52 pages • 1 hour read
Manuel PuigKiss of the Spider Woman
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1976A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
Molina is still ill but refuses to go to the infirmary. Valentin is studying, so Molina imagines a film. The story takes place in a US countryside home occupied by an unmarried woman. When a maid arrives to work there, she discovers that the house was one the woman and her fiancé planned to move into after marrying; however, her fiancé was sent off to war before the wedding and died in World War I. With no tenants, the woman and the maid have nothing to do. Molina interrupts her thoughts to engage with Valentin, but Valentin is studying, so Molina returns to her fantasies.
In the movie, a young soldier arrives wanting to rent the home. As Molina thinks of the soldier, who has a facial scar, she also thinks about lovely faces and what it’s like to kiss them. Molina then gets angry with Valentin: “[J]ust because I ask a question he gives me that black look […] they condemned me for eight years for fooling around with a minor but mom never gave me that black look” (105). Molina’s mother was present in court when they convicted her, but she assured Molina that time would go fast: “[W]ill the warden keep his promise? […] a pardon? a reduction in my sentence?” (106).
Molina returns to thinking of the movie, including the relationship that develops between the soldier, who feels ashamed of how he looks, and the maid, who is considered ugly. When the soldier’s parents arrive at the house, it is clear they are ashamed of their son, which almost drives the couple apart. However, a man with visual impairment who lives nearby assures them that their love is beautiful and that they see each other’s souls. Molina thinks about how glad she is that she didn’t share this movie with Valentin, who would ruin it. She then thinks, “[W]e’ll see if ever [Valentin] weakens or not” (112).
When dinner arrives, Molina makes sure that Valentin gets the bigger portion.
Chapter 6 Summary
Valentin gets the same stomach pain that Molina had but refuses to be treated. He doesn’t want to risk being drugged and interrogated. To distract him from the pain, Molina shares a movie she thinks Valentin will like.
The film is set somewhere in South America, where a wealthy father encourages his son’s enthusiasm for racing cars to keep him from joining a leftist political group. However, the son’s car is destroyed in a crash, and he rejects his father’s offers of money, partly out of resentment surrounding his parents’ divorce. The son feels guilty for having lost touch with his mother after this; she now lives on a plantation and plans to remarry. (It emerges that Valentin’s parents separated and his father died, but he refuses to make the connection even when Molina points it out.) The father in the movie is kidnapped by guerillas and killed, and the son reunites with his mother.
Valentin vomits, and Molina cleans him up. Trying to relax, Valentin attempts to sleep. He dreams of different people, including a woman “with the power to forget what would have only become a burden” (125), a father “who rarely talked to his son” (127), a classmate “who perhaps needs to sacrifice a friend to continue the fight” (128), and a girl “who gets used up and tossed aside” (129).
Molina makes the last of her tea for Valentin, and Valentin opens up to her, thanking her and confessing that the woman he has been talking about is not actually his current girlfriend; rather, she is an ex named Marta, who left the political group while they were together. Valentin is about to explain more about his involvement with the revolutionary group, but Molina stops him, saying she doesn’t want to know the information in case she is interrogated.
Chapters 5-6 Analysis
Stream-of-consciousness is first used in Kiss of the Spider Woman in Chapter 5, when Molina tells herself a story while Valentin is studying. Molina’s thoughts center on various significant relationships; she thinks of her mother, of Gabriel, and of Valentin, all while pondering a movie plot about two characters who have fallen in love despite societal rejection. Movies are the novel’s central motif, and all of them comment in some way on Molina, Valentin, and the relationship between them. In this case, the parallel is straightforward: Both Valentin and Molina are marginalized and oppressed, albeit for different reasons, and the movie gives Molina hope that they might find acceptance in one another. The words Molina recalls the soldier saying to the maid are equally applicable to Molina and Valentin: “[Y]ou’re as sad and lonely as I am, and so perhaps we could join together, but with nothing more to it than a contract, an arrangement between just friends?” (107). However, Molina’s explicit thoughts about Valentin are more ambivalent: “I’m certainly not going to tell [Valentin] another word about anything I like, so he can’t laugh anymore about how soft I am, we’ll see if ever he weakens or not” (112). Molina’s resentment of Valentin’s attitude toward her favorite movies is clear, but the passage also hints that something is at stake for Molina in her conversations with Valentin. The glimpse into Molina’s thoughts thus adds depth to her characterization and foreshadows the reveal that she is spying on Valentin.
Further hints of Molina’s motivations appear when Valentin gets sick: Molina starts to ask him questions and even chooses a movie that relates to his own situation as a mode of manipulating him to speak. That Valentin opens up about his mother indicates that he is beginning to warm to Molina. Molina also confides in Valentin, which could indicate growing closeness on her part or merely further manipulation. Collectively, their interactions continue deepening the theme of The Power of Language.
The pair’s arguments about political movements in particular also develop the theme of The Meaning and Value of Liberation. Molina calls politicians “crooks,” indicating deep cynicism regarding the possibility of enacting change through political means. While Valentin would undoubtedly agree that the existing political system is deeply flawed, he refuses to give up on engaging in politics, saying, “Only a flawed conception of responsibility makes one stay away from political involvement. Rather, my responsibility is precisely to stop people from dying of hunger, and that’s why I go on with the struggle” (104). These differing attitudes toward political action inform the kind of “escape” each character seeks and the way each goes about seeking it.
