The Shrouded Woman: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Shrouded Woman" offers a deep exploration of its major characters, centered around Ana María, a deceased woman reflecting on her life and relationships with mourners and memories that evoke her emotional landscape. Ana María is portrayed as a passionate mother whose identity is amplified in death, revealing her past beauty and the complexities of her romantic entanglements. The narrative weaves in her youthful love, Ricardo, whose betrayal and eventual disconnection leave a profound impact on her life. Ana María's marriage to Antonio, characterized by indifference and a constant pursuit of other women, highlights her struggles with love and fulfillment.
The analysis also delves into the lives of Ana María's children, including Alberto, who is tormented by his love for the beautiful María Griselda, and Fred, whose poetic awakening is intertwined with tragic relationships. The dynamics with other characters, like the reflective Fernando and the haughty Anita, further enrich the narrative, revealing their complexities and interconnected fates. Overall, the characters embody themes of love, loss, and the poignant nature of human connections, inviting readers to reflect on the intricacies of life and death.
The Shrouded Woman: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: María Luisa Bombal
First published: La amortajada, 1938 (English translation, 1948)
Genre: Novel
Locale: The southern part of Chile and the realm of Death
Plot: Surrealism
Time: The first half of the twentieth century
Ana María, a dead woman who alternately views her mourners, the memories they arouse, and the dramatic landscape of death. A passionate woman and mother of three children, Ana María finds that in death her perceptions are amplified; her emotions are fully realized. Her early beauty returns, and she sees herself as pale, slender, and unwrinkled by time. In life she was imaginative, sensitive, intense, and playful. She journeys through the past and relives her adolescent love for Ricardo, his betrayal, and her subsequent herbally induced abortion; her marriage to Antonio, his love for her and the loss of that love, and her passion for him; the adoration of the luckless Fernando in her later years; and the unhappy loves of her three children. Following heart attacks and a stroke, Ana María dies and witnesses her wake, a journey to the family vault, and her fall to surreal subterranean landscapes. Flowing back to the surface, she roots herself to the world and longs for immersion in death.
Ricardo, Ana María's adolescent lover and neighbor. As a young man, Ricardo is clear-eyed, tanned, and wiry. A trick-ster tyrant, he teases Ana María. He is willful, rebellious, and impetuous. Ana María is a childish lover; she does not share his passion but desires his strong arms and the “wild flower” of his kisses. Ricardo deserts Ana María when he goes to study agricultural farming in Europe. On his return, he fails to approach her, then says that he is not to blame for her pregnancy. From this time on, each avoids the other; when he enters her room of death, Ana María understands that her love for him was a hidden core and that his love for her is the same.
Antonio, Ana María's rich, handsome, and charming husband. For a year, Antonio spies on Ana María from the wild black forest adjoining her father's hacienda. After marriage, his young bride feels lost in his sumptuous, labyrinthine house; she resists both his home and the pleasure that Antonio arouses in her. Antonio allows her to visit her father's home, but when she returns, he is indifferent to her presence. Fated now to love a man who seems only to tolerate her, Ana María suffers from Antonio's constant pursuit of other women, just as he suffers from her long, vicarious bond to Ricardo. Antonio weeps for the dead Ana María, who discovers that she neither loves nor hates him.
Fernando, an older man who woos Ana María and becomes her confidant in her later years. Fernando—ill, luckless, unhappy, swarthy, and lean—repulses Ana María, although she needs to confide in him. His dispassionate attitude toward his wife's suicide disturbs Ana María; requited love, he says, eludes him. Fernando, tormented by his love, finds that he can admire, understand, and forgive Ana María after her death. The death releases him to return to his interests in politics, farming, and study.
Alberto, the son of Ana María and Antonio. Handsome and taciturn, he loves only life on his southern hacienda until he meets María Griselda. Her overwhelming beauty and appearance of self-containment drive him to agony and drink. Jealous, he walls her up in the family hacienda, deep in the dark forest.
María Griselda, Alberto's wife. The swanlike María Griselda is lovely, and her beauty causes her to suffer from early childhood. Green eyes, pale skin, black hair, and harmonious gestures draw the adoration of men and women, children, and nature. Left lonely by her husband's searching love, she remains solitary. Only Ana María can forgive her great beauty.
Fred, the son of Ana María and Antonio. Ana María dearly loves this child, who fears mirrors and talks an unknown language in dreams. As a robust young man, he falls in love with blond Silvia, but it is dark María Griselda who awakens his poet's soul.
Silvia, Fred's wife. Tiny, graceful, and golden, Silvia makes the tragic decision to spend her honeymoon at the forest hacienda. The new bride shoots herself in the temple when Fred confesses that he has been transformed by the presence of María Griselda.
Anita, the daughter of Ana María and Antonio. Anita is arrogant, private, haughty, and brilliant. When her good-natured sweetheart, Don Rodolfo, falls under the spell of María Griselda, Anita seduces him and becomes pregnant.
Sofía, the estranged wife of Ricardo. Lively Sofía envies Ana María's intensity; the two are bound by friendship until Ana María comes to think that Sofía has betrayed her.
Alicia, Ana María's sister. Sad, pale, and religious, Alicia has suffered her husband's brutality and the death of her son.
Luis, Ana María's brother. Commonplace values separate Luis from Ana María, especially after he rejects the vivacious Elena for a conventional woman.