Love in the Time of Cholera

Florentino Ariza returns to Fermina Daza the following Friday, and the pair have a long and comfortable conversation, though they avoid the subject of love. He returns each Tuesday for the next four months and finds support from Fermina’s son, Dr. Urbino Daza, who is glad his mother is not lonely. Florentino Ariza breaks his leg on a staircase while leaving lunch with Dr. Urbino Daza and has to wear a cast for sixty days. During that period of time, he and Fermina Daza bond over letters once more.

While he is convalescing, Fermina Daza suffers from deep humiliations—a local paper reveals a life-long affair between a good friend and her husband, and soon after this revelation, the paper publishes an expose on her father’s life of swindling, counterfeiting, and arms dealing. She has no place to store her anger with her husband and her father: “She had a quarrel with a dead man” (317). At the same time, Ofelia, Fermina Daza’s daughter, is troubled by her mother’s burgeoning relationship with Florentino Ariza. When Ofelia confronts her mother, Fermina Daza has her thrown out of the house. In her grief and rage, Fermina Daza finally decides to go on a riverboat outing, and Florentino Ariza surprises everyone when he joins her in secret. The pair set out on the river, watching the scenery in comfortable silence. 

Neither the journey nor the river is as the couple expects. Little to no wood to fuel the burners is available because of deforestation, the manatees are now extinct, and the river is low and sandy from erosion. Despite these disappointments and the appearance of Dr. Juvenal Urbino’s ghost, who bids Fermina farewell, Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza enjoy their journey. They hold hands and eventually make hurried love, despite Florentino’s erectile dysfunction and their own reservations and nerves.

On the voyage up the river, Florentino Ariza receives word via telegram that América Vicuña has failed her final exams and taken her own life. He is too afraid to admit his role in the death of his young lover. On the journey back to the city, people familiar to Fermina Daza board the riverboat and she panics, unable continue her adventure among people who know her history and her recent widowhood. When Florentino Ariza asks the captain for a solution, the captain suggests they fly the cholera flag. The flag flies, and all passengers are removed from the riverboat except for Florentino, Fermina, the captain, and his own lover. They sail through rain and they see a majestic manatee and her cub; both couples are deeply happy: “love was always love, anytime and anyplace, but it was more solid the closer it came to death” (342). Finally, they arrive in port and learn they must be quarantined. The captain is unsure of what to do next, and Florentino Ariza suggests they sail back up the river. When the captain asks how long they want to undertake the madness of coming and going up the river, he replies: “Forever” (345).