Love in the Time of Cholera

Throughout the novel, birds are a complex symbol. At times, they represent fate, specifically, fate as it pertains to death, and at other times, they represent women; in all situations, the birds represent a kind of danger, either literal and physical or emotional and psychological. At several points in the novel, women are directly referred to as birds; for example, the prostitutes at the hotel where Florentino goes to write poetry threaten his commitment to his ideals of true love. Other characters like Urbino also refer to women in conflict as birds who can cause harm to their opponents.

Fermina Daza’s father keeps three crows; these three crows symbolize the intertwined fates of Fermina Daza, Dr. Juvenal Urbino, and Florentino Ariza. Though the crows themselves are not responsible for any deaths, they are harbingers of the deaths of each character. As well, the “angel of death” (109) that “hovered for a moment in the cool shadows of the office” when Urbino’s father speaks to him of his mortality has bird-like characteristics that link it with Fermina’s father’s crows. The angelic spirit leaves a real “trail of feathers fluttering in its wake” (109), and this supernatural moment reveals that the crossover between the world of the living and the world of the dead is possible.

Dr. Juvenal Urbino’s “fugitive” parrot literally causes the accidental death of Urbino. Like the angel of death who leaves behind real feathers, the parrot makes a mysterious and unexpected appearance “in the dining room at midnight with his head held high and his wings spread” (46) the night after his master’s demise. The vision of the parrot hints at the emotional dangers ahead for Fermina, as she adapts to her life as a widow who must struggle to regain a sense of herself as she reconciles her past with her decisions.