The Devil Incarnate – Analysis of Fernanda from One Hundred Years of Solitude Essay Example

the whole. She changes the Buendia family into "people of quality", a statement opined by Aureliano Buendia. 228). Transforming the House of Buendia into the Carpio's ancient and icy mansion serves to make Fernanda feel more at home, because she is otherwise a stranger in the house unwelcome even by Ursula. Fernanda could have thought that the Buendias would be impressed by her manners as the only "mortal in that town full of bastards".

(349). By changing the Buendia family, Fernanda hopes to become an integral part of them, such that she is at the centre of the family and no longer out of her depth.Fernanda works hard to keep peace in the family and to prevent open friction. During her drive to reform the Buendia family for the seeming better, she wants Colonel Aureliano Buendia to not be the "loose piece in the family machinery", so to say, so that the Buendia family would exist in harmony. However, Fernanda tolerates Colonel Aureliano Buendia and gives him a wide berth because she is afraid that the Colonel would "(uproot) the foundations of the house". (229).

She gives in to Aureliano Segundo's request to name their son Jose Arcadio and compromises with Ursula by naming her daughter Renata Remedios. To maintain civility in the house, Fernanda puts up with her husband's philandering and makes a silent truce with Amaranta so as to avoid catfights. Proud Fernanda has to swallow her pride time and again to keep the family together. Together with Ursula, Fernanda fights to maintain the splendour of the Buendia family though they have different methods.When Ursula sinks into the shadows, Fernanda is the one who

tries to hold up the family against the invasion of the banana company and the outsiders.

Through her severe rules of hospitality, Fernanda bars the house against the vulgar and improper people. She even hardens her heart against her brother-in-law, Jose Arcadio Segundo, when he joins the banana company. (271). Although seen as being too uptight, Fernanda's decision would prove to be correct many years later when the banana company brings ruin to Macondo.Fernanda also struggles to keep the Buendia name free from scandals. That is why Fernanda stops Meme's affair with Mauricio Babilonia; that is why she hides Aureliano Babilonia away in Colonel Aureliano Buendia's old workshop.

She wants to exile shame from the Buendia house forever. (316). It is surprisingly easy to see Fernanda's love for her family despite her normally stoic demeanour. She keeps Meme in the dark about her estrangement from Aureliano Segundo, for which schoolgirl would have liked to come home to a broken family?She also lies to Amaranta Ursula and Jose Arcadio about the house and her being fine in order to free them from worries and let them concentrate on their studies. Fernanda cedes Aureliano Segundo over to Petra Cotes to keep him happy and to keep peace within the family; however, she makes him promise to die by her side. Is that not the epitome of love: to let go of one's happiness in order to grant the loved one his? It is proof of her love that she wants him to die by her side, for if she could not have her love in life, at least she could keep him in death.

If that is not

enough, in a rare burst of emotion, Fernanda ran through Macondo madly searching for Aureliano Segundo on the night of the extermination of the Aurelianos. Such anxiety for the safety of her husband can only mean she really loves Aureliano Segundo. It is unclear exactly when the damnation of the family had come - perhaps when Ursula and Jose Arcadio Buendia first start the cycle of incest, or when the outsiders come in. One thing is clear though; it certainly did not arrive with the proud yet unconfident highlander who wants to uphold the House of Buendia and truly loves her family.