Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ presents the twisted story of the Buendia family, which has been in Macondo for over seven generations. The story takes many twists and turns as one after another member of the Buendia family gets entangled in a web that eventually becomes impossible to come out of. One of the major characters in the story is Colonel Aureliano Buendia, whose life takes many unexpected turns. He has his fair share of tragedies, but his character is not entirely sympathetic. There are several things about him that might tick off the viewers, one of which is his choice of bride. SPOILERS AHEAD
Aureliano and Remedios’ Age Conforms with the Twisted Morality of the Buendias
One of the most interesting things about the Buendia family is their choices when it comes to their love lives. Almost every member makes one or the other questionable choice when it comes to romance, and Aureliano is no different. While his brother fathers a child when he is still a teenager, Aureliano doesn’t fall in love until he is a proper adult. While his age is not specified, considering everything, he seems to be in his early 20s when he sees 9-year-old Remedios for the first time. In the book, Gabriel García Márquez describes Remedios as a girl so young that she still wets her bed. The show changes that to calling Remedios a girl who still plays with dolls, which might have been to soften the blow of the striking age difference between the duo.
In any case, there is at least a decade between Aureliano and Remedios, and it wouldn’t have been a problem if both of them were adults, but the fact that Remedios is so young that she is yet to hit puberty is one of the several disturbing things about the couple. This age difference and Remedios still being a child doesn’t escape Aureliano and Remedios’ parents either. Don Apolinar Moscote, her father, even asks Aureliano to reconsider and wed any of his other six daughters, all of whom are of marriageable age.
For a moment, even Aureliano’s parents are confused about him choosing Remedios. In the end, however, they all bend to his will, and the wedding goes forward once Remedios reaches puberty. What makes their union seem normal in comparison is the more perverted forms love takes for other members of the family. When Ursula wedded Jose Arcadio Buendia, her mother worried that being cousins might lead their child to come out deformed due to years of incest in the family. While Ursula’s children come out okay, the thread of incest runs in the family till it eventually destroys them. Considering all that, Aureliano’s love for Remedios, warped as it might be (to say the least), still holds more morality than other relationships in his family.
Aureliano and Remedios’ Marriage Ends With a Tragedy
During their engagement, Aureliano takes the time to teach Remedios various subjects. In the meantime, her family prepares her for a married life so that when the wedding actually happens, Remedios knows what her role as a married woman would be. Sure enough, she takes to the Buendia family like a duck to water. Her youth and innocence come as a breath of fresh air to the family, and everyone immediately falls in love with her. Soon enough, she becomes pregnant, but in the third trimester, she dies due to blood poisoning, with a set of twins in her belly.
Remedios’ death is so shocking that no one understands how it could have happened. Amaranta blames herself because she had prayed for something bad to happen so Rebeca’s wedding with Pietro Crespi would be stopped. The shock forces Aureliano into a state of solitude that he never actually comes out of, especially after he joins the Liberals and goes to war. The loss of Remedios is never recovered from, and it continues the streak of the tragic love stories of almost all the Buendias.
Read More: One Hundred Years of Solitude: Why Does Rebeca Eat Dirt, Explained
