Love in the Time of Cholera: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

To celebrate the advent of the 19th century, Fermina and Dr. Urbino take part in various ceremonies, including a trip in a hot air balloon. During their journey through the countryside, they fly over beautiful landscapes but also see human corpses everywhere, affected by cholera. Dr. Urbino ironically concludes that this must be an extraordinary form of cholera, as he can see that people have been given a death blow behind the neck.

To Florentino, who see the couple return from this trip, such public events—and the aging he’s noticed in Fermina—are the true markers of time in his life. He sometimes talks to the couple when Dr. Urbino greets him, but Fermina remains impassive and indifferent. He wonders to himself if this might be Fermina’s way to hide her secret love for him. This thought leads him to return to his obsessive habits. He observes the couple in their carriage, identifies their routines, and often passes in front of their house. Later, though, he hears that Fermina might be suffering from consumption and traveled to Panama to cure herself. He begins investigating about her life and discovers that she left in an extremely discreet manner, giving no information about her whereabouts.

In reality, Fermina has left her home to go visit Hildebranda Sánchez in her province. This is the result not of disease, but of a crisis in her marriage. Dr. Urbino understands her decision and interprets it as divine punishment for his sins. As soon as Fermina leaves, however, both of them immediately regret their weak characters and Fermina’s decision to leave. Nevertheless, it takes her two years to return.

The crisis in Fermina and Dr. Urbino’s marriage began when Fermina smelled a strange smell on her husband’s clothes. She had the habit of smelling people’s clothes and could immediately tell the difference. However, she could not understand how, with such a rigid schedule, her husband could have an affair, especially since she knew that Dr. Urbino only made love at night. During the next few weeks, though, she noticed the smell time and again. Although she did not have any other clue of her husband’s infidelity, her suspicion led her to notice changes in his character. He seemed both passive and unusually sensitive. Once, she even thought she saw him looking at her full of hatred.

Overwhelmed by her secret thoughts, Fermina began to wonder if she was going crazy. However, she also learned that Dr. Urbino had not taken Communion in weeks. He refused to answer her questions, and this convinced her that he was living in sin and was intent on pursuing this path, since he had not even sought help. One day, she suddenly called him during his reading. When he asked her what was wrong, she answered that he knew better than she did. This concluded the conversation. Instead of feeling desperate fear, Dr. Urbino experienced relief, as his relationship with Miss Barbara Lynch could finally come to light.

Dr. Urbino had seen Miss Barbara Lynch, a tall “mulatta,” in the hospital. Fascinated by her, he observed her medical examination, learned her address, and visited her that afternoon. Miss Lynch recognized him and invited him in for coffee. Dr. Urbino then realized that a friend had once warned him that, during his marriage, he would have to face a violent passion that would uproot him. However, convinced of his moral righteousness, he had discarded this possibility, which had now come true.

Miss Lynch, who is 28 years old, was the only child of a black Protestant Reverend and spoke good Spanish. She had recently divorced another minister. When Dr. Urbino mentioned her earlier examination, she suggested he return the next day in the afternoon. Upon examining Dr. Urbino’s documents to find clues about her husband’s behavior, Fermina had found the inscription of the woman’s name but had discarded the possibility that they were lovers because the woman was black and therefore not suited to her husband’s taste.

The next day, Dr. Urbino examined Miss Lynch, taking part in a gynecological exam in which he proceeded to touch her in sexual ways. He had done that once in the past, although the woman’s indignant reaction had brought him great shame. This time, though, Miss Lynch only made a remark about medical ethics, to which Dr. Juvenal replies that ethical codes assume doctors have no feelings or desires. When he confesses his attraction to her, Miss Barbara Lynch admits that she has known this all along, ever since she saw him at the hospital. She says that she is black but not stupid.

During their relationship, Miss Lynch wanted love and her reputation safeguarded. She allowed Dr. Urbino to repeat his auscultation but did not take off her clothes. Dr. Urbino could not resist his desire and visited her every day, but it was difficult to be discreet in the poor neighborhood where the carriage was so easy to spot in the street. Therefore, Dr. Urbino could never stay long, even though he wanted to be with this woman for the rest of his life. Although he was obsessed with her, he came in with barely enough time to make love to her while standing up. Such quick sexual acts left him satisfied and exhausted while Miss Lynch had barely enough time to feel the beginning of sexual pleasure.

Finally, Dr. Urbino became too morally disturbed by his own behavior and, concluding that all he needed was someone who understood him, confessed everything to Fermina on the afternoon she mentioned his infidelity. He decided never to see Miss Lynch again, although he sent her a tiara. He suffered in silence and told his confessor what he had done after Communion.

After Dr. Urbino told Fermina everything about his affair, she was most bothered by the fact that he had told her confessor before her, since she considered religious officials unworthy of trust. This made her feel even more humiliated than the fact that Dr. Urbino’s lover was black—although he corrected her, saying that she was a “mulatta.” Fermina concluded that she now understood everything, since the mysterious smell was that of a black woman.

Five days later, Fermina left for Hildebranda’s province. Although Fermina’s children knew nothing about what had happened, they were not surprised and had actually wanted her to take such a trip for a long time. Soon, Fermina also realized that she had long wanted to go on such a journey, to revisit the places she associated with nostalgia. On her way, though, she realized that the idyllic villages she remembered were full of corpses because of cholera—this time, without a final blow in the neck. As a result, she decided to avoid such villages, in order to keep her memories clear of disgust.

When Fermina arrives at Hildebranda’s, she is shocked to see how fat and aged her cousin has become, although she still has the same personality as before. She is still in love with the same man, although she has married someone else. Dr. Urbino fetches his wife after two years, when the local bishop tells him that the only reason his wife has not returned is because of wounded pride. Fermina, who has been busy preparing eggplant for lunch, is overjoyed to see him.

After Fermina’s return, she and Dr. Urbino go to see a movie, which she says out loud is boring. Florentino, who is also there with Leona Cassiani, recognizes her voice. After the event, he sees Fermina leave with her husband, using his arm to support her. When she almost trips on the steps, Florentino feels terrified. He realizes that he is not afraid of death but of aging in the same way and of having to rely on a woman for support.

After this, Florentino accompanies Leona home. In her apartment, in which he has spent many Sundays, he tries to caress her but she stops him, telling him that she has long realized he is not the man for her. She reveals that she was raped by a mysterious man when she was young and had since tried to find him because of the passion he had aroused in her.

Florentino is now 56 and has entered old age. He struggled to keep from balding but has ultimately had to accept the loss of his hair. He also needed an operation on his teeth and, following his uncle’s advice, had all of his teeth removed, so that he could wear false teeth.

Uncle Leo XII retires after many years at the head of the River Company of the Caribbean. Florentino decides to spend his Sundays with him, since he no longer sees him at work. His uncle tells him that, despite all the changes in politics and the economy he has witnessed during his long career, including many civil wars, the country is still stuck in colonial times. He also wants his nephew to marry, and told him that he would have married Leona if he were 50 years younger. Months later, Florentino is chosen as President of the River Company of the Caribbean. Florentino knew that the only reason he had achieved such a position was thanks to his desire to be worthy of Fermina Daza.

Florentino then recalls the various lovers he has had over the years. He notes that he always followed their lives, even from afar, maintaining at least a distant link with them. He remembers Rosalba and Widow Nazaret, the only one for whom he proved responsible as he paid for her funeral expenses. He remembers one woman who had threatened to cut off his penis so he would only belong to her, and another who taught him that it was possible to be in love with various people at the same time, claiming that her heart “had more rooms than a whorehouse.”

Another lover, Andrea Varón, had both women and men as lovers. She was the only one for whom Florentino ever paid to have sex, though they negotiated a symbolic fee of one peso and Andrea managed her sexual life as a business exclusively for her own pleasure. Sara Noriega was the only one who left Florentino with some bitterness. She ended up in a psychiatric institution, where she was forced to be isolated because she loudly recited lewd poetic verses that could drive other inmates insane.

Around the time when Dr. Urbino dies, Florentino is having an affair with a 14-year-old girl, América Vicuña, to whom Florentino, her relative in the city, was supposed to serve as a guardian while she studied in secondary school. Although Florentino knows that she is still a child, he recognizes nascent womanhood in her and guides her toward sexual relations with him. América feels that she has reached heaven and becomes so happy that she performs exceptionally well at school. Florentino, in turn, enjoys this relationship because it is defined by innocence instead of the calculation he is used to. He begins to love her and takes special precautions to prevent pregnancy. Although people warned her to stay away from Florentino because old age might be contagious, she ignores their advice.

On Pentecost Sunday, after making love, they hear church bells ring continuously. Florentino knows that Jeremiah de Saint-Amour had died but concludes that the bells must be ringing for someone more important, such as a governor. América does not care about death and is enjoying lying next to Florentino in bed, in a cabin next to the dock. Florentino loves her but feels anxious about her, because he’s foreseen that she will die by the end of her studies. Remembering that he has to attend de Saint-Amour’s funeral, he dresses and helps her with her braid.

When they enter the carriage, the driver tells Florentino that the bells are ringing for a famous doctor. Florentino immediately understands that Dr. Urbino has died, even if the tale of his death seems ridiculous. Florentino suddenly feels terrified at the idea that he could have been the one to die. In an agitated state, he drops América off at school and hurries to Dr. Urbino’s house.

Florentino has fantasized about, and waited for this moment his entire life. Full of determination, he declares his everlasting love to Fermina Daza. Although he knows his confession could be considered too brutal, he fears losing such a precious opportunity and is convinced that this is his destiny. For the next few weeks, he barely sleeps and suffers from pains and discomfort related to old age. When he finally gives up, he sees that a letter is waiting for him by the door—the letter he has hoped to receive for over 50 years.