Summary
Chapter 2
Summary
The narrator tells the story of San Roman, the bridegroom of Angela. He arrives in August, six months before his eventual marriage. He is about thirty years old, but seems younger because he has a slim waist and golden eyes. He says he has come to find someone to marry.
He first sees Angela when she is crossing the town square with her mother, dressed in clothes of mourning; the two of them are carrying baskets of artificial flowers. The next time he sees her, she is singing out the numbers to a raffle at a town event. He buys all the raffle tickets and wins a music box inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which he then has delivered to her house as a gift. She never discovers how he found out it was her birthday.
The family of Pedro and Pablo are a family "of scant resources." Their father is a goldsmith, but has lost his sight from doing so much fine work. Carmen, Angela's mother, had been a schoolteacher until she married. Angela is the youngest and the prettiest of the family. Angela’s father wants San Roman to identify himself properly; to gain her approval, he introduces his whole family. The family drives to the village in a Model T Ford. San Roman's mother, Alberta, is a mulatto woman from a city, who in her youth had been proclaimed the most beautiful woman in the Antilles. He has two young sisters, and his father is famous: General San Roman, hero of the civil wars of the past century.
Angela does not want to marry San Roman. Their engagement only lasts four months. He asks Angela what house she likes best, and she replies that she liked the farmhouse belonging to a widower, which is on a windswept hill and overlooks the purple anemones of the marshes. The widower insists that the house wasn't for sale, but he keeps offering more and more money until he gives in.
Nobody knows that Angela isn't a virgin. They have a huge wedding, with extravagant gifts and days and nights of dancing and revelry. The narrator says that he and his brother, Luis Enrique, along with his friend, were with Santiago Nasar all the time, at the church and after at the festival. The four of them had grown up together, and it was hard to believe that one of them could have had such a big secret.
The narrator has a confused memory of the festival—he remembers proposing to marry Mercedes as soon as she finished primary school. At six in the afternoon, the bride and groom take their leave and drive to their new house. The narrator, Luis, his friend and Santiago all went to Maria Cervantes' house, where the Pablo and Pedro also went and were singing and drinking.
Angela’s mother goes to bed at eleven o'clock and has fallen into a deep sleep when there is a knocking at the door. She opens the door and sees Roman and Angela standing there. He pushes his wife into the house and kisses her mother on the cheek, thanking her for everything. After he leaves, she holds Angela's hair with one hand and beats her with the other. She does this so stealthily that she does not wake her husband and other daughters. The twins return home, and Pedro asks Angela who has taken her virginity. She says that it was Santiago Nasar.
Analysis
This chapter explains the motive for the murder of Santiago Nasar. The narrator implies that Santiago is not, in fact, guilty of the crime he dies for. However, even if Santiago truly is innocent, we never learn who was guilty of taking Angela’s virginity. Nor does the narrator—he questions Angela at length later in life, but she quietly persists in saying that Santiago was the one.
After San Roman's family comes to visit the Angela’s, it becomes clear to the town that San Roman can marry whomever he wants to. Angela's parents are highly in favor of the match, since San Roman is handsome, wealthy, and comes from a prestigious family. Earlier in the narrative, the narrator says that the Pedro and Pablo "were raised to be men," and that their sister "were raised to be married." In this culture, the best way a woman could improve her life was to marry a husband who would provide for her well. Angela protested to her parents that she did not love San Roman, but her mother dismissed that idea, telling her that love could be learned.
The brutality of the social conventions surrounding women becomes clear in this chapter. Because she was not a virgin when she married, not only is Angela abandoned by her husband, but she is beaten by her mother. The double standards of her culture are highlighted by the fact that the narrator, Santiago, Luis Enrique, and their friend are all at a whorehouse doing whatever they please. It is culturally acceptable for men to have premarital bed sharing, even if they are already betrothed to marry other women.
The importance of the ritual of courtship is also very evident in Colombian culture. San Roman will do whatever it takes to win the approval of Angela by showering her with gifts. The economy behind the match is made clear through this method of courting. He does not seem to concern himself with getting to know Angela; he merely demonstrates the amount of money he will be willing to spend on her. San Roman demonstrates that he will get the music box and that he will buy the house. It is a way of showing not only the bride, but the bride's parents, that she will be well taken care of. Another ritual is that the entire family of each spouse must meet before the match can be approved—understanding the background of the spouse is vital, so that the daughter does not dishonor herself by marrying someone from a questionable family with little money.
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