Iphigenia, The Diary of a Young Lady Who Wrote Because She Was Bored Es

Expression and Repression in Parra’s Iphigenia, The Diary of a Young Lady Who Wrote Because She Was Bored Like Ruby, Iphigenia uses water imagery to dramatize her feelings and fantasies. But she also turns to the river to express her wants and desires because she cannot do so freely in her Venezuelan home. After the death of her father, Marà ­a Eugenia leaves Venezuela and her best friend Christina, to visit friends of the family in Paris. In Paris she experiences a sense of freedom that she has never known before, walking the streets alone, going to operas, and dressing as she pleases. But when she gets back to Caracas to live with her aunt and grandmother, she becomes bored, feels imprisoned, and finds out that her Uncle Eduardo stole her inheritance, leaving her penniless and completely dependent upon him. Her only recourse is to get married to a wealthy suitor. Unfortunately, Marà ­a Eugenia falls in love with Gabriel, who is not her family’s suitor of choice. Uncle Eduardo moves the family to the country and intercepts Gabriel’s letters to Marà ­a Eugenia. Soon Leal, a suitor to the family’s liking, whom Marà ­a Eugenia does not love, asks her to marry him and she accepts. A short time later, Marà ­a Eugenia’s uncle Pancho falls ill, and Gabriel, a doctor, comes to the house to tend to him. When they see each other again, Marà ­a Eugenia and Gabriel realize that they are both still in love, and he entreats her to run away with him, but Marà ­a Eugenia cannot summon the courage to accept his offer. Instead, she accepts the life that her family condones, sacrificing herself as Leal’s wife. In this story water is closely associated with Marà ­a Eugenia’s ability to express herself. She struggles throughout the novel to communicat... ...eal because of their influence. Splitting off from her family by going to Paris, confiding in and symbolically becoming the water, the green-world token, falling in love with Gabriel, the green-world lover, rebelling from her family, and engaging her unconscious bring her to the tip of self realization. But as a result of the influence of her family, Marà ­a Eugenia accepts her family’s expectations as her own, that which is contrary to the desires she expresses in the process of her transformational journey. In Pratt’s words, instead of growing up, Marà ­a Eugenia experiences a â€Å"growing down† in which the protagonist accepts â€Å"auxiliary or secondary personhood† instead of self realization (36, 168). Instead of accepting herself during the process of individuation she rejects her love for Gabriel and her desire for freedom to conform to the wishes of her family.