The Seductive and Lethal Effect of the Reflexive - Leticia Lekos

English lacks reflexive verbs. They are substituted with subjects and reflexive pronouns.

While this suffices to secure translations of most phrases from Spanish to English, it creates an

obstruction when understanding the relation between romance and death. A character’s passing,

a singular end with a multi-faceted journey, is a recognized trope of romantic literature.

However, the understanding of grief’s impact and drive to death is lost in English translations, as

it is an inherently romantic concept, furthered by a romantic languages’ diction and grammar.

Spanish suggests that apart from suicide, one can will themself to death. While the English

language fails to convey this possibility, it is found over and again in the entangling romances of

English Victorian literature. Several Victorian novelists created characters that agonize over the

results of their romantic pursuits. Yet, it is not the repeated shattering of their hearts that cuts

them from their final breath, but rather an autonomous outcome of their sorrows. Love inspires a

challenge that reigns its participants back after every failure, creating an addiction for round after

round. Victorian literature exemplifies this as heroes and heroines experience rape, heartbreak,

unrequited desires, and more, but always return for their next chance at love. It is only when

every option has been exhausted and there are no possibilities left to attempt, that the characters

give up on love. Rather than a narrative that follows life after love, Victorian literature terminates

the story when hopelessness persists. Love is what makes life worthwhile and when that dies, so

do the characters’ lives. This connects romance and death, as the dissipation of one produces the

other. The restraints of the English language can only demonstrate this phenomena through a

character’s story. Spanish reflects this romantic trope within its language. Death is categorized as

an action one can impose upon themself with the verb “morirse”. The pronoun is attached to the

verb, forcing every use of the word, to subjugate a pronoun as a part of its correct usage.

Reflexive verbs automatically dictate that it is an action being done to oneself. The correlation

between romance and death is disconnected in English literature, as a heart’s rupture is a

sentiment, and not a physical response. Grammatically, this is an overwhelming disparity

between translation and interpretation. The Spanish verb leaves no space to claim anything

besides an understanding that death can be self-afflicted. In English, since there is an opportunity

for the speaker to choose their pronoun, there is ambivalence when understanding how death

happens to a person. It can be the result of an intangible unlucky fate, or the pinnacle of human

emotion, depending on the chosen phrasing. The distinction between reflexive verbs and

pronouns is crucial when identifying the will to die as a romantic trope. The use of a pronoun,

when discussing death, lightens the gravity and comprehension of will in a human response,

rather than a human reaction. To properly describe a harrowing romance, in any language, a

writer must convey heartbreak’s position in relation to the will and power to die.