The Shrouded Woman

When I was watching the lecture, and Jon asked “what do you think of the world that Bombal constructed?”, my first thought was that it felt lonely. From the first few pages, I feel the sense of loneliness creeping into the rest of the book. Interestingly, I have always pictured those rainy days as a time to relax and unwind, but the way it is described by Bombal felt isolated. I could not picture much but the sky pouring out the rain with no sign of it ever stopping. What I saw when I was reading is not too different from a rainy day in Vancouver. Dark, cold, damped and wet. 

The theme of gender and class was quite apparent throughout the pages. She causally worked in the "really very good people, even if not of the same social class” when talking about her daughter-in-law, Maria, and again mentioning that she thought Maria had married her son for the money, not because she cared for him. I feel that this is somewhat a projection of her own trauma. Her first love left her to pursue further education and she even mentioned that his mother does not think so highly of her as Ana Maria and her family was in financial difficulty. 

Ana Maria seems like a groupy old woman who would not allow any of her children to walk out of like, well maybe except for Fred, when her son Alberto confessed to her that he married Maria Griselda behind her back. She did not want to listen to her son at all. But her attitude seems to be changing once she actually met Maria Griselda. She seems to understand that beauty comes with a price and to Maria Griselda, it is a curse not a blessing. In fact, Ana Maria is very sympathetic when it comes to the women in her life. She seems to resonate with them because she too feels that she did not get to live to her full potential. She did not get to pursue higher education (regardless of wanting to or not she did not seem to have a choice), her extraordinary daughter Anita trapping herself with a man who no longer loves her, Maria Griselda having been imprisoned by her husband because she’s too beautiful and poor Sophia and her insecurities of feeling less of a beauty and feeling inferior to Maria Griselda.

The book shows me how it took a lot to overlook one’s prejudice, to forgive and to let go of grudges as she questioned “must we die in order to know?” (pg. 176). Oh and she seems to not like any man she knows lol.

I just realized I ran out of wordcount now hahah. Looking forward to discussing the book with you all!