One hundred years of solitude

¶ … Solitude

Distinctive Women

There is an extremely perceptible difference between the women of the Buendia family and those that are outside that family in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. That difference is actually fairly pronounced, and may in part be due to the proclivity towards incest that characterizes the lineage of this family in Marquez's work of literature. However, whereas most of the other women who are not a part of this family are more quintessentially feminine in the conventional, traditional way (meaning they are demure, assenting, domesticated lovers who are only happy in such a role), the Buendia women are noticeably different in this regard. Perhaps this fact is attributable to the reality that most of the other women outside of this family are encountered by the male figures in the clan in the roles as lovers. For the most part, however, the women in the Buendia family are staid lovers, not prone to immense displays of affection towards their male suitors, and largely incapable of the domestic bliss that most of the other women depicted in this novel seem to want (and which most women in general appear to desire), since only two of these women produce children. This distinction keeps these women standoffish, aloof, and prone to a sense of power and entitlement that eludes the other female characters in the novel.

One of the most salient examples of the aforementioned proclivities of the Buendia women is that of Amaranta. Although she has a couple of different lovers over the years while living in the relatively isolated town of Macondo, Amaranta never fully submits to any of them and proves untamable and unwilling to acquiesce to typical domestic bliss. As such, she iss able to keep a sense of power in these relationships which the following quotation, in which family matriarch Ursula Iguaran Buendia reflects upon the former's values and tendencies, readily indicates.

Amaranta, however, whose hardness of heart frightened her, whose concentrated bitterness made her bitter, suddenly became clear…and she understood…the unjust tortures to which she had submitted Pietro Crespi had not been dictated by…vengeance… nor had the slow martyrdom with which she had frustrated…Colonel Gerineldo Marquez (Marquez).

This quotation demonstrates that Amaranta is certainly an atypical lover, particularly during the timeframe depicted in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Her depiction as a character who embodies "bitterness" with a singular "hardness" of affection suggests the extent to which she refuses to submit to two of her principle lovers, Crespi and Marquez. Furthermore, her treatment of both of these lovers, described as "unjust tortures" and a "slow martyrdom" is anything but typical of the loving care offered by other female lovers not in the Buendia family. Amaranta's proclivities to treating her lovers in such a way, however, enabled her to maintain a degree of power in re relationships with both of these men.

An example of the characterization of Rebeca, who was adopted early on into the Buendia family, demonstrates that she is also unlike most other females depicted within One Hundred Years of Solitude. Although Rebeca is not as harsh towards her lovers as Amaranta is, she has her own idiosyncrasies that set her apart from the vast majority of other women outside of the family within this novel. It is worth noting that the power that many of the Buendia women are able to preserve and actuate at different times within this work of literature is best personified by Iguaran. Therefore, it is fairly interesting to note how Iguaran largely regards Rebeca as something of her protege in preserving this power in the tradition of the Buendia family, which the following quotation makes abundantly clear.

…only she, Rebeca, the one who had never fed of her milk but only of the earth of the land and the whiteness of the walls... Rebeca, the one with an impatient heart, the one with a fierce womb, was the only one who had the unbridled courage that Ursula had wanted for her line (Marquez).