Angela Vicario

Character Analysis

The Real Main Character?

Since the narrative is centered on Santiago, he's technically our protagonist, but only barely. We hardly know anything about him, and we obviously don't get his point of view because he's dead. On the other hand, Angela Vicario is a much more ideal protagonist. The novel would not have happened without her—she's the only character that actually grows and develops and we hear more of her side of the story than anyone else's.

So why isn't she the protagonist? Your guess is as good as ours. Perhaps Marquez was making a statement about the position of women in society by not casting Angela as the protagonist. It's as if to say that a woman cannot be the main character, or most important person, even in her own story.

From a Girl...

Let's rewind. When we first meet Angela, she's a helpless little girl. The narrator says:

[S]he had a helpless air and a poverty of spirit that augured an uncertain future for her. (2.16)

Normally, the phrase "poverty of spirit" has a positive connotation; it's a religious term meaning a sort of voluntary humility. But in this case, it seems to mean that Angela has no spunk or spark of life; she's a wimpy little girl, exactly how her mom wanted her to be.

Angela is also forced into the marriage with Bayardo by her family, as if she had absolutely no free will. Just like Divina Flor, Angela just gave in to her fate as if it were inevitable. We guess that they both knew, as young women, that their opinion was the least important of anyone's in the whole community.

...Into a Woman.

But everything changed after Angela was returned to her family. Angela decided she wasn't going to be a good little girl anymore, and by the time the narrator talks to her 20 years later, she's an entirely different person:

She was so mature and witty that it was difficult to believe that she was the same person. What surprised me most was the way in which she'd ended up understanding her own life. After a few minutes she no longer seemed as aged to me as at first sight, but almost as young as in my memory, and she had nothing in common with the person who'd been obliged to marry without love at the age of twenty. (4.26)

She's no longer under the thumb of her mother, not afraid of anything, and totally independent. She's not even ashamed of what happened, and is willing to tell everyone the story. That's a pretty different Angela than the one we met as a teenager.

Why is Angela able to turn her life around? Maybe it's because she didn't have anything to fear anymore. The girls in the town had to protect their honor with all of their might. That's what made them good girls. But the worst had already happened Angela. So what was there for her to be afraid of? She says:

"I was no longer frightened," she told me. "On the contrary: I felt as if the drowsiness of death had finally been lifted from me, and the only thing I wanted was for it all to be over quickly so I could flop down and go to sleep." (2.55)

So after that, why not do whatever she wants to do? She was kicked out of the ranks of "honorable women" and found that it was pretty cool on the other side. You go, girl. 

An Honest Woman?

That's a good question. It seems like Angela is pretty honest. After all, if she had lied to her new husband then Santiago might have never been killed. She's also willing to tell everyone everything that happened. Well, everything except for one thing:

On the contrary, she would recount it in all its details to anyone who wanted to hear it, except for one item that would never be cleared up: who was the real cause of her damage, and how and why, because no one believed that it had really been Santiago Nasar. (4.27)

Isn't that just a little suspicious? Why would she talk about everything except for that?

There are a few options here. She could be lying to protect the guy who actually took her virginity. She could be telling the truth and just want to keep her love life private. She could also be lying, but actually have no idea who did it. Heck, it could even be Bayardo. Who knows? That guy does give us the creeps, after all.

Why is Angela so stubborn about telling the truth in one situation, but not this one? How in the world did she get away from her mom's supervision? Is she Houdini? Who is she protecting? We don't know the answer to any of those questions. But we do know that it's because of Angela that Santiago is dead.