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

4. Dona Maria is not good-looking

Dona Maria is a rich and wealthy person in Lima, unfortunately her appearance is not as good as her money. She is a not good-looking girl. She also has difficulty in speaking. Her parents feel ashamed with her condition, so they dress her up with a lot of jewelry in order to arouse social charm. “Her childhood was unhappy: she was ugly; she stuttered; her mother persecuted her with sarcasms in an effort to arouse some social charms and force her to go about the town in a veritable harness of jewels” 14.

5. Dona Maria is unconfident

Relating to the theory that experiences of being rejected can cause some psychological effects such as loneliness, reduced self-esteem, aggression and depression, it can also lead to feelings of insecurity and a heightened sensitivity to future rejection. The experience of being rejected by Dona Clara also causes bad effects on her perception about herself. Living in depression leads Dona Maria to lose her self-esteem. Dona Maria feels that all the people in her surrounding always reject her, moreover when her daughter leaves her alone. The situation of being rejected has a great impact on Dona Maria’s character. She thinks that her family abandoned her because of her faults. She feels unworthy and unloved. She has nothing to be proud of. It can be seen in her dialogue with Perichole, an artist who insults her in the theater. Dona Maria says that her daughter and Perichole are great women, but she is nothing. Dona Maria admires her daughter so much as she admires Perichole. It is not proper if Perichole asks apology to Dona Maria. “Offended, offended at you, my beautiful,… my gifted child?Who am I, a…an unwise and unloved old woman, to be offended at you? I felt, my daughter, as though I were-what says the poet?-surprising through a cloud the conversation of the angels” 35. The quotation above shows how Dona Maria is struck with amazement and admiration of Perichole and she feels so unreasonable for Perichole asking apology to her.