“Mona” by Reinaldo Arenas attempts to expose the reader’s common held stereotypes by blurring the boundaries between male and female, reality and fantasy, and living or dead.
Elisa, the protagonist of the story, becomes Fernandez’s infatuation. At the beginning of the novella the reader is lead to believe that “Mona” is a romance story, however, as the story progresses Elisa begins to exhibit abnormal features more closely resembling male attributes, thus blurring between male and female making what was once perceived to be a romance novella more closely resemble a parable.
As the story progresses Elisa’s features are portrayed to be more and more masculine. She is portrayed as having “an almost” masculine voice as having animal like characteristics. Each proceeding description only further adds to her portrayal of a masculine character, she “[drinks] the water…so naturally that anyone would have thought drinking from a vase was a normal thing to do,” this act is very unusual and certainly would have been considered “lady like.” Thus further stripping Elisa of her femininity. The narrator then proceeds to describe that as he was kissing Elisa he “felt the underlip of some animal,” furthermore Elisa is characterized as having knowledge of motors and machines, a skill normally more attributed to men.
This novella not only forces the reader to reexamine the previous assumptions he had made regarding women, but also touches upon the idea the homosexuality. At the end of the story it becomes clear to the reader that Elisa is Leonardo Da Vinci himself. One can interpret Fernandez’s infatuation with Elisa as a gay romantic attraction, Fernandez must obviously be aware of Elisa’s attributes being uncannily resembling masculine traits, yet he dismisses them and once more attempts to focus on Elisa’s female attributes, appearing hesitant to admit his homosexuality. Another aspect of the novella that leads the reader to believe that homosexuality was a factor is the author’s choice of Da Vinci as the artist, for many historians believe that Leonardo was gay.
Arenas employs magic realism in order to both force the reader to reexamine the stereotypes he has made about women and surface the struggle of homosexuality.
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ReplyDelete“Mona” by Reinaldo Arenas attempts to expose the reader’s common held stereotypes by blurring the boundaries between male and female, reality and fantasy, and living or dead.
Elisa, the protagonist of the story, becomes Fernandez’s infatuation. First perceived to be Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona” in life form, Elisa is in fact Leonardo Da Vinci himself. Painted to in order to have the painted portrait to have the ability to become and outlive the painter himself. Throughout the story Elisa portrays many characteristics not usually associated with wome, the male component becomes progressively more noticeable thus blurring between male and female.
She is portrayed as having “an almost” masculine voice, having animal like characteristics. Each proceeding description only further adds to her portrayal of a masculine character, she “[drinks] the water…so naturally that anyone would have thought drinking from a vase was a normal thing to do,” this act is very unusual and certainly would have been considered “lady like.” Thus further stripping Elisa of her femininity. The narrator then proceeds to describe that as he was kissing Elisa he “felt the underlip of some animal,” furthermore Elisa is characterized as having knowledge of motors and machines, a skill normally more attributed to men.
This novella not only forces the reader to reexamine the previous assumptions he had made regarding women, but also touches upon the idea the homosexuality. At the end of the story it becomes clear to the reader that Elisa is Leonardo Da Vinci himself. One can interpret Fernandez’s infatuation with Elisa as a gay romantic attraction, Fernandez must obviously be aware of Elisa’s attributes being uncannily resembling masculine traits, yet he dismisses them and once more attempts to focus on Elisa’s female attributes, appearing hesitant to admit his homosexuality. Another aspect of the novella that leads the reader to believe that homosexuality was a factor is the author’s choice of Da Vinci as the artist, for many historians believe that Leonardo was gay.
Arenas employs magic realism in order to both force the reader to reexamine gender social norms and surface the struggle of homosexuality.