Dona Maria is miserable
married with a wish that she can get love from her husband. Nevertheless, her husband does not give her the love, understanding, or companionship that she
wants and needs “ Many suitors presented themselves, but as long as she could she fought
against the convention of her time and was determined to remain single. There were hysterical scenes with her mother, recriminations, screams
and slamming of doors. At last at twenty six she found herself penned into marriage with a supercilious and ruined nobleman …..She still lived
alone and thought alone” 14.
From the last sentence of the quotation, it can be inferred that her marriage cannot give her the love she expected. She still cannot share what she
wants and feels with her husband, so again she lives with no love and care. Dona Maria lives in a depressed situation until her beautiful daughter is
born. On her daughter, she places all her hopes to love and be loved. As she perceives that children will love their parents, she tries to reach Dona Clara with
her “love”. But her love takes a wrong place when it changes to be possessiveness. Dona Maria is too afraid of losing Dona Clara since her only
daughter is her only hope of love; she poured her daughter with obsessive love. She does everything to obtain Dona Clara’s love even with the way which her
mother does to her; recriminations, screams and slamming of doors. Because of her possessiveness and obsessive love, her daughter leaves her alone in Lima. It
shows that Dona Clara rejects her mother. She wants to avoid her mother. Dona Clara does not want her mother to bother her, so she chooses Spain, where it
takes a year for a letter.
“… when an exquisite daughter was born to her she fastened upon her an idolatrous love. But little Clara took after her father; she was cold and
intellectual. At the age of eight she was calmly correcting her mother speech and presently regarding her with astonishment and repulsion. The
frightened mother became meek and obsequious but she could not prevent herself from persecuting Dona Clara with nervous attention and
fatiguing love. Again there were hysterical recriminations, screams and slamming of doors. From the offers of marriage that fell to her, Dona
Clara deliberately chose the one that required her removal to Spain. So to Spain she went, to that land from which it takes six months to receive an
answer to one’s letter” 14-15.
From the quotation and the theory stated by Forward and Buck, it can be concluded that Dona Maria is in the conditions of obsessive love. Her daughter
rejects her because Dona Maria believes that her daughter is the only person who can make her life brighter and happier.
There are three conditions that make Dona Maria feels lack of love. First, her parents did not give her the love and understanding she needed. The second is
even after she gets married her husband does not give her love and companionship. The last is her only hope to be loved by her daughter is rejected.
Since her husband cannot fulfill her needs of love, so to her daughter she hopes love. However, her daughter rejects her and chooses to leave her alone. From the
three conditions, the writer concludes that Dona Maria is miserable