and magical stories.

Other significant characters in the story are Rosa Cabarcas, Damiana, and the cat. The two women serve as live witnesses to the persona’s life, while everyone else has died. Curious is the cat’s significant parallelism to the character of the persona. Evidently, they are both old that the society is either deemed to kill or revere them in their old age. Other than their similarities in the mood and health, the cat also reflects much of the persona’s attitude and aged state that requires so much patience and tolerance from those directly involved in their lives.

Marquez’ Distinct Rhetoric

The novel is rich with figures of speech that are distinct and beautifully crafted, with metaphors that are vivid and even memorable. In the first chapter, the author states “The world looked as it was submerged in green water.” The metaphors the author uses remind me of the metaphysical conceit of the sixteenth century metaphysical poets as he uses unconventional comparisons to abstract concepts. In the line “I asked myself how I could give in to this perpetual vertigo that I in fact provoked and feared,” he calls love a “perpetual vertigo” probably referring to the nauseating and perplexing ardor when in love.

Another interesting metaphor the author uses is in depicting the consequences of fame. He states, “Fame is a very fat lady who doesn’t sleep with you, but when you wake up, she’s always at the foot of the bed looking at us.”

Marquez presents a different view on sexuality in the following line:

“I hung up the phone, filled with a sense of liberation I hadn’t known before in my life, and free at last of a servitude that had kept enslaved since the age of thirteen.”

By referring to sexuality as a “servitude,” he depicts another facet of the moral and sexual stances of the persona. The presentation of this facet contributes in the development of the character of the persona, adding depth to the persona’s emotional regard of his sexual exploits.

Marquez’ use of metaphors also reflect the author’s immanent wit, such as in the line “Her courtyard was the arcadia of local officialdom,” referring to Rosa Cablacas’ establishment. He amusingly refers to his Sunday columns as “archaeological relics among the ruins of the past,” to present both the esteem for his time-tested wisdom and his antiquated ideals.

Also notable is the author’s consistent use of hyperbole in depicting an image, and in emphasizing a point. He refers to his physical form to be of an “exemplary ugliness” that “people can see from leagues away.” Recounting an intimate experience with one of his more memorable ladies, he states, “We danced so close together I could feel her blood circulation through her veins.”

Evident in the text is the author’s personification of the cosmic bodies such as in the lines “(The world) is moving ahead but its revolving around the sun,” and “The full moon was climbing to the middle of the sky…” These lines do not only add a curious, thus entrenched imagery, but also adds a celestial, almost magical atmosphere to the story. Yet it is limited enough not to categorize this book among Marquez’ other works famous for their plethora of magic realism concepts.

Fluidity from concrete to the profound

Marquez employs a distinct style of initially depicting an ordinary, concrete event, spontaneously followed by an outburst of inner reflection. He successfully executes a fluid and even elegant transition from a narrative language to a contemplative, complex and theoretical one.

In the following lines, Marquez begins with story-telling imageries but ends with contemplative recollections of his past relationships.

“When the cathedral bells struck seven, there was a single, limpid star in the rose-colored sky, a ship called out a disconsolate farewell, and in my throat I felt the Gordian knot of all the loves that might have been and weren’t.”

“I arrange it (his working table) every morning with the pointless rigor that has made me lose so many lovers.”

At the height of his enchantment to his new found love, he eagerly evaluates his preferences that have been well integrated in his character for the past nine decades. Yet, he states “When my taste in music reached a crisis, I discovered that I was backward and old, and I opened my heart to the delights of chance.” He expands his reference of “the delights of chance” to be applicable not only to his taste in music or in books, but also to other transcendental and equally important facets of life.

Banking on the concrete, Marquez also relates minor stories within the novel such as his sexual discovery with Castorina, his dejected affair with Ximena Ortiz, his desperate carnal afternoons with Damiana, and the poignant romance of Figurita.

Reader’s Response to “Memories of my Melancholy Whores”

Being an enthusiast of amorous tales and poems such as those of Paulo Coelho and Pablo Neruda, I was very eager to read “Memories of my Melancholy Whores.” I initially found the idea of a perverted old man wooing a young girl to be disgusting and disturbing, but as I read on, I could not help but get a pen and paper to note the lines which I found to be very beautifully crafted and essentially perplexing. Later, I reviewed my notes and realized that I have consumed three pages of my notebook after reading the first few chapters alone.

I noticed that most of the lines which I have quoted from the novel are definitive depositions that I would normally find moralizing and autocratic. However, I found the author to have a prolific way with words that the firm impressions of his statements appear as enlightened, cultivated and tested realizations of a persona – and ultimately of the author. I have been exposed constantly to the various theories of the Psychoanalytic Approach so it was unavoidable for me not to significantly consider and even associate the character of the author to that of the persona. Examples of these lines are as follows:

“Morality, too, is a matter of time.”

“Inspiration gives no warning.”

“Age isn’t how old you are but how old you feel.”

“Sex is the consolation you have when you can’t have love.”

“Jealousy knows more than truth does.”

I have observed that more than directing the reader into the world of the persona, the author also prompts the reader to dig deeper into the psyche of the persona by surprisingly presenting baffling yet existentially important questions. In his depression, the persona distractedly invites Damiana to “a roll in the hay” and to this Damiana replies, “Have you though about what you’ll do if I say yes?” In his frantic search for Delgadina, the persona goes to the hospital after being informed of a violent accident involving a young girl on a bicylce that was very similar to Delgadina’s. He found out that the victim had died but that it was not the girl he was looking for. And suddenly he found himself wondering, “What would have I done it had been?”

Marquez has a distinct way of discussing distant and/or unrequited love which permeates his other works such as “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” He establishes his regard for unreciprocated but nonetheless, genuine love in the line “The invincible power that has moved the world is unrequited, not happy, love.” Similar to how Paulo Coelho magnifies the bittersweet ecstasy of distant and unrequited love in the novels “Zahir,” “Eleven Minutes,” and “By the Rover Piedra,” Marquez glorifies this rapture through the persona’s detailed obsession that borders on his newly discovered love. Even in the physical absence of Delgadina, everything the persona did became for Delgadina, with Delgadina and ultimately Delgadina – his columns, his afternoon naps, his regular sores, his ceremonious routines. In Marquez’ “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” Aureliano José manifests the same euphoria. When he serves the military and goes to battle, he offers everything he did to his love for Amaranta. The barracks and the battle field burst of all of his memories of Amaranta, just as the persona’s world in “Memories of my Melancholy Whores” exuded of all of his memories of Delgadina, from the sound of her breath, to the throbbing of her cheek, to her licorice scent. From abounding insights and queries that heedlessly emerged from my reading of the novel, I realized that it is Marquez’ boundless and candid exploration of such a powerful life force through a compelling and rhythmic exploit of language that rendered me completely fascinated with his “Memories of my Melancholy Whores.”