In this movie Tita the youngest of three daughters is bound by tradition to remain unmarried and care for her mother until she dies.This seems like a terrible tradition to me. Tita becomes bitter, she is forced to standby and watch as the love of her life marries her sister in order to remain close to her. Tita had a very close relationship with Nacha from whom she learned about love and cooking. Tita and Mama Elena had an abusive mother daughter relationship. Tita seemed to be the one she took all her anger out on.
Tita was able to manipulate the emotions of everyone who ate her food. When forced to prepare the cake for her sister Rosaura's and Pedros wedding her tears fell in the cake batter, when the guests ate the cake everyone became extremely upset and were vomiting. After Tita recievied roses from Pedro her mother told her to get rid of them, she wanted no relationship between Tita and Pedro, Nacha came to her in a vision and said make quail with rose petal sauce. This created a sexual experience for Tita/Pedro as they were eating as well as everyone else at the table. Gertrudis was so overcome she ended up setting the shower on fire with the heat from her body. She was picked up by Juan Alyandrez and left naked on his horse.
Pedro /Rosaura had a son whom Tita ended up breastfeeding even though she was still a virgin. Tita was devastated when he died . She blamed Mama Elena for his death because she had forced Pedro/rosaura to move away to keep tita/pedro apart. Tita had a breakdown and was taken from the ranch by Dr Paul. As she was leaving she was covered with the quilt/afghan she had knitted while crying over her lost relationship with Pedro , the quilt was miles long. This showed the depth of her caring.
Even after she was dead Mama Elena was able to torment Tita. Tita would have visions /ghost like visits from her mother. Thus the abuse was able to continue. Tita was finally able to lay it to rest when she stood up to her mother.
Twenty four years later Pedro and Tita finally came together. Talk about undying love. While making love ,Pedro is so overcome all his "matches" burn and he dies. Tita eats sulpher from the match tips to ignite all her" matches " choosing to die rather than live without the love of her life. I have to say I really enjoyed this movie.
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Cammy Reagan
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments. I too saw the tradition as very harsh and unrealistic. That sort of tradition would not fly in todays world. I saw the bitterness between Tita and her mother as well. Tita was a very loving and kind person who was repeatedly abused by her mother. She was kept from the love of her life by her mother and was not free of her mother's rule until she finally rebuked her mother's ghost and became her own person. The strength of her undying love for Pedro was shown in the length of the quilt that she continued to knit through out the movie. The ending was bittersweet in that they both finally got to realize the love they had for each other for so long and they died in that love. I too enjoyed this movie.
I really enjoyed your post- your analysis was great and even helped me to understand a few things about the film that I was trying to grasp still. You mentioned how Tita was able to manipulate the emotions of everyone who ate her food, which helped me to connect the 'magical realism' between her food and her emotions. The quilt that she made represented he deep love for Pedro- another analysis that made complete sense to me. Thank you for your awesome insights!
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