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 I thought that the narration of the story being told from the perspective of a dead woman was a very interesting take. I have never read a text told that way, through the eyes of the deceased. I enjoy reading stories about romance and loss (of love, of a person) so I enjoyed this read. I've scrolled through my classmates blog posts and it was interesting to see that most of them have also enjoyed this reading the most. There are many things about this story that make it such a beautiful and interesting read.

This story feels very intimate and personal, almost as if reading a diary. I found that this made it very enjoyable to read in a way that the other readings were unable to captivate my attention, despite a somewhat similar style. It was beautiful to read how Ana María reflected upon her life, her love and happiness, but also her sadness and regrets. She feels love in both its beauty and its agony. She holds both happiness and resentment in her relationships throughout her life. Ana shared very vivid memories of her childhood and her teenage years with her first love. The way in which the narrator describes death is different than most ways in which death is depicted. Instead of being plunged into darkness, Ana reflects upon her life and openly accepts what is coming. The story depicts life and death as being more intertwined than many people realize. In Ana's reflections, she focuses on the meaningful relationships and events in her life, not insignificant things that we worry about daily. By the time she passes, she is ready to be at peace and not in denial. 

With the other readings, I have found there were times that I was upset with the way that women were being depicted. It was a nice change of pace to read something written by a woman about the real experience of being a woman in those days. It was refreshing to see a woman written as a person, and not a placement for the male narrator to objectify or imagine. She is a daughter, a mother, a wife and many other things more important than a visual being for a man. 

My question is: why was this depiction of death and peace so much more impactful than most other writings? What about the framework of the story allowed the description of death to be so effective?

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 Introduction!

Hello! My name is Jeremy Boyd, I am a 3rd year arts student and really looking forward to learning more about romance studies. I took a romance studies class a couple years back for the first part of my literature requirement and I am back again looking to fulfill the other half of the requirement. I have really enjoyed listening to the lectures and I am excited to continue to share my thoughts on the different texts throughout the semester.  

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 Introduction!

Hello! My name is Jeremy Boyd, I am a 3rd year arts student and really looking forward to learning more about romance studies. I took a romance studies class a couple years back for the first part of my literature requirement and I am back again looking to fulfill the other half of the requirement. I have really enjoyed listening to the lectures and I am excited to continue to share my thoughts on the different texts throughout the semester.  

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The Shrouded Woman was a very interesting comparison/contrast between the unknown world of death and the certainty of reality. I found reading about Anna-Maria’s life through the eyes of her corpse as a captivating way to bring me, the reader, … Continue reading → read full post >>

The first thing that caught my attention when I started reading the book was that the titles of each chapter were numbers, and it made me feel like I was reading a diary, like a first day, a second day, etc. There was a part at the beginning of the piece that was actually very […] read full post >>

Utilizing a unique perspective, María Luisa Bombal’s The Shrouded Woman reflects on the life of a woman skillfully and exquisitely. The foremost characteristic of the narrator is that she is dead. This special point of view manages to express and document the events of herself and related things before her death in a comprehensive approach. […] read full post >>

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 This text was my favourite by far, and after scrolling through a few blog posts, it's interesting to see that most people share the same opinion. The shrouded woman was a fascinating text that challenged men's views on women in that day in age. It was super cool to read a book from a women's perspective compared to the other two books we have read so far. A theme I found similar was how a woman shouldn't act out and always listen because their husband can take everything away from them. 

One of my favourite parts was when Maria spoke about how her beauty is lonely. Everyone was envious of her beauty, and all the men wanted her. Seeing it from her perspective was very eye-opening. But, unfortunately, she is only seen for that, and as a child, she was not given any love because she had enough beauty and was isolated. Isolated physically and emotionally from her family. She told us how she did not look like any of her family members and was not connected to anyone. Total and utter loneliness. This made me sad for her and has changed my perspective on living up to beauty standards and consistently trying not to judge anyone based on their cover. 

This book takes us along Ana-Maria's life, her love encounters, her brutal, unloving husband, her children and her sickness. I love how the book started off by describing her illness and being stuck as an alive corpse, and then ended once again, representing her death and her last march through her childhood and life. Ana-Maria had a chaotic life and had friends betray her trust and even her own husband. She holds many regrets about her life and her relationship with God. Hearing her side of the story and the feelings of everyone surrounded by her as she was dying brought me comfort. It may sound weird, but as someone who has dealt with a lot of grief in my life, it is nice to hear a story of one's relief in passing even after holding onto so many regrets. I think Ana-Maria can teach us a lesson. We are alive, we aren't like her living in a corpse, and we still have our lives to live. Even though we have regrets and more to come, we can't let them control or take over our lives. We should enjoy what we have in the present and not focus on the past because we cannot change it and have no control over it. 

The one question I have is...

Do you think if the narrator's perspective wasn't from a dead woman that the book's themes and lessons it gave us from reading it would change/lose their significance? 

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 This text was my favourite by far, and after scrolling through a few blog posts, it's interesting to see that most people share the same opinion. The shrouded woman was a fascinating text that challenged men's views on women in that day in age. It was super cool to read a book from a women's perspective compared to the other two books we have read so far. A theme I found similar was how a woman shouldn't act out and always listen because their husband can take everything away from them. 

One of my favourite parts was when Maria spoke about how her beauty is lonely. Everyone was envious of her beauty, and all the men wanted her. Seeing it from her perspective was very eye-opening. But, unfortunately, she is only seen for that, and as a child, she was not given any love because she had enough beauty and was isolated. Isolated physically and emotionally from her family. She told us how she did not look like any of her family members and was not connected to anyone. Total and utter loneliness. This made me sad for her and has changed my perspective on living up to beauty standards and consistently trying not to judge anyone based on their cover. 

This book takes us along Ana-Maria's life, her love encounters, her brutal, unloving husband, her children and her sickness. I love how the book started off by describing her illness and being stuck as an alive corpse, and then ended once again, representing her death and her last march through her childhood and life. Ana-Maria had a chaotic life and had friends betray her trust and even her own husband. She holds many regrets about her life and her relationship with God. Hearing her side of the story and the feelings of everyone surrounded by her as she was dying brought me comfort. It may sound weird, but as someone who has dealt with a lot of grief in my life, it is nice to hear a story of one's relief in passing even after holding onto so many regrets. I think Ana-Maria can teach us a lesson. We are alive, we aren't like her living in a corpse, and we still have our lives to live. Even though we have regrets and more to come, we can't let them control or take over our lives. We should enjoy what we have in the present and not focus on the past because we cannot change it and have no control over it. 

The one question I have is...

Do you think if the narrator's perspective wasn't from a dead woman that the book's themes and lessons it gave us from reading it would change/lose their significance? 

read full post >>