Their Main Obsession: Us

By Laura Teresa López Ramírez

Some topics we usually hear when we mention “Pedro Páramo”

written by Juan Rulfo could be ghosts, horror, injustice, murderer; on the other hand we also hear:

“magnificent piece of art“ or “excellent contribution to Mexican literature“. A good example taken

from the American literature in which we hear this adjectives would be “Berenice”, written by Edgar

Allan Poe.

Even if both works are very different from each other, ignoring the fact that they are written by

authors from different times, countries and cultures and, of course, ignoring the clearer fact that

“Pedro Páramo” is a post-revolutionary novel and “Berenice” is a gothic short tale, we could

mention lots of similarities between them.

We could say that in both works there is, may be not explicit, but some kind of love, and not

very separated from what we have felt in our real lives. But what kind of love those characters

might have in common?

First, I would like to quote Boudelaire, who said there is no love in Poe’s tales:

En los relatos de Poe nunca hay amor. Al menos “Berenice” y “Eleonora” no son,
propiamente hablando, historias de amor […] sus retratos de mujeres están, por así decirlo,
aureolados, brillan en el seno de un halo sobrenatural y están pintados al modo enfático de un
adorador.
(Mirashi, 2001)

If we part from this idea, then we could say that, the “love” we are talking about is not just

passionate, but could also be obsessive and we can find that lowest common denominator within

the main characters of both works taking into account that Páramo, the main character in “Pedro

Páramo” is absolutely in love with Susana San Juan. But, how could it be love, when he seems not

to care about Susana’s feelings? He just wants to have her by his side and it does not matter what

are Susana’s desires.

Susana is with Páramo because her beloved is now dead. After that event she loses her mind

and her will to live. Páramo perfectly knows it, but he does not care. He knows Susana is with him
in body, but in mind she is with her beloved and Páramo does not seem to care about this fact. He

is just feels complete because she is with him, even if she is not in love with him:

Susana se encierra en sí misma, reviviendo en un solo instante de felicidad al lado de su marido

Florencio, el momento en que se bañaron en el mar durante la luna de miel. Lo demás, lo exterior,
ni lo siente, ni lo vive, ni le interesa.
(Donahue, Antolin. 1980)

Páramo also sends one of his men to kill Susana’s father, Bartolomé San Juan, because he

(Bartolomé) sais he would never allowed his daughter to be with a man like Pedro Páramo:

-¿Sabías, Fulgor, que ésa es la mujer más hermosa que se ha dado sobre la tierra? Llegué a
creer que la había perdido para siempre. Pero ahora no tengo ganas de volverla a perder. ¿Tú me
entiendes, Fulgor? Dile a su padre que vaya a seguir explotando sus minas. Y allá... me imagino
que será fácil desaparecer al viejo en aquellas regiones adonde nadie va nunca... ¿No lo crees?
-Puede ser.
-Necesitamos que sea. Ella tiene que quedarse huérfana. Estamos obligados a amparar a
alguien ¿No crees tú?
(Rulfo, 1955)

And now, how is this action in Rulfo‘s “Pedro Páramo” linked with Poe’s “Berenice“? They have

nothing in common if we talk about the “full concept” of love; we can love some characteristics from

a person, and others, we can repudiate, but from the things we love, we can love some things

more than others. The object that the character from “Berenice”, Egaeus, loves the most from his

cousin Berenice, are her teeth. This kind of love can be compared for the way Egaeus talks about

Berenice:

Berenice! —I call upon her name — Berenice! — and from the gray ruins of memory a thousand
tumultuous recollections are startled at the sound! Ah, vividly is her image before me now, as in the
early days of her light-heartedness and joy! Oh, gorgeous yet fantastic beauty! Oh, sylph amid the
shrubberies of Arnheim! Oh, Naiad among her fountains!
[…] and in a smile of peculiar meaning, the teeth of the changed Berenice disclosed themselves
slowly to my view. Would to God that I had never beheld them, or that, having done so, I had died!
(Poe, 1835)

But, how can we know this is rather obsession than pure love? First of all, I would like to give some

definitions of the word “obsession”; in common terms, obsession means “a compulsive

preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by

symptoms of anxiety”1.

In medical terms, “obsession” are those “behaviors or mental acts aimed at preventing some

1 Definition taken from the web page http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/obsession

dreaded event or situation, which are not realistically connected with what they are intended to

neutralize or prevent, or behaviors that are clearly excessive” 2.

In psychological terms, obsession has as a resultant “una idea que se impone al enfermo, un

estado emotivo asociado […] las obsesiones propias puede ser igualmeente cualquier otro, tal

como la duda, el remordimiento o la cólera” (Freud, 1894)

In other words, and as a resume of all those significations of “obsession”, it is a compulsive and

often unreasonable idea or emotion a person can feels for an object, an action or even another

person.

I have said before Páramo kills Susana’s father to obtain her (I use this term “obtain”

because as a feeling of obsession, I see Susana and Berenice as objects that can be reached by

“winning” them after some actions from the main characters), and in Egaeus’ case, to obtain what

he felt more obsessed about (Berenice’s teeth), he finally gets them by killing her: “[…] there rolled

out some instruments of dental surgery, intermingled with many white and glistening substances

that were scattered to and fro about the floor.” (Poe, 1835).

As a conclution, obsession is an insane feeling that we all have within us. When we talk about

an obsessive love for somebody or someone, we can find different actions people in real life, or

more specific, Páramo and Egaeus do to get what they need to feel those objects of their desire

(that in this essay are women). But it is also important the things their/our obsession incite them/us

do when we want to get something or someone no matter the consequences of our acts.

2 Definition taken from the web page http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/obsession 1074 words