‘Of Love And Other Demons’ is a beautiful portrait of love
and conflict of believing and not believing in religion. On one hand Gabriel
Garcia Marquez pictures the violence and abuse heaped upon a 12-year old rabid
girl Sivera Maria in the name of exorcising her. On the other hand Marquez has
also beautifully penned down the subtle love of a priest for that girl.
The 12-year old girl, who has been raised by the slaves of
her parents and they have inculcated some of their tribal religious practices
in her, like drinking the blood of roosters before breakfast, is bitten by a
rabid dog. On bitten by the dog she develops rabies, and is she presented
before a number of different doctors and healers who attempt to cure her of the
rabies that she does not in fact have. Eventually, the Bishop of church
convinces her father that in order to save her soul she must be confined to a
convent.
Thereafter church declares that she is possessed by demons
and starts the exorcising of the demon. But one of the priest, Delura who is
close of the Bishop and is given the task of exorcising falls in love with her.
Marquez as he is known for, has beautifully depicted all the
conflicts, emotions, tussles on both the subjects be it love, desperation or the
conflict of a rational mind debating between existence and non-existence of
god.
Like, in one of the lines, Marquez says, ‘“Disbelief is more
resistant than faith because it is sustained by the senses”—here lies the
subtle sarcasm, if disbelief is sustained by senses, then what sustains faith?
He leaves the readers to ponder and answer this.
Again, he says, “One never quite stops believing, some doubt
remains forever", here what is doubt, it is faith (religion) or did
Marquez wanted to say that religion is just a doubt? He again leaves this to
the readers to decide the exact meaning of his words.
There are several lines where Marquez delivers highest
levels of philosophy in one liners, like, ‘Crazy people are not crazy if one
understands their reasoning’—yes of course, if you understand the reason of
someone who is considered crazy, that clearly makes him normal.
Marquez also beautifully depicts the desperation of Delura’s
love, in one context he says, “Do not allow me to forget you”—this line with
all its simplicity can touch anyone’s heart. In another lines, Delura says, “No
medicine cures what happiness cannot”, how much true the line is given to the
fact of today’s fast paced life.
In all ‘Of Love And Other Demons’ – is yet another masterpiece
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and is a must read.
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