landofnowhere | (Reply)

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It is indeed! This becomes obvious to the reader well before it does to Consuelo, who insists on being faithful to her husband despite her mother-in-law's warning about the dangers of a marriage with respect and no love and pointing out that the marriage itself is only dubiously valid, not to mention that Consuelo's husband has said that he has no interest in holding her to her vows against her desires. But then Consuelo gets told she can have her cake and eat it too, and she gets another marriage ceremony (to address the issues with the first one) and a wedding party.

Also Consuelo's mother-in-law tells her that she has to choose between two outfits for her initiation ceremony -- a bridal outfit, and a mourning outfit -- and which one she chooses will signify her choice in the love triangle, but she's not going to tell Consuelo which is which! Which is totally just messing with Consuelo -- not to mention that she (and everyone else in the know) is perfectly aware that Consuelo's husband and lover are the same person!

I did also wonder what would have happened if Consuelo had made the other choice? There's a lot of interesting complexity in the situation that could have been explored but is discarded in favor of a pat resolution.