On her birthday, Sierva María is bitten by a rabid dog. Though she does not show immediate symptoms, her unusual behavior—shaped by being raised by enslaved Africans and fluent in their languages—leads authorities to believe she is possessed by demons.
This historical backdrop is not merely scenery; it is an active antagonist. The society in the novel is one where superstition reigns supreme. Every ailment is a punishment from God; every misfortune is the work of the Devil. It is a world where the line between medicine and miracle is blurred, and where the "cure" for an affliction is often more dangerous than the disease itself. Gabriel Garcia Marquez- del amor y otros demoni...
García Márquez often equated love with illness (most famously in Love in the Time of Cholera ). Here, the symptoms of love—palpitations, loss of appetite, obsession—are indistinguishable from the symptoms of rabies or possession. To the Inquisition, Delaura’s passion is a sin; to the reader, it is the only human thing in a cold, dogmatic world. 3. The Failure of Authority On her birthday, Sierva María is bitten by a rabid dog
The novel’s second half is a relentless machine of tragedy. When the bishop discovers Delaura’s letters to Sierva María—letters that equate her love with “the hell of heaven”—he is not moved. He is enraged. He strips Delaura of his office and sends him to a leper colony as a servant. He then orders a full ecclesiastical exorcism for the girl. The society in the novel is one where