Caution: Spoilers - though not earth-shattering, in my opinion, so read on if you wish...
Why
do you think Bayardo San Roman and Angela Vicario get back together
after so many years? What effect does their reunion have on the story?
Do we forget that this is Bayardo’s story as much as it is Santiago’s?
Years after abandoning his bride on their wedding night, an aged Bayardo San Roman unexpectedly reappears, with suitcase and love letters in tow, on Angela Vicario’s doorstep. I believe that it was the consistent receipt of those love letters, written weekly by Angela for nearly two decades, that was the motivating force behind Bayardo’s return. When it was discovered on the night of their wedding that Angela was not as chaste as her husband had once believed, she and her family were forced to leave the city in order to avoid the dishonor that would accompany the divulgence of such a shameful secret. After establishing a life as an embroiderer in a nearby village, the bride began to compose love letters to her estranged husband, despite the fact that she had not particularly experienced the feeling of adoration for him so common of betrothed couples prior to the marriage’s annulment. With each letter, I imagine that, for Angela, the emotions typical of an affectionate individual intensified.
ReplyDeleteHowever, because Bayardo refrained from opening and reading these heartfelt declarations, it is evident that the content of the notes were not what influenced him to make his return. I think that, instead, the sheer ritual of writing and receiving the letters for 17 years proved to the maligned groom the devotion of his wife, an affection that he likely felt was lost at the news that she was not as pure as he had supposed. When the couple finally reunites, the novel is pervaded with some sense of closure, a welcome divergence from the story’s characteristic unreliability. The uncertainty surrounding Bayardo’s fate and the ambiguity enveloping Angela’s true contentment are simultaneously alleviated, and the reader is allowed a chance to fabricate whatever happy-ending scenario that one could expect from such a hapless pair.
As the reader closely follows Santiago’s movements, anticipating his murder, it is very easy to lose sight of Bayardo’s story. The reader is often too preoccupied with the imminent murder and its implications to be troubled by a lovers’ quarrel. Because the couple’s tale could be considered less suspenseful than Santiago’s plight, we tend to focus on the more thrilling aspect of the chronicle and are placid about Bayardo’s and Angela’s split, a dull event in the face of a brutal crime. In fact, though the two narratives are directly related, their disparate subjects render a feeling that the stories are mismatched, almost as though they belong in separate novels.
Bayardo and Angela’s relationship throughout the story is an interesting one. Angela at first does not love Bayardo, and continues to feel no attraction to him until quite some time after their extremely short-lasted marriage falls apart. She sees him one day in a hotel, and upon that suddenly realizes what she no longer had. She becomes obsessed with him and writes Bayardo letters once a week. Seventeen years later he finally returns to her, but the letters are unopened.
ReplyDeleteI feel that it was not the letters, since they were unopened, that brought them back together but the fact that Angela still felt feelings for Bayardo, and he may have finally been able to overcome her impurity from their first marriage. He realizes that she actually does love him back now, and her devotion could be a cause for him to finally accept her as she is. He also may not have been able to get over his love for her and move on to marry someone else, so he went back to the one he wanted to be with in the first place.
Their reunion, in a way, shows that Santiago’s death was pointless. In the end Bayardo was able to get past his wife’s past. If he would have been capable of this in the beginning of the story Angela would not have had to accuse someone and Santiago would have still been alive. Their reunion also shows that when they actually loved each other their marriage was able to work, unlike when Angela was forced into it to bring her family pride.
Since the story mainly revolves around Santiago, I think that it is easy to forget about Bayardo. Even the mayor in the story forgot about him when he exclaims, “I’d completely forgotten about the poor man!” (84). I think it is easy to forget about him because the story focuses on Santiago, when in reality if it had not been for Bayardo and his obsessive need to marry Angela, Santiago’s life would have probably been spared. He more than likely would not have been accused of the crime if Angela had not married, and the brothers then would not have murdered him.
Angela wrote hundreds of letters (“She wrote a weekly letter for over half a lifetime.”) to him. If someone showed that dedication, perseverance, and interest, I would return to them too. I believe Bayardo San Roman eventually tired of resisting, of being without a wife. Age might have mellowed the anger and sorrow he first felt on their wedding night. Time might have eased his pain, as writing eased Angela’s. Sometimes time is the only way to find true unconditional forgiveness.
ReplyDeleteTheir reunion occurs near the end of the story, but immediately before Santiago is murdered. Angela tells her personal story, how she wrote the letters, made up illnesses, spilled ink and said the spill was her tears. These details in the letters, although never read by Bayardo, paint a sad picture of her life. Angela’s life began its downward spiral the night of her marriage and continued to be at the most mediocre until he returns. The amount of time that passed doesn’t seem to play in effect when one views the amount of sadness in her life. Their reunion is one of the rare gems of happiness in this book. It lies between her woeful tale of being an “old maid” and Santiago’s brutal murder that takes place in the next few pages. Their reunion is a simple reminder that not all has gone wrong in this story, that there is some good to come out. The story quickly jerks back to Santiago, who is the real victim, in comparison to Bayardo who simply pursued the wrong women.
The two characters, Bayardo and Santiago, stories are intertwined, yet very separate. That being said, I don’t think the reader forgets about either of the two main male characters, but rather keeps one or the other in the back of their head. In reality, Santiago most likely had no relations with Angela, and was only a victim to her accusation, one that she made with hopes that he was too wealthy and powerful to be affected by. Santiago being the bigger victim, in my opinion, has a right to more of the reader’s attention and sympathy. Yes, it was terrible that Bayardo entered a marriage with false pretenses, but his life wasn’t stolen due to a young women’s simple accusation. I held the most sympathy for Santiago, and second I held was for Angela, not Bayardo. Bayardo makes his choices without much discretion, perhaps if he had taken the chance to get to know (“…theirs (engagement) lasted only four months due to Bayardo San Román’s urgings.”) Angela better he would have noticed something or been forewarned.
It is difficult to say why exactly Bayardo reunites with Angela after so many years because there is a major cultural gap between the characters of the story and the world we live in today. If this story had occurred in modern day America, I would say that Bayardo never stopped loving Angela and it was his undying affection that drew him back to her. However, this story did not occur in modern day America. This story occurred in a time where two brothers were able to murder another man without punishment because it was “a matter of honor.” Clearly, in this society, honor is the most important factor in any decision that someone makes. Bayardo returned Angela to her mother after he learned that she was not a virgin because that was the honorable thing to do. Pedro and Pablo Vicario killed Santiago because that was the honorable thing to do. Therefore, it is safe to assume that Bayardo’s decision to return had something to do with honor. After the Vicario twins kill Santiago, Márquez tells us that Angela’s “honor was restored.” In other words, it was now acceptable for Bayardo to marry her. So now we must ask ourselves, why did he choose to wait twenty seven years before he returned to her? I believe that he was hurt by the fact that Angela was not a virgin and more so by the fact that she did not tell him. Bayardo did not open any of the letters because he was upset that Angela had deceived him and blemished his honor. When we consider this side of the situation, it is easier to see that Bayardo’s story is just as central as Santiago’s. If Márquez had not included the scene where Bayardo returns, Santiago’s death would have been the sole major plot development. Bayardo’s role in the novel would be lessened, and he would simply be the man who discovered that Santiago had slept with Angela. However, because the author includes the fact that Bayardo and Angela were reunited, the novel’s central plot line becomes Bayardo and Angela’s relationship. This in no way diminishes the impact of Santiago’s death; it simply puts it in a different light. At first, the reader may assume that Bayardo’s departure was an effect caused by Santiago’s actions. However, when we include the scene where Bayardo returns to Angela, Santiago’s death becomes an effect caused by Bayardo’s marriage to Angela.
ReplyDeleteI thought the reunion was unusual, especially after all the heartbreak and time that had gone by. After all those years, one would have expected Bayardo to have never forgiven Angela, and the possibility that he may have never received any of her letters anyways. The effect of their reunion, however, to me, salvaged Santiago’s death in a way. Had he not died, the possibility for Bayardo and Angela to reunite would have been impossible. In fact, had Santiago been alive he may have been forced to marry Angela due to the culture they lived in. With Santiago out of the way, Bayardo and Angela were able to reunite, and Santiago’s death did not go to waste.
ReplyDeleteYes, one cannot forget get this is Bayardo’s story as much as Santiago’s for various reasons as many as my classmates have pointed out, but one character I think we forget about most is the narrator. We are not even told of his name, yet I believe he is just as important to this chronicle as Santiago and Bayardo because we see much of this story unfold through his eyes and his bias.
In a novel built upon the role that honor plays in certain cultures, the reunion of Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Roman is an interesting twist in the story line, though not a completely surprising one. Indeed, my most troubling lingering issue after completing the novel is whether Angela's actions were either honorable or deceitful, since we are not given a shred of concrete evidence that Angela in fact had relations with Santiago Nasar. On the one hand her love for Bayardo was not genuine or authentic and she covertly didn't even desire to marry him in the slightest, yet followed the what was expected of her and married Bayardo San Roman to maintain her family's wishes and honor. She knew she was not a virgin, a fact that would cause the demise of their short-lived matrimony, but even after establishing a plan to cement the idea of her virginity in his mind, she chooses instead to be honest and astoundingly protects Bayardo's honor: "because the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was all something dirty that shouldn't be done to anybody, much less to the poor man who had the bad luck to marry me" (91).
ReplyDeleteAngela chose not to deceive Bayardo and was prepared to die and repent for the actions that haunt her past. However, fate intervened and instead she uses the name of Santiago Nasar, leaving his fate to instead be forever changed. Because the reader is uncertain whether the name she exploited is in fact guilty, we are conflicted in what emotions to feel towards Angela. Is she to be praised or hated? It cannot be said for certain, however, what is more intriguing is how it is solely after she refuses to lie about her virginity, that she is able to truly open herself up to Bayardo; as if she has already taken back her own honor by refusing to hide her past.
Bayardo becomes an excessive obsession for Angela and a climax is reached when he finally returns after seventeen years with a suitcase saturated with unopened letters from Angela, and a situation full of unanswered questions. The reader knows merely a miniscule amount about the puzzling Bayardo, but his return appears to indicate his belief that she has finally paid her penance for his dishonor. The effect of his return is only to make the reader wonder, yet again, whether or not the death of Santiago was entirely imperative and necessary.
As far as the question of this being Bayardo's story - I feel that both Santiago and Bayardo take a back seat in the role of honor within a culture. Our culture is now more removed and distanced from this issue and resolute focus on honor, but in actuality it wasn't long ago that men defended their honor to the death even in the United States. Bayardo played a significant role in the novel but it did not belong to him - we are given little information about who he was and how he came to be, up until even the very end. The novel truly belongs to Santiago and the village in which he lived, due to the somber fact that it is his life that is given up in defense of honor regardless of his guilty status. Saying one name name made this so, and the true tragedy is that we never really indubitably know the truth for from the minute his name is spoken.
It was a very ironic occurrence for the two to finally become reunited after all those years. They must have gotten together again after all these years due to Bayardo forgiving Angela for keeping the fact that she was not a virgin until after they were already married, and after Bayardo realized from all of Angela's letters that she was in love with him. Also in the book, Bayardo is described as being fat and balding, so at this point in his life he was probably tired of being alone and heartbroken, and was ready to settle down with a companion. He never read any of Angela's letters, but that was probably because of his bitter feelings toward her. After so much time of carrying a hard heart toward Angela, he must have finally had some forgiveness enter his heart. Their reunion causes the reader to wonder "Why then was it necessary for Santiago to die?" The whole book seems pointless. The story is centered around the fact that Bayardo returns Angela, but then they get back together. So even if Santiago was guilty his death would not be necessary since Bayardo and Angela ended up together anyway. With all the references to Santiago and his murder throughout the story, of course it is very easy to forget about Bayardo. to say that it is just as much Bayardo's story as it is Santiago's could be a little bit of a stretch, but his involvement did set up the main point of the story, Santiago's murder. Since the story would not have surfaced without Bayardo's attraction to Angela which lead to the murder, it could be said that it is Bayardo's story as much as it is Santiago's I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI thought that Bayardo and Angela reuniting was very strange and unexpected. Bayardo was very stunned and hurt to find out that Angela was not a virgin, and I thought that the two would never see each other again. I found it odd that Bayardo decided to go back to her so many years later. One would think that if he was going to forgive her, he would have done so after a couple of years at most. After so many years of not wanting to see her, it is surprising that he had such a change of heart and finally forgave her. I suppose Bayardo was tired of holding a grudge against Angela and the pain that came with it, so he gave in to the emotions that he still felt for Angela that he had suppressed for so long.
ReplyDeleteI also find it interesting that Bayardo did not open one letter. This would be understandable if he never forgave her and didn't want to have anything to do with her, but obviously he did so i do not understand that. If I were in his situation, I probably would have opened some of the letters before I reunited with Angela. His process of thinking might of been that he didn't need the letters to truly love Angela.
I think that Angela and Bayardo being together in the end provides closure to the story. Bayardo is indeed easy to overlook, but he is a key character because of how he was affected by the revelation about Angela, and the two of them being happy in the end truly closes out the story as a whole.
Bayardo ending up with Angela after so many years made me angry. It was him that caused the Vicario twins to murder Santiago Nasar. If Bayardo had forgiven Angela and stayed with her, none of that would have happened. I felt that Marquez put this in the story to make the readers feel that all was for not. The twins didn’t have to bloody their hands and the town didn’t have to be haunted by the fact that they could’ve done something to prevent the murder.
ReplyDeleteI never felt that Bayardo was a main character until the ending. It’s not that I felt that there were only a few main characters: Santiago and the twins. I felt that all the interviewed characters had a main part in the story. I just thought of him as the spark that started the fire. The readers were more focused on the events leading up to the crime. Even the characters in the story forgot Bayardo. The islanders much like the readers are too wrapped up in the crime that they forget the person who started it.
When he came back into the story, I got a different view of him. He was no longer just the guy who lit the fire in the twins but he was also someone who was heartbroken. Before I heard about him again, I thought he had skipped town or cold heartedly brushed Angela off but he was actually distraught of how things turned out. He drunk so much alcohol to brunt his sorrow that he almost died. He eventually got together with her but it took years. The readers are left in a fog about what he did in those years. Did he get married? Why did he finally decide to come back? Also, why didn’t he write back to Angela? The reader will have to imagine what happened because the story ended without the tale of Bayardo’s story. Even Bayardo’s story on what happened on the wedding night was never told. It was clever ploy for the author to get the readers to concoct a few scenarios. The best stories are the ones that never give an indifferent ending.
Tragedy often brings friends or foe together, because the beings involved in the unfortunate series of events often feel the only people whom can fathom the high emotions due to the tragedy are those who experienced it. An example pertaining to the question is in fact Bayardo and Angela's reunion. The reunion is rife with intense emotions emitting from Bayardo that seem desperate for understanding and love. And, as we know Angela has felt those emotions towards Bayardo upon the commencing of writing of her letters. There is no sense of anger or tense emotions between the two, only one of desperation for sympathy and affection. Since the emotions felt between the two are so similar the reunion itself seems to shun the cause of the separation between the two. Could the subliminal understanding between Bayardo and Angela have proved the entire tragedy of the book to be useless? Can any motives of the perpetrators or the people who watched the murder be justified after the surprising yet loving reunion of the previously wedded couple? Forgetting this story is also Bayardo's was no easy feat because it seemed one of the motives for the twins to murder Santiago was not only to avenge their sister but to avenge Bayardo. Seeing Bayardo's actions and emotions upon reuniting with Angela later in the book makes the murder seem futile, because his actions are not filled with anger.
ReplyDeleteI found it ironic that Angela managed to find love so deep, so profound for the man she was absolutely adamant against marrying. At the start of the novel, Marquez described Angela in a very pitiful, depressing light due to her intensely oppressed story. She grew up without the hope of finding a husband, she lost her virtue out of wedlock, was forced to marry a man she didn’t love, and was then exiled from her home because of the dishonor she brought upon herself. This does not sound like a joyful existence and the reader does not blame her for wanting to simply get way and settle down in a quiet seamstress’s life. The reader does not, however, expect Angela to have a sudden revelation about the love she feels for her estranged husband. Yet Angela does; after seventeen years of weekly letters, she proves her devotion to Bayardo. I believe she had this unexpected change of heart purely due to the clique: you always want what you can’t have. When she realized that Bayardo wasn’t 100% infatuated with her, Angela craved his love and proceeded to send him letter after letter until the unanswered correspondence simply became a habit.
ReplyDeleteBayardo, on the other hand, returned to Angela for a few possible reasons: because he never truly stopped loving her, because he couldn’t find anyone else, or because the constant love letters promised a happy and joy-filled future together. I personally believe that Bayardo came back because of a combination of the three. Their rekindled love gives, as my classmates have said, a sense of closure to the novel, almost a “happy ending” to a tragedy. South American authors have traditionally played with themes of fantasy versus reality and in Chronicle of a Death Foretold we see a good example of the author breaching the fantasy world by creating this happy ending, an ending that is frankly straight out of a fairy tale with the prince and the princess overcoming all odds to finally be together.
The reader does tend to forget about the terrible lot Bayardo ended up with while reading Chronicle of a Death Foretold. With the fast paced events leading up to Santiago’s demise, it is hard to remember that Bayardo has just lost a wife, a good deal of money, and his dignity. This novel does tell the story of Santiago Nassar, but it also tells the story of a failed, then successful, romance and the lovers involved. If anything, Bayardo and Angela’s affair is the most important aspect of this novel as it is the one thing that ties all the characters together.
Reuniting Bayardo and Angela was unexpected and under very unusual circumstances. Bayardo was such a promising young man with a bright future ahead of him and yet when Angela is reunited with Bayardo, he comes back as an older man who has become fat and is losing his hair. Angela is no angel either; she is portrayed as wearing glasses, sewing, and looking out of her window as if to ponder the things that could have been. This shows us that the death of Santiago hurt Bayardo as well and should not be forgotten while mourning for Santiago.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Bayardo kept the thousands of letters of Angela's shows that he did care about her over all of the years, yet the reader is surprised to find out that he did not open one of them. This causes the reader to ponder if Bayardo still had feelings for Angela, why would he come back now: a fact that would never be revealed to us. Angela, although, does write thousands of letters in which not one is responded to and she has no inclination to whether or not Bayardo is receiving any of them. Portraying Angela and Bayardo as kindly run down causes the reader to feel sorrow for the two because they missed the best years of their lives. I believe this is why the author put the two back into the book to remind us that not only was this story about Santiago's death, but also that Bayardo and Angela can never regain the years they have lost.
The reunion between Bayardo and Angela is strait out of a movie. When Bayardo first was set to marry Angela he suddenly chose to abandon her on their wedding night. Then he was a much younger man with an entire life to live. When he returns it is an interesting contrast. He is a fat, washed up old man. It almost makes the reader wonder where those years have gone. The suit case of letters is evidence of Bayardo’s love and it is interesting how a product of time, the letters, rewinds the two people’s lives to a seemingly long lost feeling.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that Bayardo doesn’t open the letters, they are all closed. Maybe this is a sign that he already knew the nature of the letters because he was feeling the same way towards her. Or perhaps he would have found them too painful to read, either way the fact he didn’t open the letters hints that he was still in love with her for so many years. The reunion between Bayardo and Angela is one of my favorite parts of the book.
I believe that the reader can often forget that this is Bayardo’s story as well. We get so caught up in Santiago that we forget about Bayardo sometimes. I think that Bayardo is the main character of the novel even though his story does not conclude on the final page.