Like Water For Chocolate Archetype

I don’t love you as if you were a bouquet of pink roses, or a warm meal. I love you as if you were an ice cold watermelon that I sneak in the middle of the night to cool down. This kind of love is shared between the main characters in the novel, Like Water For Chocolate, written by Laura Esquivel. The two lovers are torn apart but forced to be near each other as Pedro marries the sister of the woman he loves. Pedro represents the lover archetype, this enhances the novel by creating the conflict by the traits of devotion, sacrifice, and jealousy.

The novel begins with the romance between the main characters Tita, and Pedro. Pedro shows his devotion to Tita when he asks for her hand in marriage. “...for the very next day Pedro Muzquiz appeared at the house, his esteemed father at his side, to ask for Titas hand in marriage”(13). Tita is not allowed to be married as she is the youngest daughter and has to look after her mother. Titas mother has a solution: She offers up her second oldest child to Pedro. This creates a divide between Tita and her mother and sister. Pedro shows his devotion to Tita by asking her to marry him, and settling for her sister. He knows that he will never be able to be with Tita and that this is the only way he can be close to her.

However the love between Tita and Pedro does not die. “Like silent spectators to a movie, Pedro and Tita began to cry watching the stars act out the love that was denied to them” (56). Pedro knows that he will never be fully happy without Tita. He Is willing to commit to a marriage without love just to have Tita in his life. This causes Tita and her sister Rosaura to not get along. Rosaura worries about what Tita and Pedro are doing behind her back. While Tita is heartbroken because of the love that was stolen from