“Death Constant Beyond Love” Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In the short story “Death Constant Beyond Love” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez there is a constant and strong conflict between nature versus artificial life in general. As the story develops this concept translates into truth versus falseness which can be better interpreted as corruption, “spiritual or moral impurity or deviation from the ideal.” This story revolves around the senator but allows us to also encounter different aspects of his society. The senator represents the government, and then we meet the people of the place and learn about the economic system.  All these things appear as corrupted in addition to love, family, and work. Gabriel Garcia Marquez criticizes that society overall is corrupted.

At the beginning of the story we learn that the village is “an 
illusory 
village 
which 
by 
night 
was 
the 
furtive 
wharf 
for
smugglers’ ships, 
and
on 
the
 other 
hand, in
 broad 
daylight 
looked
 like 
the 
most 
useless
 inlet
 on
 the 
desert.” The setting of the story is set up as a place of deception. By night there is smuggling and day it looks “useless,” in other words the corruption happens in the night while daylight becomes the cover up to the corruption. The fact that the village defined as deceiving it foreshadows everything and everyone in this village will have two sides one of which is corruption.

Marquez continues to state “Then 
came
 the 
trucks 
with 
the 
rented 
Indians 
who 
were
 carried 
into 
the 
towns 
in
 order
to
 enlarge 
the 
crowds
 at 
public 
ceremonies.” This represents the government aspect of society whose corruption is emphasized by “rented Indians.” Like previously mentioned the senator is the representation of the government and the fact that Indians are used to enhance an illusion of a large “crowd” makes the senator as well as the government corrupted and deceiving.

Later in the story we meet Nelson Farina and we learn that “Ever 
since 
he 
had 
met 
Senator
 Onesimo 
Sanchez
 during
his 
first
 electoral 
campaign,
 Nelson 
Farina
 had
 begged 
for 
his 
help 
in
 getting
 a 
false 
identity 
card 
which 
would
 place
him
 beyond 
the
 reach
 of
 the
 law.” In this case, Nelson is the representation of the people and the fact that he wants a “false identity card” shows his desire to deceive the law. However, Nelson Farina represent more than just the people but also family. Nelson uses his daughter, Laura Farina, as means to an end. This becomes a corruption of the concept of family. Additionally this can also be seen as a deception of love due to the fact that it is not an act of love from the fathers side.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez portrays Rosal del Virrey and everything that composes the society in it with a deceiving side. This deception can be identified in the falseness of the people and the village itself. Going back to the title “Death Constant Beyond Love” I believe Marquez is trying to say that society can deceive one another except death. The death is the one thing that remains constant; the Senator was suppose die in six months and eleven days and at the end he does.