Diksha Sundriyal
Love stories don’t generally come to a happy end in Netflix’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude.’ It traces the story of the Buendia family through seven generations, all of whom go through turbulent lives and loves that often bring them despair and loneliness. The situation is so bad that even when love comes crawling to them, the Buendias are not able to accept and celebrate it. This tragedy is most evident in Amaranta, who spends her entire life rejecting love, especially after she has pursued it so intensely that nothing else matters to her. In the second season, she receives two marriage proposals, one from Gerineldo. And despite liking him, Amaranta rejects him. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Amaranta’s Fear of Love Keeps Her From Accepting It
Amaranta experienced romantic rejection at a young age. Ever since the arrival of Rebeca, she had started to feel a bit inferior in comparison to her. But her disdain for her adopted sister reached its peak when Pietro Crespi fell for Rebeca. Amaranta had been head over heels for him, and her mother had wished to marry them. But then Pietro Crespi asked for Rebeca’s hand in marriage, and there was nothing Ursula could do to change her mind. In her jealousy and hatred, Amaranta swore she wouldn’t let the wedding happen, even if it meant she had to kill Rebeca. She used every tool in her arsenal to delay the wedding for months and years. At one point, she thought about poisoning Rebeca, and then fell into a spiral of guilt when her beloved sister-in-law Remedios died due to blood poisoning instead.
This was the first time Amaranta felt the weight of the wrong things love could lead to. She thought her desire had twisted in a way that she killed Remedios. So, she decided to repent for it. Her first decision was to give the motherly love that Remedios would have given to Aureliano Jose, Colonel Aureliano Buendia’s illegitimate son with Pilar Ternera. Her second act is to deprive herself of love, refusing to get married. She sees her love and lust for Pietro Crespi as the sin that led her to invite death into her family and claim the life of someone as pure as Remedios. This is why, when Rebeca marries Jose Arcadio and Pietro Crespi turns his affection towards Amaranta, she refuses to accept him. He is so heartbroken by her rejection that he kills himself.
Pietro Crespi’s death breaks Amaranta’s heart, but it is yet another reminder to her that her love will only lead to the destruction of the people around her. It is a confirmation for her that she must remain single and unmarried, not just as a punishment to herself but also as a form of protection. She burns this thought into her mind by burning her hand and wearing a black band on it for the rest of her life. As if to further validate her beliefs, the next person to fall in love with her is her own nephew, Aureliano Jose. Amaranta had raised him like her own son, but when he sees her as a potential lover, it is just another confirmation that even her motherly love is corrupted, which means she is truly not worthy of any form of love.
Amaranta’s Refusal of Gerineldo is Rooted in Her Repentance
Amaranta spends her entire life telling herself she is not worthy of the love she receives from others and living in fear that, even if she accepts someone’s love, it will end in tragedy. This is why, years later, when Gerineldo proposes marriage to her, she doesn’t blink twice before rejecting. She accuses him of wanting to marry her simply because he cannot marry her brother, Aureliano, whom he is completely devoted to. With this accusation, she recreates the situation with Pietro Crespi and Rebeca in her mind, telling herself that Gerineldo’s love is another hand-me-down from her sibling. Her accusation leaves Gerineldo confused, but he has no way of knowing what’s really going on in Amaranta’s mind.
This is why he also doesn’t realize that her rejection of him is, in some way, the expression of her own love. They have spent a lot of time together at this point, and it isn’t entirely unlikely that Amaranta has gotten fond of him in a way that resembles love. This also means she risks repeating the tragedy of her lovers like Pietro Crespi and Aureliano Jose, both of whom die untimely violent deaths. She doesn’t want the same fate to befall Gerineldo, so she tells him never to see her again. He accepts her refusal and doesn’t return, and lo and behold, he lives long enough to die of natural causes after Amaranta has died herself. The rejection also allows Amaranta to ensure that her self-imposed punishment and exile from romance are seen through to their end. So, when the time comes for her to die, she has a clean heart, free of sin and regrets, which is what she had always aspired to.
Read More: Do Amaranta and Aureliano Jose End Up Together? How do They Die?
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