Final Chapter

The final chapter of the novel continues to feature some key themes of the novel: death and aging, love and sickness.

When Florentino receives Fermina's harsh letter, he lies on his bead, "more dead than a dead man." This is in part true, as a part of him seems very near to death, for his immediate reunion with his love is ruined by her curses. Florentino is as much a victim of aging as Urbino was, and every moment that passes brings him a little closer to his deathbed. And as he ages, he falls into the stereotype of age, that an old person is limited both in mental capacities and physical ones. His time is beginning to run out. When America laughs at him for declaring his intention to marry, it is because the thought of two people far past their prime, past the age of 70, marrying and doing the things married people do, is a little odd.

For many years, Florentino has suffered in anguish from his unrequited love, and has drowned his anguish in the indulgences of his sexual lifestyle. Now that his love is returned by the woman he so desired, he feels ready to die. This shows a certain irony, as if one had asked Florentino a mere year beforehand, he would have said death was still far off, and had no intention of dying anytime soon. Florentino's willingness to die shows that it is not the experience of Fermina's love, but rather the quest to obtain that love, that gave his life purpose.

In addition, someone pointed out to me an interesting comparison, one which I wish to share. The plague known as cholera has long been a theme of the novel, and many times Florentino's love is compared to the symptoms of cholera. Florentino tells the captain of the New Fidelity to raise the cholera flag, signifying the infection of a passenger with cholera. This is true. Florentino has been infected by a burning, unshakable passion for Fermina since the day she rejected him, a passion that has persisted much like a deadly plague of cholera. His plagued by his love and passion his whole life, and the raising of the flag shows that at long last, Florentino has surrendered to Fermina's love, just as a sufferer of cholera surrenders to death (392).