Final Reflection

I don't blame Felicia for having become into a bad person. Had I been in her shoes, I would have become into a monster as well. She didn't choose to be mean, but the series of unfortunate events conditioned her behavior and her actions in the big house. Therefore, before we rush to judge Felicia...let's first judge the causes that triggered her precipice to alcoholism. Again, alcoholism is not the cause of her misconduct...it is only the consequence of her disastrous environment she had to live in.

Unhappy Marriage

Throughout the last pages of the book, Felicia has changed a lot. She has changed a lot for bad.She is no longer smiling or enjoying life.She just drinks and drinks to stop living. Even her son doesn't want to follow her example because she's been, for years drinking laudanum. I guess an unhappy marriage, plus years of verbal abuse, and indifference can turn anybody into a compulsive drinker. I wonder...well I don't wonder. I know this for sure. Drinking is not the cause of her misfortunes and evilness. It is only the consequence of a series of unfortunate events in her tragic life.

A Cloud of Grant's

 Felicia's happiness went out of her hands as so did her drinking problem. She is alone; plotting against people once were her friends at the big house. Alcoholism is literally destroying her.She finds hard to trust now. She has consumed so much alcohol that a cloud of whiskey followed her wherever she went. She has drifted from one garden party to another, staring at people with bright, feverish eyes until they became uncomfortable and moved away. However, she has a "friend". She has a companion. She has an ally which doesn't deceive her company, but which has made her world fall into pieces. Felicia,  I wish I knew what went wrong in your life. I wish, I knew what went wrong with you. Dear Ma'am, I wish I could take the whiskey out of your hands now.

Jellyfish and bookcovers

"Don't judge a book by its cover" another line, another saying, another cliche. I guess the world is full of surprises. This is what literary theorists consider to be a situational irony like in Chopin's Story of an Hour. Who would have considered that a tender,verbally abused  middle-aged woman could have killed a little puppy? Who would have thought that an innocent, angel like human being  could have made fun of el viejo's  corpse. Who would have conceived the idea that a poor mistreated  and defenseless woman could have used laudanum on furball (Maria's dog) to avenge years of  Humiliation she had gone through at the big house. I consider myself to be an avid reader. However, I never thought that Felicia could turn into a monster. I guess we only see the surface on people, but we never know what is  really underneath them.

Apathy

"Love me or hate me, but never be indifferent to me" reads one of Isabel Allende's proverb. Again, within the family circle- Felicia is treated with apathy and disdain. As I get to know her on a more personal level, I feel more compassion for her as she is neither loved, nor hated by anybody. She is just ignored. "...Felicia was staring down at her plate with almost as much dejection as María. She wasn't pretending to eat. She drank from a tall glass that was regularly filled". What is more, at the dinner table even "her husband ignored her- and so did her husband and everyone else for that matter". I wonder if so many years of opression in the big house has made her a victim of alcoholism.

Verbal Abuse

I got to see Felicia living in a world that was not hers. She was breathing. However she had quit -long time ago-living. Her timid and impenetrable mind presupposed a bitter and sad life. Her presence was non existent within the premises of the big house. Her mental isolation was the result of a chain of negative social life experiences. She belonged to "El Patrón's" physical world, and thus she also belonged to her husband's constant verbal abuses. It's not fair for Felicia, nor for any other woman to bear all types of injustices just because one is-economically-dependent of his/her- so called- rich spouse.