Doña Inés...

I finally finish the book already, entitled "Doña Inés: Historia del Amor". It is still alright, well, what do you expect in a love story, right? However, it is a bit tragic for the precedents of this story, Diego and Doña Inés, which were Doña Beatriz and a travelling poet-singer. Diego is also a poet, you know, the artsy futsy person as well. Anyway, the love story between Doña Beatriz and the poet-singer did not went well as it seemed that the young man was killed by the lady's husband.

The conventional society plays a great role in determining the outcome of a relationship in this situation. Beforehand, the relationship between the lady Beatriz and the poet-singer is forbidden by the age gap between the elder and the young man, and not to mention that the lady was already married to another guy. Moreover, the husband is a person of action, and overcome with anger and jealousy (I interpret it as such) killed the young man mercilessly.

And here another story continues with the lady Inés and Diego Lodares. In a different era (perhaps 10 years apart), they still face the same conventional society. Although the aristocratic era has been long gone or at least being washed away by time, the different class between them still make it a barrier for them to cross. In the end, it did not end well too as the lady Inés withdrew from the relationship.

In the epilogue, we see the lady Inés founded an orphanage in another city, old and worn-off. And there in her fateful orphanage, yet another future poet, quiet and just like Diego, was sitting under a tree reading poems and thinking profoundly.

All of these incidents show that the conventions that a society holds can indeed influence any relationship. For example, in those days, people of different race can hardly be seen together, even in a marriage still as we were not encouraged to do so. During that era, people look upon the purity of the bloodline like god or something grand and major. Nowadays, even where there are mix marriages going on, sometimes it succumbs under the gossiping and whispering of society. Even unnatural relationship are look upon like weirdos. Homosexual relationship is being studied as being sins and one cannot reached heaven due to this. The environment of such conventions lead to abundant of problems. For example, when a girl/guy befriends another girl/guy and becomes closely attached (but they are homosexual), people will start to talk behind their backs and ultimately broke the sacred bonding that they initially owned due to the unbearable pressure of society.

In the book, poets and ladies keeps emerging as if it is a reincarnation. It is to say that however time changed, a relationship cannot withstand a strong blow when the conventions of the society remains unchanged