What is love: Carmen

Ji Xi | By

A kind of teasing that the flower of flames blooms in the empty valley without any response from the world. A stormy and unrestrained human relationship. An emotional investment without purpose and without reason. A spice of life, not the main course. A kind of sober wandering without any hesitation throughout life.

A kind of small life spent together in a long carriage on horseback in the American vegetable field or in the jungle. A kind of trust that no matter the other party's ups and downs, you will still be unimpaired. A commitment that is willing to endure chastity for the other person and also requires the other person to endure all the chastity for the other person. A kind of determination that would rather be broken than broken.

After reading a book, Carmen changed into many sets of clothes. She is the girl who broke into Joseph's heart with her white stockings full of holes and bright red leather shoes on the street. She is the girl who gradually gets close to the narrator wearing a plain robe by the river. She is the British officer who is surrounded by gold. Dai Yin's mistress is an accomplice who hangs out with robbers all over the world with a knife and a gun on horseback. But Carmen is still Carmen. No matter how many accents she fakes, how many stories she makes up, no matter how many men she has promised her heart to, or who still calls herself "Roma", she will always be her own Carmen. Just like what she said before she died, "As my Romy, you have the right to kill your Romy, but Carmen is always free. She was born a Gary, and she will be a Gary when she dies."

The word freedom cannot be too appropriate. We see nothing in her that is not free. It is freedom to tease when and with whom, freedom to escape the law, freedom to start or end a relationship, and freedom to choose life and death. This Kitana elf was born and raised just like her people. She walked wildly in this world and died without regrets.

Her initial flirtation with Joseph may have been simply a matter of habit. The white stockings, red leather shoes, fiery red ribbon, and acacia flowers seemed to be displayed to everyone on the street with great effort, but in fact it was just a habit. Even if everyone in the street is applauding her, she will not be surprised. This is like a kind of mission for Carmen: tease whoever you want to tease, and swear that you can get that person. Come to think of it, dim-witted Joseph might just be an item on Carmen's to-do list. Just because he didn't echo everyone's praise for Carmen, Carmen made up her mind to conquer this hard nut.

What happens after you conquer it? Just like the Mongolian army swept across the Eurasian continent but failed to leave any traces, what Carmen only missed was the thrill of conquest. When a prey gradually began to demand her obedience and care for her family, she would move away and go after the next prey. Carmen is like a flame rising on the grassland. When it burns, it is as magnificent as a phoenix rising from the ashes. After it burns out, it leaves scars all over her heart. But Huo Miao didn't care about that.

She once comforted Joseph - how important you are in my life, you see, you are the only one who can make me a "lover". How magical is this word! For Carmen, Romeromi means binding, the life she has been avoiding all her life. And lover means endless play, endless joy without responsibility. In her dictionary, such a role is the highest reward. What a shame, Joseph took this as an insult.

Likewise, the law is another toy to her. You can imitate a bad local accent and bribe the guards to escape, you can hide the file in the bread and save your accomplices in prison, you can hang out with the military doctor and rescue Roma, you can charm the stupid British into a trance but beat him up in the end. Sometimes one even wonders whether Carmen and the one-eyed Garcia stayed together for a long time and never left him to think of a way to escape from prison, whether it was just because of the pleasure brought by the escape itself. She knows what such crazy unrestrainedness will bring - "no walking dog will starve to death" - but, between "living a dog-like life" and "having no choice but to die", she will definitely choose the former. She would sing and eat the food she begged for, living in a cave, and call it her glory. Maybe to her it was a badge of honor in combat.

However, when she was faced with the two choices of losing her freedom and death, she chose the latter. When her future is only a life of restraint, it is better to end it. Carmen's words before her death were quite touching:

It was at this moment that I began to be in awe of Carmen. She is not a simple social chick who likes to play tricks on men but then acts coquettishly and wants to hug her when a crisis arises.

From the very beginning, she thought about her situation very clearly and thoroughly. She warned Joseph countless times, "I am the devil", "If you fall in love with me, I will marry you a widow with a wooden leg", "It is impossible for you and me to become Rom and Romy". Although she was unwilling to give up her romantic and unstable life, she had been warning Joseph—she had determined that this man was not the same libertine as she was—to stay away from her. Considering this aspect, Carmen should have known from the beginning that her character would make her single for the rest of her life. After making her choice, she never looked back and would not compromise her bottom line even in the face of death.

Therefore, she knows that love is hard to come by. Many times, it is a means to obtain money and help achieve one's own goals, rather than a dedication to each other. I believe she was passionate about Joseph, otherwise she would not have endured his jealousy again and again. However, all patience has its limit. Why doesn't she want to keep pretending? I think she really has no other choice. When she performed her last ritual before her death, she recited a sad song. It must have been at that time that she realized that she had only one death. She no longer loves Joseph, she only has disgust in her heart; facing such a person, all pretense is a waste of life. She may have also figured out that she couldn't escape this time, even with her gypsy IQ. Joseph is so rampant now that he will be found wherever he goes. Besides, she didn't trust her own heart. Throughout the book, she tells Joseph countless times, "I don't love you anymore, please go away." Each time, she speaks the truth after seeing clearly his requirement for loyalty. But every time she came back to Joseph. Even though she didn't want to admit it, it seemed that some subtle changes had occurred in Carmen. So she hated herself and allowed herself to fall in love with Joseph. In addition to the fact that she could not remove Joseph's crazy love for her, she could not even return to Carmen, who could afford to let go of love before. She became a little sloppy. Perhaps Carmen also began to hate herself for being so accommodating to others.

So, all the warnings gathered into a torrent. After she finished singing, she knew that she could only die under Joseph's gun. She met and chose her own death so clearly; this is a pursuit of freedom at a very high level. Carmen's sobriety looked so inconsistent with her red dress.

This incongruity may distinguish Carmen from other Gypsies. The narrator writes from the beginning that Carmen looks different from other gypsies with greasy hair and ugly faces. She is very handsome, with provocation written all over her face. After reading the story, you can see that when other gypsies did not know how they died, Carmen saw the end of her life. She is not afraid; she should have never been afraid of anything in her life.

Carmen was supposed to be a wanderer all her life. However, when she inadvertently broke into other people's lives, she was contaminated by some things about Joseph. Her death can be said to be an attempt to preserve her own chastity - a chastity that is loyal to her own limits.

This poor man, the tragedy of his love with Carmen was foreshadowed from the very beginning of the book. On the eve of Joseph's execution, among the two things he told the narrator, one was to hold a mass for Carmen, and the other was to convey the news of his death to his old mother at home, "a kind lady." Light It was these two things that showed the huge difference between him and Carmen.

Carmen did not miss Mass. I think if a priest passed by her, she would still tease and make fun of this bad old man. Gypsies believe in religion not because of a sense of cultural belonging, but more probably because it is easier to break into the local social circle and make it easier for them to speak and do things in the future. As the author commented, "How can a person who lives by relying on the gullibility of others be superstitious himself?" However, Joseph was different. He had been a dim-witted Basque who was always looking for something to do. This matter is different from Carmen's mercy - Joseph likes to do hard work, likes to do crafts, and likes to see that he is needed in his position. Even if he finally became a gangster, he always believed that he was desperate because such a gangster life could bind him and Carmen together and make him look "cooler". Because of such a decent mentality, when John finally saw the priest, he could instantly kneel to the ground in awe, but was speechless in shame.

Even without Carmen's intervention, there was already smoke in his heart: he had no choice but to choose the career of a thief because of love, he hated himself because of his life as a thief, he suffered from unrequited love and committed murder, and he continued to hate himself because of killing. . I want to confess to the priest, but I have no face to face such a sacred thing. Even if he is not hanged, he will soon die from his own entanglements.

Adding insult to injury is his idea of ??an ideal partner. He will think that the highest praise for a woman is to call her his wife, to travel to the ends of the world with her - and only her - without separation, to obey her demands (even if they are completely opposite to his own values), and finally to So that I can tolerate my bad temper and bring myself a sense of freshness every day.

Because of this pursuit of novelty, he was able to remain obsessed with Carmen even when he was disappointed many times. For John, the honeysuckle that hit him was a magic spell that bound him to this bohemian woman from then on. Everything about Carmen surprised him; he, the honest Basque, had never had the opportunity to see such uninhibitedness.

However, it was precisely because he had wife-like requirements for his partner that led to this tragedy. Look at the look on his face when he talks about John Maria's wife! "That is a beautiful girl. She is well-behaved, simple, and has a gentle personality. She never says a dirty word, and she is loyal to him!" If a man hits or scolds me, I will definitely punch and kick him, or at worst, pick him up. Guys, get rid of this bastard. But Joseph not only did not say such words, but also used the word "loyal" to evaluate this woman, which is too complimentary for this matter. We can also get a glimpse of Joseph's psychology.

When the two are linked together, we can see John's macho mentality. He wants a partner who is dedicated to him, who is like carrying a mother, a "kind wife" by his side; at the same time, he can provide him with fresh stimulation. It was like encasing Carmen's soul in his mother's body - it would burst that poor skin. It can be seen that the root of Joseph's entangled mentality comes from his entangled view of love. You can't have your cake and eat it too. This is a truth that everyone knows, but he spent his whole life not understanding it. Until his death, he still wanted to save Carmen from suffering. Little did they know that Carmen had never wet her ankles!

It is also because of this incident that I have never been able to sympathize with John. He is indeed a poor victim, but part of the perpetrator may be his own inner struggles. Like many men, he fell in love with a phantom that looked like Carmen, possessing Carmen's skin and a submissive soul of his own imagination. Joseph imposed such an illusion on the real and complete Carmen, so when he saw Carmen continuing to flirt around, he collapsed and began to shoot the lovers one by one.

How sad that he fantasizes about changing Carmen.

Perhaps he never understood until his death that the freshness of Carmen that he had always been obsessed with was deeply rooted in her freedom, sobriety, and bohemianness. However, Joseph fantasized that after falling in love, Carmen would become the petite lady behind him and change her previous "bad habits." He had loved Carmen's skin all his life, but the moment he touched her soul, he backed away because of cowardice. He is not yet a brave conqueror, so he cannot accept such an open and avant-garde heart. Violence occurs out of fear, which makes it even more tragic.

It was not at the end that Joseph realized Carmen’s heart. From the beginning, Carmen often warned him - stay away from me, I am the devil. But Joseph kept hearing it as a joke. Even before Carmen died, he still hoped that Carmen would be afraid and beg for mercy from him. How ignorant he must be of the real Carmen to have such extravagant hopes! Similarly, he did not even start shouting angrily until after Carmen died, "This woman is really the devil." But he still placed a cross on Carmen's grave, so he should still not understand Carmen. What a muddle-headed life I have spent.