Summary Of Without Artificial Light By Cuadra

In order to convey how it is in human nature to want people we can’t obtain, Maria Del Carmen Perez Cuadra the author of “Without Artificial Light” uses a unique setting which reflects the main character’s emotions. The narrator of the story is a woman who lives with her husband in a poor neighborhood. She tells the entire story while looking out and observing life from her kitchen window, one in which the inside is a window while outside it appears to be a mirror. The woman however, seems to feel unhappy with her life and bored in her marriage and more interested in the good looking man, Muriel, and flower girl she watches from the window. For instance, the narrator says that she can “feel the warm tremble of [Muriel’s] kisses” (Cuadra 56)

When she describes love with her husband she calls it a “marital duty” (Cuadra 57) suggesting that it is more of a chore than something she enjoys. This helps the reader to understand what the narrator is feeling and why she wants Muriel to desire her. Another example can be found when the woman see’s Muriel kissing another woman and “[her] glass of water falls to the floor and smashes to bits” (Cuadra 57). She appears to be in such a shock when she see’s the passion and intimacy between the pair that she loses control of herself. This helps the reader to understand how emotionally involved the narrator has become with the fantasy of being with Manuel. The reader can also see how it might feel to see someone you love with another person and realize you can’t have them. The first person point of view in this scene helps to develop that understanding deeper. A major part of how the author conveys the lesson about human nature is through the setting. Since the entire story is told from the window in which the woman can see out but no one can see in, it is emphasised how she can see what she wants but cannot obtain it. She desperately wants to be loved and desired, yet she is invisible to the