Love in The Time of Cholera: Lessons Taken From the Pandemic

Intimacy, commitment, and passion characterize love as a series of emotions and behaviors. Love can be zealous at times and alter gradually. It can bring happiness and life satisfaction, but it can also cause emotional stress and jealousy. Love is similar to an illness. Or a fight. Alternatively, death - that's just how love can be at times, at least in this novel. There's a lot of pleasure mixed in with all the agony and suffering, but love is so diversified that it's difficult to compare it to anything. In Love in the Time of Cholera, all kinds of characters fall in love, from lustful teenagers to old men, and the narrative spans so many decades that we can witness how their love evolves over time.

Relationships are delicate, and it often takes a major disaster, such as a pandemic, to break them. COVID-19 has resulted in an increase in break-ups and marriage breakdowns all across the world. Apart from health-related difficulties, there have been far too many cases of couples feeling overwhelmed and being forced to stay at home for an extended amount of time — with or without each other — since the pandemic. This has resulted in a resurgence of emotional and mental health issues. People were more stressed than ever as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. Many people were in financial trouble in addition to being unable to see friends and family owing to health restrictions. As people adjusted to a new normal, the pandemic's initial favorable effects on relationships may have faded.

Love can have both a positive and negative impact on people’s lives and love can be considered a disease in the case of lovesickness or obsessive love disorder. This disorder refers to a state in which you get obsessed with an individual with whom you believe you love. You may feel the need to constantly safeguard your loved one, or govern them as if they were a possession. 'Love is a dangerous mental ailment,' Plato once stated, and how sensible he was. Love sickness isn't simply a way for those in love to express themselves; it's also been investigated as a medical condition. Love is a double-edge sword; it can bring all the happiness and meaning in to one’s life but love isn't always ecstatic and blissful.

In the novel Love in the Time of Cholera, The most frequent theme suggests that lovesickness is a real disease, on par with cholera. Florentino Ariza suffers from lovesickness like cholera, experiencing both bodily and emotional agony as he pines for Fermina. Ariza is depicted in the story as the sick boyfriend of Fermina, a young. Ariza engages himself in a secret relationship with the girl through aunt whom they begin exchanging letters. When Lorenzo, the girl's strict father, learns of the secret love affair, he is outraged with his daughter and forces her to end it immediately. The headstrong girl, on the other hand, pays no heed to him. She refuses to stop until the father decides to relocate to the city where his deceased wife lived.

The distance between them, however, had no effect on their love, as they spoke via telegraphs with the help of Fermina's older cousin. When she matures and returns to the city after some years, she discovers that her connection with Ariza was only a figment of her imagination. She snaps as soon as she realizes this, telling her paramour to stop writing her. The partnership is coming to a close. Despite swearing to chastity and faithfulness until he reconciles with her, Florentino eventually initiates affairs with a number of women, despite rumors that he is homosexual.

Florentino appears to be satisfied in the anguish that his unrequited love causes. Florentino is sustained by his romantic suffering because he perceives his anguish as a strengthening experience that will take him to his ultimate desire. Florentino seem to appreciate the misery he feels when in love. His love for Fermina, make him extremely ill and cause him great mental and bodily suffering. Meanwhile, Fermina comes into contact with Urbino who also starts courting her. Despite her rejections, Urbino persists to which Lorenzo also encourages by seeing a prominent life in the future. She agrees to marry him without any hesitations. The doctor is always in his profession, while she commits herself to household chores. The couple's marriage appears to be wonderful on the surface, but the doctor puts more attention to his upkeep, his career, epidemics, and his popularity than to satisfying her emotional desire. Their marriage was stale and dissatisfied. Dr. Urbino was also unfaithful to his wife over the duration of their marriage.

The effects of the COVID-19 epidemic on relationships are one of the most severe consequences. COVID-19 has produced an environment in which relationship dynamics have shifted and are frequently tense. People, on the other hand, require relationships, the support and the love they provide more than ever. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most people lost their jobs which lead to social and emotional stress. Emotional stress can be especially severe and difficult to manage. Relationship tension takes a toll on our emotional well-being and triggers intense emotional reactions. Our relationships have a significant impact on our life, for better or worse. The Covid-19 problem imposed new restrictions on who we spend our time with, which may have had an impact on human happiness.

The phrase 'social stress' refers to the tension that develops as a result of one's interactions and social surroundings. This can involve stress from one's social circles, academic competition, or domestic difficulties. Social stress can manifest itself in a variety of scenarios. One mental disorder that cannot be remedied with anything as simple as a substance is social and emotional stress. It's one of those things that takes a lot of work and strength to get rid of. However, relief is possible if one is willing to open up and demonstrate sincere resolve to get it. Love is considered to be among one of the things that can help someone who is experiencing social and emotional stress.

According to a scientific research, love has some significant health benefits. Most people were able to get through the pandemic due to the support and love from their friends, families and spouses. 'When people feel safe in their relationships, their stress levels decrease,' Riess explains. 'Simply being in the presence of someone who greets us with positive attention and care can drop cortisol and adrenaline levels and increase homeostasis, which means your neurochemicals are back in balance.'

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government gave food and masks to families from low-income backgrounds. When men were unable to provide for their families as they had done in the past, their wives stuck by them and offered assistance. People had to adjust to the new circumstances. Food was supplied to orphanages and the poor by the wealthy households. Organizations contributed funds to help improve healthcare services, drugs, and protective clothing for medical professionals. Communication is the key to mending shattered relationships. Talking to a close friend about your social anxiety, or simply using communication to repair a healthy relationship. Love and positive social support boost happiness levels while lowering stress, anxiety, and sadness. Being loved boosts self-esteem and feelings of worth, which helps with treatment.

Understanding, support, and communication were the best ways to exhibit love during times of severe social and emotional stress, like as those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. While love cannot cure all ills or prevent the onset of mental illness, it can help to promote excellent physical and mental health. Love and healthy relationships, as well as solid social support from family and friends, are definitely vital for enhancing mental health, according to research. Relationships provide benefits that aren't limited to romantic relationships. Social assistance, in any form, has been shown to be beneficial to mental health on several occasions. According to research, the quality of social support is far more significant than the quantity. In other words, having one or two strong social relationships is preferable to having a huge network of acquaintances.

Although Fermina and Dr. Urbino do not marry for love, their connection develops through time into one of mutual reliance, implying that even if a relationship is not romantic, it can still be useful. Dr. Juvenal Urbino marries Fermina not because he is madly in love with her, but because he admires her virtues. However, both characters develop tender affections for each other throughout the course of their marriage. Fermina is devoted to her old spouse, nurturing him as if he were a 'senile infant.' In the end, it's unclear whether Dr. Urbino and Fermina have ever experienced true love. 'Only God knows how much I loved you,' Dr. Urbino tells Fermina as he lies dying after a terrible fall. After so many years of partnership, this romantic phrase implies that he must have felt love for her, but it does not prevent Fermina from subsequently questioning the nature of this love. 'It's astonishing how one can be happy for so many years despite so many squabbles, so many troubles, damn it,' she says, 'and not really know if it was love or not.'

In the end, however, characters have no influence over how their lives finish, no matter how many precautions or ideas they have about growing old and dying. Dr. Juvenal Urbino dies after attempting to retrieve his stolen parrot by climbing into a tree, a darkly comic death that contrasts sharply with his reputation as a serious and respectable man. This demonstrates that death is unpredictable and surprising, and that worrying about it has no bearing on the outcome. As a result, the only way to deal with old age and death is to face it head on and make the most of one's remaining time on Earth. Florentino and Fermina have realized that shame has no beneficial impact on their life. Despite their fears of the other finding their elderly bodies and 'sour scent of old age' during sex, they eventually prove to be accepting of one other's physical situations. Rather of seeing their age as a barrier to their love, they embrace that they may now express affection in a new way: through calm, gentle deeds, in contrast to their youth's intense love-making and intensity.

By the end of the book, it appears that the only way to deal with the inevitability of illness and old age is to make the best of terrible circumstances and enjoy life to the fullest. On the ship, Florentino and Fermina decide to think that 'life, more than death, has no limitations,' as they prepare to return to port and the repetitive nature of their lives—and, hence, the imminence of their deaths. Rather than succumbing to death, they turn the boat around, rejecting the reality of monotony and decay. Dr. Urbino's devotion to disease prevention promotes a positive and proactive attitude toward life, and their decision to keep enjoying themselves underscores that while death is ultimately beyond their control, their ability to enjoy their own lives is not.

The most important lesson this book imparts about love during a pandemic is that love does not disappoint. Chances abound in life. Even if someone spends half of his life in misery, one should not be disappointed when he encounters difficulties. Waiting for the appropriate moment is the loveliest thing. One should make every effort to be patient since, sooner or later, their patience will pay off. After reading the book, one learns a similar lesson. Florentino plays the best roles in this regard, as he is regarded to have maintained his patience. He is eventually rewarded for his efforts. He promises to remain faithful and waits for his sweetheart to return. True love is eternal. It makes no difference how far two loves are apart and preserve their distance. If they preserve pure sentiments for each other in their hearts, their love will never fade away, but will instead become stronger.