ABSTRACT
Among the many remarkable works of the well-known and awarded Nobel Prize writer Gabriel García Márquez, Del amor y otros demonios stands out for its diverse readings and interesting thematic possibilities, all framed by the versatile literary genre of magic realism. Most of its criticism, however, concentrates on the subject of love and its failure, history and its consequences, hegemonic power and its detrimental effects, as well as social and psychological aspects. From a different angle, the proposed article will analyze the protagonist of García Márquez’s novel, Sierva María de Todos los Ángeles, her childhood, interpersonal relationships, and the contexts where she lived and died. Her unwanted birth, parental rejection, adoption of slave traditions and languages, oppression by Catholic imposition, as well as her peculiar traits and impulsive behavior, accentuated by a possible case of demoniac possession, unfortunately lead this twelve-year-old girl to convent imprisonment, exorcism, and death.
The colonial city of Cartagena of the eighteenth century is the setting that parallels a Gothic narrative ambiance of darkness and decadence. The element of space propitiates the pathetic fallacy, a typical tool in Gothic literature that helps develop the main character. Her transmutation is seen in two ways: passively, since Sierva María is being changed by others (seen as a “spawn” by her own mother, considered as a slave among slaves, treated as a rabies patient by medical authorities, and a demoniac by the Catholic Church) and actively, since her own self is changing throughout the whole text in her actions, feelings, and words. Even though some events in the novel remain unexplained, perceptions made the strange “normal,” and myths and cultures converge. Is that “the magic” of magic realism? Is the Gothic novel an antecedent of magic realistic narrative? Is the presence of the Gothic limited or a main structural device in García Márquez’s novel? Is Sierva María de Todos los Santos a slave of her time, a victim of religious myopia, or a scapegoat to show power and control? Can she be classified as a Gothic “damsel in distress”? These and some other questions will be pondered and discussed in the article to visualize the transmutation of this heroine in her development and deterioration.
