¶ … Cholera

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails," (I Corinthians 13). Florentino Ariza's overwhelming, obsessive love for Fermina Daza in Love in the Time of Cholera demonstrates this transcendent, powerful energy. Florentino's entire consciousness is consumed with his beloved Fermina, who he must pursue during the entire course of his life. Love, and specifically the love of Fermina, is greater than "the gift of prophesy," the understanding of "all mysteries," or the wonders of "all faith." Though he finds temporary solace in sexual affairs with many other women, Florentino feels empty without the sublime love he seeks in Fermina, just as Paul writes in I Corinthians, "though I give my body to be burned, but have not loved, it profits me nothing." Without Fermina, Florentino finds no happiness in his work or in his livelihood. Although Paul probably did not intend for love to be as obsessive as Florentino's in Love in the Time of Cholera, the theme of the novel nevertheless parallels that of this Biblical passage.

Furthermore, Florentino proves that "love never fails." Much of Love in the Time of Cholera remains tragic and heart-wrenching, as Florentino is spurned by the object of his desire. Yet, rather than give up on Fermina he proves that his love for her is greater than life itself; only through the death of her husband is Florentino able to fulfill his romantic fantasy. However grim this thought may seem, Florentino "thinks no evil" and "does not rejoice in iniquity." Rather, he patiently waits for the moment in which he can be with Fermina. This moment arrives late in their lives, but as Paul states, "love suffers long."

Fermina probably never knows this type of love, as her response to Florentino and even her response to her husband show. She does not seem as consumed by love as Florentino and in fact shows some degree of resentment toward his advancements throughout their extended affair. However, because Florentino's love subsumes all earthly thought, feeling, and desire, it is strong enough to triumph in the end.