Doves kept in Dovecote, Just Like Natalia

 Hi, everyone.

Just finished reading the novel The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda. I actually like this book a lot! It is not abstract at all. I like it because it feels real. This is Natalia’s life experiences. There is no big drama or like, betrayal, but a day-to-day life.

I want to talk about Quimet, this character. Natalia told him already, her name is Natalia, instead of "Colometa". But Quimet did not listen to her, and kept calling her "Colometa". Well, maybe this is cute way because he likes her. But also, at the same time, I think it is a little bit disrespectful because he is not listening to her, also not caring about what she says. And naming her something else, it is like he somehow gets the power of naming her, which is also like the power being above her.

Also, Quimet always just said “poor Maria”. At first, he did not even explain who is Maria, which just made me so confused.

After their wedding, Natalia’s life gets harder and harder. Quimet let Natalia to do many things for him, for example, she has to press his pants every week but she never pressed pants before. And Quimet’s legs always hurt but he will let Natalia rub the whole body with alcohol. I just feel like their relationship is not equal to each other. It is always Natalia who is the busy one, who is the one that “serving” the other.

And as for doves, Quimet and Cintet cleaned out her storage shed, threw out her things to build that dovecote. It is also her home but it feels like she does not have the right to speak for herself. It also shows that Quimet is actually careless towards her.

And when Antoni was born, he hardly sucks, his weight kept dropping. Then Quimet went to the war, then Natalia, as a single mother, trade things for food to survive. She even sold her brass bed. And end up, she lived with another man not because of love, but the surviving needs.

I feel really sad to see a woman, like Natalia, under that background, suffering because of the marriage and the war. It is not like obvious or severe violence but the life already can make someone numb. And what I feel the most is Quimet and Natalia’s after marriage life. Gender stereotype made Natalia become the one who serve the husband and listen to him. That kind of gender power problem is so real that maybe to most of couples today, it still exists.

My question is: Do you think Quimet is a bad husband?