In Manuel Puig’s novel Kiss of the Spider Woman, Molina and Valentin use fantasy as a manner of escapism. Firstly, Molina makes use of the movies he tells in the cell to flee his unfavorable and lonely life by making a most well-liked actuality by the fantasy he creates in them. Secondly, the setting of the cell itself offers Molina with a sanctuary from the exterior world, permitting him to flee from the gender roles by which he’s confined in and fantasize about taking up the female function with Valentin by the isolation of jail.
Lastly, in Valentin’s morphine-induced fantasy at the finish of the novel, he can escape from the socially accepted stereotypical male gender roles and categorical his true emotions about Molina. Firstly, Molina makes use of the fantasy introduced in the movies he reiterates as a approach to escape from the harsh actuality of the actual world, creating his personal, extra beneficial one. This angle will be seen all through the novel, significantly in affiliation with the sturdy romantic and female facets displayed in the movies.
A movie that enables Molina to flee the actual world is instructed by his stream of consciousness in chapter 5, which tells the love story between an unattractive maid and a younger soldier, face scarred by the struggle. This movie could be very private to Molina in two facets. Firstly, it’s instructed not aloud to Valentin, however inside his personal head, and secondly, it contains a protagonist who’s an outcast to society who nonetheless finds love. It’s instructed by the first particular person perspective of the maid, and the use of private pronouns draw a connection between the characters of Molina and the maid.
This parallel characterization is heightened by the maid’s informal and repeated reference to herself as an “ugly lady” (100), mimicking Molina’s expressions of self-deprecation by belittling diction. He’s continually utilizing phrases like “revulsion” (260) and “disgust” (262) to explain himself with, and he even interjects the movie to recount the decide’s description of him as “the worst, a revolting fag” (106). It’s clear that Molina, a homosexual man residing in a homophobic nation of machismo males looks like an outsider with a scarcity of self value.
In the chapter three, Molina relates the story of his unrequited love for the waiter Gabriel: a heterosexual man who doesn’t return Molina’s emotions. Molina is escaping from the bitter reality of his personal love-less life and residing by the fantasies he presents in the type of movies: an outlet that enables him to expertise a most well-liked and utopian actuality. Puig’s function in drawing a parallel between the maid and Molina is to specific Molina’s intense need to seek out love and acceptance and recommend the eventuality this lies in Molina’s future, because it did for the maid.
Via movie, Molina can escape the bitter actuality of his personal life into his personal extremely romantic and idealistic fantasies. Not solely does Molina use fantasy in his tales as a manner of escapism, by the isolation of their cell, Molina can escape from confining conventional gender roles and assume the female function with Valentin, a type of fantasy for him. All through the novel, it has been made clear that Molina identifies with ladies; even claiming “I need to be one” (19). Inside the cell Molina is ready to escape from the prejudice skilled in his primarily homophobic nation and don the female traits he associates himself with.
Molina cares for Valentin when the latter turns into ailing, indulging in a fantasy by which he’s sympathetic, caring and maternal. For instance: “However you must watch for that, till you’re feeling okay, and you may make sure that you solely get half of that…” (156). It’s apparent that Molina enjoys being subservient to Valentin. In a way, Molina just isn’t a lot gay as he merely believes himself a lady. Certainly, he firmly believes in the stereotypical and conventional roles of women and men: “But when a person is…my husband, he has to offer the orders, so he’ll really feel proper. That’s the pure factor, as a result of that makes him… the man of the home” (244).
Molina’s identification of himself as feminine is what makes him topic to prejudice, equivalent to the type he skilled with the decide. In the direction of the finish of the novel, Molina involves the realization that his state of affairs exterior the jail cell won’t ever change, and that the fantasy he’s experiencing with Valentin is not going to final: “No, they’ll by no means change…” (215). Puig creates the irony that it’s inside the confines of jail that Molina feels the most free, and it’s exterior the place he feels imprisoned. Inside the jail cell, Molina is ready to escape the bleak future by which he foresees himself by no means absolutely having the ability to embrace his gender identification.
The fantasy he’s residing with Valentin is a chance to reside his life like a lady, free from prejudice and discrimination. Though it’s primarily Molina who makes use of fantasy all through the novel, in his stream of consciousness at the finish of the novel, it’s Valentin who escapes from the ache of actual life and the confinement of the cell right into a morphine-induced fantasy. On this dream-like state, Valentin, free from socially accepted gender roles, is ready to categorical his true emotions and ideas.
At the starting of the novel, Valentin’s solely addition to the movies appeared in blunt interruptions, typically occasions nearer to criticism of the movies than constructive contribution: “I don’t actually get it, it’s very complicated the manner you inform it” (12). As the novel progressed, and Valentin and Molina grew nearer collectively, the dialogue between them grew to become of larger significance, as Valentin let down his emotional guard. This emotional improvement culminated in Valentin’s expressive and out of character dream, full of vivid imagery, by which he can escape from the expectations of his gender, and categorical his true emotions, particularly in direction of Molina.
The metaphor of Molina as the Spider Woman is epitomized on this chapter and thru this picture, Valentin can categorical his true emotions about him: “…so many threads that appear like furry like ropes and disgust me, though if I have been to the touch them they could really feel as clean as who is aware of what, nevertheless it makes me queasy to the touch them” (280). This represents Valentin’s preliminary unease about being intimate with Molina, however at the similar time understanding that permitting somebody into his private life might doubtlessly be gratifying.
Being half of a revolutionary group, Valentin has been accustomed to severing private relations that intervene with the trigger. At the similar time, he has been related to having very masculine traits, even proclaiming: “I’m no lady” (38). By Valentin admitting each that he had intercourse with Molina, and that he “loved it” (280) exhibits an immense diversion from his characterization at the starting of the novel. On this fantastical state, he can escape from the conventional gender roles by which is perceived with and admit to his true sentiments.
In conclusion, fantasy performs an important function in phrases of escapism for Molina and Valentin in the novel, each in phrases of bodily and physiological conditions. Molina and Valentin expertise three key escapist fantasies all through the novel: Molina makes use of the fantasies in the movies to flee his personal disparaging life, Molina makes use of the setting of the cell itself as an escape for the gender roles he sees himself confined in in the exterior world, and Valentin’s dream like fantasy permits him to specific his true emotions and escape confining male gender roles.
The aim of these fantasies in Kiss of the Spider Woman is to supply the characters with an setting by which they’ll escape from the confines of their life and categorical their true emotions. Certainly, it’s these fantasies that present illuminating characterization and permit the reader to really discern the nature of the characters of Molina and Valentin.
Work Cited Puig, Manuel. Kiss of the Spider Woman. New York: Knopf, 1979. Print.
