Death Constant Beyond Love LitChart
Death Constant Beyond Love LitChart
com
When it is time for his speech, the senator is clean and rested. Once inside, the two don’t quite know what to do. The senator
However, he notices that his emotions are sharper than usual. shows her the rose that he’s had since he arrived, which has
He begins his speech with a tone that is near fury. Rather than wilted in the heat. They talk, awkwardly; she tells him her
looking to tell the truth in his speech, he intentionally sets an age—nineteen—and birthday, and he notes that they are both
overly grand tone, speaking about “defeating nature.” While the Aires, which he says is the sign of solitude. Then, the senator
senator is giving his speech, his aides throw paper birds in the has them lay down next to each other. He attempts to touch
air, which take on the appearance of real birds flying out to sea. Laura Farina, but realizes she is wearing an iron chastity belt.
The aides then take out cardboard trees and houses; behind She tells him that her father has the key and will only give it to
the backs of the citizens, who are turned to face the senator, him if he gets him a false identity card. The senator sighs, then
they set up a fictional city over the real one, covering the run- considers the fact that he will be dead soon. This reality,
down homes of the village. coupled with her beauty, makes the senator agree to Laura that
he will help her father. She offers to go get the key, but the
While the senator is speaking, a man named Nelson Farina senator instead asks that she stay with him; he holds her close
watches from the hammock of his home. Nelson Farina to him and lays his head beneath her arm, while she stares
previously lived on Devil’s Island where he murdered his first ahead at the rose.
wife. He smuggled himself to Rosal del Virrey along with a
beautiful woman from Paramaribo with whom he had a Six months later, as predicted by his doctors, the senator dies.
He died marred in scandal because of this affair with Laura
Senator Onésimo Sánchez was placid and weatherless Related Characters: Senator Onésimo Sánchez
inside the airconditioned car, but as soon as he opened the
door he was shaken by a gust of fire and his shirt of pure silk Related Themes:
was soaked in a kind of light colored soup and he felt many
years older and more alone than ever. Related Symbols:
water, presumably to prolong its life. This makes the rose a than they used to be is notable, as this speaks to how he
stand-in for the senator himself, who is also slowly dying but can’t avoid all of the symptoms of his illness even if he can
is still somewhat in denial about his inevitable death. That stave off some of the physical pain with medication. His
he’d kept the rose “alive all across the desert” is an indicator temperament getting sharper suggests that his growing
that the rose does not have much longer left to live, just like isolation is taking a toll.
the senator. Additionally, of course, this passage shows how dishonest
By taking his medication ahead of time, the senator is trying and callous his political campaign is, since the “barefoot
to preserve the illusion that he isn’t dying—he thinks that if Indians” have been bussed into Rosal del Virrey and made to
he doesn’t feel the pain of his condition, he won’t have to stand on the hot street only to pretend that the senator has
acknowledge its reality. And when the senator lays in “the more spectators in the crowd than he really does. This
shadow of the rose,” García Márquez’s language subtly underscores the senator’s cruelty; he’s subjecting these
suggests that the rose is associated with death, because this people to physical pain, just to make himself seem more
image sounds ominous and lethal, like “the shadow of death.” popular and important, and he doesn’t care at all.
This passage also shows that the senator’s isolation is Sometimes a fatal illness can make a person more
entirely related to his inability to process his illness, since he empathetic towards others, but in this case, it has the
has “decided” not to tell anyone about his diagnosis out of opposite effect, which partially explains the senator’s
shame. This is proof of the senator attempting to deny growing isolation.
nature, because, although the illness is never named, there
is no indication that the diagnosis came out of any fault of
his own. This points to an irrationality that is mirrored in the “We are here for the purpose of defeating nature” he
senator’s politics, when he suggests to his constituents that began, against all his convictions. “We will no longer be
they can “defeat” the natural climate of Rosal del Virrey. foundlings in our own country, orphans of God in a realm of
thirst and bad climate, exiles in our own land. We will be a
different people, ladies and gentlemen, we will be a great and
Nevertheless, the erosion of death was much more happy people.”
pernicious than he had supposed, for as he went up onto
the platform he felt a strange disdain for those who were Related Characters: Senator Onésimo Sánchez
fighting for the good luck to shake his hand, and he didn’t feel
sorry as he had at other times for the groups of barefoot Related Themes:
Indians who could scarcely bear the hot saltpeter coals of the
sterile little square. Page Number: 257
There was a pattern to his circus. As he spoke his aides Page Number: 258
threw clusters of paper birds into the air and the artificial
Explanation and Analysis
creatures took on life, flew about the platform of planks, and
went out to sea. There is something a bit tragic about this scene, which
comes at the end of the senator’s speech to the citizens of
Rosal del Virrey. The senator has just told the crowd to turn
Related Characters: Senator Onésimo Sánchez around, because his aides have finished erecting fake
houses and trees to cover up the crumbling shacks that the
Related Themes:
people of the city really live in. While his constituents take in
the effect of this “artificial” city, the senator thinks to himself
Related Symbols:
how even the fake homes are looking dingy because of the
climate.
Page Number: 257
There are many layers to this realization: first, that the
Explanation and Analysis citizens of Rosal del Virrey do not have much to hope
This passage describes the events happening while Senator for—the senator will not actually change the material
Onésimo Sánchez is finishing his speech to the people of conditions of their city, since even the fake city he has
Rosal del Virrey. The magical effect that occurs with the created to sell his false promise is already fading. Second, it
paper birds—that they “take on life”—is a metaphor for the is a metaphor for the senator’s own situation, since he has
way that the senator’s speech has twisted reality, promising been trying to erect a new reality for himself by ignoring his
things to the citizens that are impossible to achieve. This illness, but he is unable to do so because nature, in the end,
signifies how difficult it is to differentiate reality from fiction is an inevitable force.
when politicians willingly lie to the people. More, the fact
that this is a “pattern” for the senator and his team proves
that they pull this type of stunt regularly, suggesting a world
where they never even bother to try to tell the truth. García Related Characters: Laura Farina , Nelson Farina, Senator
Márquez makes it clear how ridiculous their act is, too, by Onésimo Sánchez
calling it a “circus.” Still, people line up to go to the circus,
and the senator continues to have a crowd at his rallies. Related Themes:
It is also noteworthy that these creatures fly “out to sea.”
Page Number: 262
Rosal del Virrey is a desperately isolated city, where the
citizens don’t have much money or much power. The image Explanation and Analysis
of a bird flying out to sea denotes total freedom: something
In this passage, the senator has just found Laura Farina
the isolated citizens do not enjoy at all. So, the image is
waiting outside of his office, dressed in her best clothes.
doubly important, as the real/unreal birds not only
When the senator asked her why, she said it was on behalf
represent the difficulty of understanding reality when
of her father. The senator believes, here, that he
politicians are being deceitful, they also represent the very
“understands” what this means—that Laura Farina has been
thing that is impossible for the townspeople: to be light,
sent to him as a gift or peace offering or bribe in exchange
free, unburdened, and to fly away to somewhere better.
for the false identification card that Nelson Farina has
wanted for years. By looking at the guards, the senator For the senator, this moment is an indication that Laura
suggests that he is considering who might find out about Farina is isolated, and he feels bonded to her because of
this deal, and what the costs (political or personal) might be. this. It is worth noting that the reader does not know if “no
But by convincing himself that Laura Farina’s beauty is so one” loves the senator—the senator’s wife and children may
“unusual” that it could break him out of his isolation, he love him, as the story only mentions these characters to say
concludes that “death had made his decision for him,” giving that they’d been a happy family before the illness. However,
himself over to the impulse of passion and irrationality that the senator feels entirely and irreversibly cut off from his
he likely would not have succumbed to before he was ill. family because of his secret and fatal diagnosis, so he
At the same time, the senator is certainly evading positions his isolation as similar to Laura Farina’s, whose
responsibility when he makes this claim. The reader gets to mother is dead and whose father uses her as a means to an
decide whether or not he actually has control in this end. García Márquez doesn’t make a judgement on who
situation, despite the senator’s belief that death made the might really be the lonelier of the two, only that Senator
choice. The narrative is most clearly aligned with the Onésimo Sánchez believes he is terribly isolated, at that is
senator’s emotions, even though he is a duplicitous enough to empathize with Laura Farina. It is the only time in
politician. García Márquez does not leave any clues that the the story the senator relates to or connects with any other
senator should have made a different decision here, but it is character.
still a moment up for interpretation by the reader.
Then she laid his head on her shoulder with her eyes fixed
Then he realized that she was naked under her dress, for on the rose. The senator held her about the waist, sank his
her body gave off the dark fragrance of an animal of the face into woods-animal armpit, and gave in to terror. Six months
woods, but her heart was frightened and her skin disturbed by and eleven days later he would die in the at same position,
a glacial sweat. debased and repudiated because of the public scandal with
“No one loves us,” he sighed. Laura Farina and weeping with rage at dying without her.
Related Characters: Senator Onésimo Sánchez, Laura Related Characters: Senator Onésimo Sánchez, Laura
Farina , Nelson Farina Farina
is almost as though she can see and understand what is A few sentences later, he does. The compressing of time in
happening, even as the senator looks away in “terror.” The this paragraph by García Márquez reinforces the rose as a
rose, already wilted from the weather, is an omen in this beacon of death, but also that death is as natural as a flower.
passage, confirming the inevitable: that the senator will die.
The senator is in Rosal del Virrey to make the same obligatory The emphasis on spectacle here demonstrates that politicians often
campaign stop that he makes every four years. He arrives in feel if they make you look at something exciting, then they can
town with all the trappings of political spectacle: music, rockets, distract you from what is really happening. Also, the fact that the
a caravan of campaign aides. His aides have even brought in senator’s aides are bringing in “rented Indians” from other villages to
“rented Indians” to make the crowd at the senator’s speech pad the crowd at his speech is an early sign of the senator and his
look bigger. aides swapping reality for fiction.
The senator sits comfortably inside the air-conditioned car that The senator begins feeling lonely and isolated after he’s hit with a
carries him into the village, but a gust of hot air hits him as soon gust of hot air while leaving the air-conditioned car, which shows
as he opens the door, and he begins to sweat through his silk the link between the unforgiving climate of Rosal del Virrey and the
shirt. He suddenly feels very old and alone. The senator, who’s senator’s mortality. Just as he likes avoiding the heat in the air
only 42, has an engineering degree and is an avid reader of conditioned car, he likes living in denial about his disease—but he
poorly translated Latin classics. His wife (a German woman) cannot avoid the arid climate forever, just as he will not be able to
and five children are not with him on the trip. Just prior to his avoid thinking about his impending death. The senator had been
arrival, the senator received the diagnosis that he only has a happy with his life and his family until receiving his diagnosis, which
short time left to live, shattering the happiness that he had felt emphasizes how the illness has given him a completely different
with his family. outlook on life and suggests that he had previously been living as
though his mortality were not inevitable.
When it is time for the senator to meet the public, he appears in Again, the senator believed he might be able to control his fate by
clean, light clothes, feeling rested and stable. However, despite remaining clean and rested, but he realizes that his diagnosis affects
his appearance, and despite feeling stabilized from the pain him mentally as well as physically, which is much harder for him to
medication, he realizes that he still feels the “erosion of death” ignore. The anger he feels towards the townspeople demonstrates
gnawing at him. His emotions are harsher than usual: he feels his continued isolation, as he did not always feel so irritated by
disdainful of the townspeople who are enthusiastically shaking them. By writing that death is “eroding” the senator, García Márquez
his hand, and he is practically rageful as he begins his speech to uses language tied to nature and inevitability, underscoring the
the crowd of Rosal del Virrey’s citizens. connection between the senator’s fatal illness, death, and
environmental inevitabilities.
The senator starts his speech with an idea that came to him not In the fourth book of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations
Meditations, Aurelius
because of any desire to tell the truth to the village people, but argues against fighting nature. He emphasizes the need to respect
as rejection of Book IV of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations
Meditations. The nature and to accept death, since every person eventually
senator insists they are all here to “defeat nature,” that they experiences it (a useful quote is: “Pass then through this little space
who live in this arid and unforgiving location will no longer be of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just
“orphans of God in a realm of thirst and bad climate.” as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it,
and thanking the tree on which it grew”). By referencing this chapter
of Mediations and writing that Senator Onésimo Sánchez is
intentionally rejecting Aurelius’s theories, García Márquez
underscores the senator’s obsession with working against what is
natural—be it the climate of Rosal del Virrey or death itself. By
beginning his speech like this, the senator is also making a
completely false promise to his constituents by suggesting they
could possibly change the environment of the city, which
demonstrates his willingness to lie for political gain.
At the end of his speech, Senator Onésimo Sánchez promises Again, the false—even absurd—promises in his speech show the
the citizens of Rosal del Virrey all sorts of wonderous things: senator’s willingness to lie to and deceive his public. There is an
new technologies that will make rain, breed farm animals, and irony to this scene, though, because even though the fake houses are
create fertile soil that will grow abundant vegetables and meant to represent a better reality for the citizens of Rosal del
flowers. “Look! That’s the way it will be for us,” he shouts, and Virrey, the senator notices how run-down even the fictious homes
gestures toward the constructed city set up behind the have become because of the city’s climate. This furthers the idea
citizens. Though presumably impressing the citizens, the that that trying to fight against nature or natural conditions is
senator notices how dingy the artificial houses have become as ultimately futile, underscoring that the senator also cannot defy
a result of the heat and climate. He thinks the artificial city is death.
nearly as decrepit as the town of Rosal del Virrey.
While this speech is happening, Nelson Farina watches from The disturbing fate of Nelson Farina’s first wife is an eerie reminder
afar. He is a criminal who escaped from Devil’s Island to Rosal that all bodies are a part of nature, and that they will return to the
del Virrey on a boat filled with “innocent macaws” after earth eventually. Additionally, by stashing a criminal away on a boat
murdering and dismembering his first wife then using her body with “innocent macaws,” García Márquez furthers the idea that
as fertilizer. He lives in the city with his daughter Laura appearance is not always reality. It is a bit creepy the way Nelson
Farina—her mother, a Black woman from Paramaribo, is dead, Farina thinks of his daughter here, which foreshadows his
though she died of natural causes. Laura Farina inherited her willingness to use her beauty to get what he wants.
mother’s “color and her figure” and her father’s “yellow and
astonished eyes” and Nelson Farina feels that his daughter
might be the most beautiful woman in the world.
Though he typically goes to the senator’s speeches, this is the As someone who’s exercised much control over other people (by
first time in years that Nelson Farina has remained at home. killing his first wife) and over his own life (by successfully escaping to
For years, he’s been asking the senator for a false identity card Rosal del Virrey), Nelson Farina’s frustration at his lack of power in
to hide his criminal record, and the senator always refuses. This this situation is evident. If he cannot get a fake ID card—which he
year, Nelson Farina finally appears to have given up, finally sees as impossible—he feels like he’s officially cut off from the
“condemning” himself to “rot alive in that burning den of rest of the world forever. By comparing the senator to Blacamán, a
buccaneers.” Nelson sees the fake city from the back and performing actor from Italy who was known as an animal hypnotist,
mutters to himself about how dishonest the performance is. He Nelson Farina is making a comment about the senator’s
calls the senator the “Blacamán” of politics. distrustfulness.
As the senator is walking, he comes across Nelson Farina, The senator’s reaction to Laura Farina is intensified by his distaste
looking unhappy, swinging in his hammock. The senator greets for Nelson Farina—his shock is in part a reaction to her beauty but
him and asks how he is. While they are speaking, Farina’s in part surprise that the sullen criminal who has been pestering him
daughter, Laura Farina, comes out of their home. She is wearing all these years could have such a lovely child. Once again, García
an old, faded Guajiro Indian robe and some sort of heavy Márquez shows that in a world where politics are deceitful, anything
makeup or sunscreen. But even in this state, she leaves the could be misleading or deceptive.
senator stunned. He thinks she is beautiful, and mutters under
his breath in shock and awe, saying “the Lord does the craziest
things!”
Later that night, Nelson Farina outfits Laura Farina in the best By suggesting the importance of the people in the room with the
clothes they have and sends her to the senator. Two armed senator, it’s clear that Senator Onésimo Sánchez previously didn’t
guards who are lazily watching the senator’s office door tell her take any of the townspeople—his constituents—seriously,
to wait outside. The senator is in a meeting with everyone who underscoring the senator’s political disingenuousness. Meanwhile,
might be politically important in Rosal del Virrey. Nelson Farina sending his daughter to the senator shows his
willingness to sacrifice her well-being for his own gain, which
emphasizes that she is an isolated and powerless character.
While in his meeting, Senator Onésimo Sánchez tells the other The senator is at last being honest, but this only emphasizes that he
attendees everything that he omitted from his public speech. willingly lied to the citizens of Rosal del Virrey. The image of the
His manner of speech is gruff and direct. He accuses the other paper butterfly is reminiscent of the paper birds from earlier and
people in the room of having no desire to change the area’s symbolizes the mixing of fiction and reality that the senator does as
dismal conditions, because these conditions are politically a politician. The butterfly flies fairly far for a piece of paper,
useful for them. As he talks, the senator takes a piece of paper suggesting that it appears lifelike, just like the birds. The senator’s
and creates a paper butterfly, tossing it aimlessly into the air. It lack of attention to the paper butterfly that he makes underscores
soars lightly out of the door. The senator continues berating how he takes part in propping up these blends of reality and fiction
the Rosal del Virrey officials. but doesn’t even care about the outcome.
The guards outside the room are asleep, rifles in hand. As Laura The image of the guards sleeping, still holding their rifles,
Farina waits in the hallway, she sees the paper butterfly come demonstrates again the notion of something not being what it is
out, fly a bit further, and then flatten against a wall. She tries to supposed to be. Likewise, the butterfly is not actually painted to the
peel it off, but one of the guards wakes up and tells her that wall, but the guard suggesting that it is demonstrates the
now it is “painted” to the wall. changeability of everything in a political world that is disingenuous.
Laura Farina is stunned when she walks into the senator’s The banknotes flying in the air reference the paper birds from earlier
office and sees thousands of banknotes flying through the air, in the story. By saying that “even shit can fly” in reference to these
propelled by the electric fan. When the senator turns the fan fluttering notes, the senator is implicitly suggesting his whole
off, the money settles on the objects in the room. He jokingly political charade is a joke. The rose—which, by now, has succumbed
says to her, “even shit can fly.” He then finds the rose that he to the climate and is wilted—signifies the impending and inevitable
brought, which the weather and dry air have wilted, and death of the senator. Laura Farina saying she knows about roses
presents it to her, telling her what it is. Laura replies that she suggests she knows about death too.
learned about roses before.
Senator Onésimo Sánchez then sits down on a cot and begins The senator’s continued chatter about roses demonstrates his
to undress while he continues talking about roses. He takes off obsession with the idea of death, even if he has still not accepted his
his sweat-soaked shirt, revealing a tattoo of an arrow piercing a own. He is once again sweaty, showing the pervasiveness of the
heart on his chest. He has Laura Farina help him remove his city’s climate and the unavoidability of nature. In saying that both
boots. He watches her, struck by her beauty but also the senator and Laura Farina are Aries, the “sign of solitude,” García
commenting that she is a child. She rejects this, saying she Márquez is fairly explicit about the loneliness that these two share,
turned 19 last April. The senator asks what her birthday is and despite their very different social positions.
comments that the two are both Aries, which he says is “the
sign of solitude.”
The senator then starts thinking about how he isn’t used to The fact that Laura Farina is naked under her dress confirms for the
impulsive affairs, and that he’s not sure what to do now with senator that she has been sent to him by her father to have sex with
Laura Farina. He gathers her between his knees and lays her him This makes the senator melancholy, as it proves that no one is
down on the cot beside him as he considers what to do next. looking out for the young woman. He then believes he feels a
When he notices that she is naked underneath her dress, he connection to her, thinking her to be terribly isolated on account of
sighs and comments that “no one loves us.” her powerlessness, and he recognizes this feeling in himself because
of the fatal secret he is carrying around with him.
The air is too stagnant for Laura Farina to respond. When When the senator finds the padlock on Laura Farina’s body, he can’t
Senator Onésimo Sánchez turns the light off, the two are cast believe that he’s being blackmailed by Nelson Farina, but, through
in shadow by the rose. The senator begins to stroke her. this bizarre scene, García Márquez is only further commenting on
However, when the senator tries to touch her below the waist, the absurdity of a society where politicians can’t be trusted. Laura
his hand hits metal. He realizes that she is wearing an iron Farina is barely given any room to speak, confirming that she lacks
padlock and is angry and shocked. He asks Laura Farina where any control over her life. Additionally, the shadow of the rose that
the key to the padlock is, and she tells him that her father has it. falls over the two characters confirms that the senator’s death is
She says to the senator that she’s been instructed to tell him near.
that one of his aides can go and collect it from him if the
senator promises to “straighten out” Nelson Farina’s legal
problem.
Laura Farina then offers to go get the key from her father As promised by the first sentence of the story, Senator Onésimo
herself. But Senator Onésimo Sánchez just asks her to sleep Sánchez dies in the last sentence. His isolation is complete by the
next to him for a while, because it’s nice to have companionship end, too, as he dies in the midst of a political scandal and is going
when one is lonely. He sinks his face into the crook of her arm. into death alone, because Laura Farina isn't dying with him.
Laura Farina lays next to him, staring at the rose. The senator However, he does seem to have changed his outlook on death,
dies six months and eleven days later, disgraced after word of because it is not his death nor his political disgrace that makes him
the scandal got out. He dies in much the same position as he weep, only the lack of Laura Farina after death. This implies that he
slept that night, lying next to Laura Farina and “weeping with understands the importance of accepting death, and he only wished
rage” because he's "dying without her." that he had more time to live with this knowledge.
To cite any of the quotes from Death Constant Beyond Love covered
HOW T
TO
O CITE in the Quotes section of this LitChart:
To cite this LitChart: MLA
MLA García Márquez, Gabriel. Death Constant Beyond Love. Harper
Perennial. 2008.
Tilden, Alexandra. "Death Constant Beyond Love." LitCharts.
LitCharts LLC, 21 Mar 2022. Web. 3 May 2022. CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL García Márquez, Gabriel. Death Constant Beyond Love. New
York: Harper Perennial. 2008.
Tilden, Alexandra. "Death Constant Beyond Love." LitCharts LLC,
March 21, 2022. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/death-constant-beyond-love.