Prout’s “Combray” section was extremely interesting because of it’s work in defining and analyzing temporal states and changes. “Combray” dig into this topic specifically in memory. Character’s memories we’re altered after large events took place, reshaping their past experiences as they drew them back up.
In The Shrouded Woman, Bombal experiments with these ideas as well, but rather, focuses on death as the ultimate “looking back” point (which it essentially is), and uses this sense of finality to address Ana Maria’s life. In the end, Ana Maria is many things: a mother, a wife, a young lover and a paramour. The use of the finality of death to analyze these past relationships, and the love that they shared works similarly to ‘Combray’ in that it brings definition to a life.
An idea that springs from this is, why the obsession with defining and analyzing the past? One thought is this; in the present, reality is a blur–a confusing mix of emotion, cruelty, passion and thought. Every human has unanswered question in the present, but the past, this confusion is clarified, defined and now final–nothing can be changed (which is ironic, as looking back from the present to the past in essence changes how the memories and livelihood is perceived). In a sense, it is this confusion which is critical to the human condition. By reliving the past with a conclusion having been appended, the tyranny of the present is destroyed. This constant reminder of our mortal state has been recorded, filed and remembered, it’s confusion and questions now relieved.
This is why I believe Proust and Bombal used these themes and wrote in this way, analyzing the past and one’s temporal state. The human need for order and clarity is great, and memories give use a god-like power to now control the confusion which once controlled us.
1. How would you remember your loved ones if you were in Ana Maria’s position?
2. Which relationship did you most relate to?
Prout’s “Combray” section was extremely interesting because of it’s work in defining and analyzing temporal states and changes. “Combray” dig into this topic specifically in memory. Character’s memories we’re altered after large events took place, reshaping their past experiences as they drew them back up.
In The Shrouded Woman, Bombal experiments with these ideas as well, but rather, focuses on death as the ultimate “looking back” point (which it essentially is), and uses this sense of finality to address Ana Maria’s life. In the end, Ana Maria is many things: a mother, a wife, a young lover and a paramour. The use of the finality of death to analyze these past relationships, and the love that they shared works similarly to ‘Combray’ in that it brings definition to a life.
An idea that springs from this is, why the obsession with defining and analyzing the past? One thought is this; in the present, reality is a blur–a confusing mix of emotion, cruelty, passion and thought. Every human has unanswered question in the present, but the past, this confusion is clarified, defined and now final–nothing can be changed (which is ironic, as looking back from the present to the past in essence changes how the memories and livelihood is perceived). In a sense, it is this confusion which is critical to the human condition. By reliving the past with a conclusion having been appended, the tyranny of the present is destroyed. This constant reminder of our mortal state has been recorded, filed and remembered, it’s confusion and questions now relieved.
This is why I believe Proust and Bombal used these themes and wrote in this way, analyzing the past and one’s temporal state. The human need for order and clarity is great, and memories give use a god-like power to now control the confusion which once controlled us.
1. How would you remember your loved ones if you were in Ana Maria’s position?
2. Which relationship did you most relate to?
The Shrouded Woman was the first book (up until this point) that I enjoyed reading. I appreciated the female author, and I found it was easier for me to identify and empathize with the narrator, Ana Maria. I found it fascinating to read a story from the perspective of a dead person, as this is …
Posted in Blogs, Bombal | Tagged with Femininity, identity
The Shrouded Woman, in my opinion, really captured the theme of being modern in comparison to the texts I’ve reviewed in previous weeks. There were many different ideas being explored, such as the point of view being someone reflecting on themselves being dead and the main character being a woman, as opposed to a male. […]
Posted in Blogs, Bombal | Tagged with dead, deceased, Edgar Allan Poe, joy, modern, reminiscing, repetition, woman
I really enjoyed this week’s novel of The Shrouded Woman. I was looking forward to this week’s novel since it is the first one with a female author and I was intrigued if there was a noticeable difference between the previous books. One thing I noticed was a difference through the characters as the women …
First of all, the concept of a deceased person just summarizing her life is an amazing concept. Makes you really wonder what life after death really is like. This book was a wild ride. but every moment of it was special and so vivid. It may be fiction, but the world that was created felt […]
blog#4 – a Dead Woman existing in the 4D Life is a crueler fate than Death. That’s the thought that rattled in my head for the entire reading of Bombal’s ‘The Shrouded Woman’. Though many other attributes of the story become abundantly clear, the atmosphere of Death and Envy was subtle, yet, overwhelming. The addition […]
Posted in Blogs, Bombal | Tagged with admiration, adolscent, cruelty, Envy, fate, funeral, hindsight, humiliation, mother/daughter
I have not gotten lost in a book for a long time and this novel gave me just that feeling…
Posted in Blogs, Bombal | Tagged with Shrouded Woman
Concerning this week’s reading, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out the author was Chilean, which meant the original…
Posted in Blogs, Bombal | Tagged with Reading3, SHourdedWoman, ThirdReadibg
After reading Bombal’s “the shrouded woman” I am left with many thoughts about life and the many intersecting joys and miseries one experiences in it. This is likely an intended thought process, as the peculiar method of narration, where a disembodied voice describes protagonist Anna-Maria’s post-mortem journey through memory, subsequently switching to her first person […]
Posted in Blogs, Bombal | Tagged with circumstance, context, emotion, passion
