Student Question
Describe the relationship between Laura, Don Diego, and Nise in La Fuerza del Amor.
Quick answer:
Laura, don Diego, and Nise form a love triangle in La Fuerza del Amor. Don Diego has been obsessively in love with Laura and has married her. But he tires of her and returns to his mistress, Nise. Both women end up rejecting Don Diego, and Laura retires to a convent.
It is ironic that although the novella is titled The Power of Love, it ends in a rejection of love by the two women at the center of the story.
Much of the narrative deals with the intense love, unrequited at first, that Don Diego has for Laura. He endangers himself and nearly gets himself killed when he's attacked by her brothers, Don Alejandro and Don Carlos, who have overheard him (or more specifically his musician-servant) serenading her. When Laura's family finally gives consent for Diego to marry her, all at first seems well, and supposedly the "power of love" has been demonstrated as triumphant in a positive sense. Laura is the most fortunate of women, and Diego's suit for her love has been granted.
But Nise, Diego's mistress prior to his falling in love with Laura, wins him back. He begins neglecting Laura and even becomes abusive to...
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her, to the point where she seeks the aid of a charlatan sorceress to win him back. Diego's sense of guilt, upon learning of this, is such that he has the viceroy of Naples intercede for him and place Nise in a convent as proof to Laura that he's mended his ways and wishes to return to her. But Laura now rejects him and herself retires to a convent, where she'll spend the rest of her life.
The love triangle among the three—Don Diego, Laura, and Nise—is such that both women are in love with him but the power of their love is so great that it essentially nullifies his relationships with both of them. The story also ironically demonstrates that this power, so far as the male character is concerned, is a fleeting thing. When Diego finally has Laura, he tires of her and turns against her, shockingly so when he begins to be not only unfaithful, but physically abusive. So the relationship among the three becomes a destructive one despite, or paradoxically because of, "la fuerza del amor."