Marriage is not all love and candidness. As Gabriel Garcia Márquez illustrates in her novel Love in the Time of Cholera, marriage was costly; women had to obey their husbands and mothers-in-law. Marriages were arranged and filled with bitterness; most love was unrequited. Love in the Time of Cholera illustrates the life of a woman called Fermina Daza, a captive of marriage. Fermina, a low-society woman, was forced to get married to Dr. Urbino, who is in upper society. She had spent the worst years of her life in despair over her obedience to her mother-in-law. Nonetheless, in a low social class, the answer to the dilemma between reputation and suffering had to be made for the women.
Fermina faced the fearful doubts of a marriage to a man she "hardly knew, with no ties at all between them, with different characters, different upbringings, and even different genders, to suddenly find themselves committed to living together, to sleeping in the same bed, to sharing two destinies that perhaps were fated to go in opposite directions." They didn't even have the faintest feeling of love for each other; something so improbable and pickled as love never existed between them. From the bitterness of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, she made many pleas towards her Urbino. Yet the only person that could help was paralyzed by the presence of his mother's power, having realized too late that "the man she had married was a hopeless weakling: a poor devil made bold by the social weight of his family names." Fermina Dazo, having felt the need to reach a higher society, had to lose control over her social paradise for forty years. Her mother-in-law caged her in sets of rules and misfortunes a decent woman should have. All of which Fermina detested, despised, and disdained.
The almost daily diet of eating eggplant was one of the misfortunes Fermina had to conquer. She had a hatred for this food since she was a little girl, and her abhorrence for eggplant booming after being forced by her father to eat a casserole intended for six people at the age of five. When Florentino, the first lover she had when she was young, proposed to her, she agreed to marry him “if he promises not to make her eat eggplant”. However, she needed to climb up the social class, and should marry someone richer. Fermina was passed from one prison to another, and as a "prisoner" and social climber, she was arranged to marry a man who could provide them with more support and status. The costly prison of marriage organized her diet and actions; she had to eat and follow all the orders. The commands were like laws she had to obey. Another misfortune was the harp she had to play to become a decent woman; although her mother-in-law had originally made her play the piano, she eventually switched to the harp after her son won a puerile debate. “Fermina Daza submitted to this deluxe prison sentence in an attempt to avoid catastrophe with one final sacrifice." She realized and was surprised at how obedient she was toward all these rules she would never touch before. In a marriage full of control, she is like a prisoner of marriage. Nevertheless, her family chose to gain a reputation in exchange, and there was hardly any defense for a woman like her. "She had been caught up more quickly than she had believed in the tangle of conventions and prejudices of her new world." Compliance with eating the eggplant was needed, and acquiescence to playing the harp had to be done. With obedience, she gained a harmonious marriage, which she sacrificed to obtain.
Through Fermina Daza’s descriptions of her marriage, she presents herself as a friend of Dr. Urbino. As Fermina discovered through her marriage, "One does not love one’s children just because they are one’s children but because of the friendship formed while raising them." The relationship between Fermina Daza and Dr. Urbino had been miserable and boring. Consequently, she was confined to the house and forced to uphold her actions to others' expectations. The marriage, full of control and injustice over Fermina, was like a prison for a woman. For example, a dream she had dreamed about was about a "naked stranger who walked through the salons of the palace scattering fistfuls of ashes", Her mother-in-law forbade her to dream such things, which a decent woman would never do. All her actions were in sight of her mother-in-law: the way she held her forks and knives, the way she walked and dressed, the food, dessert, and tea she ate or drank, the way she "treated her husband and nursed her child without covering her breast with her mantilla". Fermina was never free in her marriage; even the house she had lived in seemed like someone else’s. Having to obey the orders, she was halted in marriage for the unfortunate years of her life.
As a result of all her sacrifices in the marriage, she gained a little harmony in her miserable life. Fermina lost her freedom and rights in marriage, like a prisoner. She had no love for her husband, Dr. Urbino, and not even the slightest affection for her son. She acquired a reputation and climbed to a higher status due to her obedience to her husband’s family. She had to keep herself decent and adequate in the house. Nonetheless, it’s questionable whether it was worth what she was giving up for the deluxe life of a peaceful marriage.
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