THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

1.2 Fantastic Psychoanalysis and the Doppelganger The Avatar in PanamaIn “El esposo”, the divided narrator has dual roles as theobserving, abandoned ex-lover and as new husband; both are one butwhich is the double? Behavioural evidence may support the existenceof the classic villainous double as the husband in “El esposo”. Thehusband’s punch to the narrator’s face might be provoked by his guilt, if,in fact, the narrator initially was the lover but has since been substitutedby the aggressive husband. Also, the narrator’s actions were notprovocative enough to warrant such an over-reation from the husbandwhich came virtually at the same time as the point of contact. Themalevolent double has the same knowledge as the original given thatthey spring from the same source. It seems Sandra is deliberatelyshielded from these events, just as the narrator gives chase, thehusband stops a taxi into which Sandra enters; “[d]udo mucho que ellase diera cuenta de lo ocurrido” (37), the protagonist reflects.As in The Scapegoat, it is apparent to no-one around them thatthere are two physically identical men co-existing in the same narrative:“Supe que estaban casados porque un amigo que me acompañaba melo confesó al ver que me disponía a correr a su encuentro” (37). It mayindicate the degree of wish fulfilment on the part of the narrator whoclearly longs to transform his identity by reassuming his previous statusas lover. A reasonable conclusion to draw may be that the narratingprotagonist is psychically projecting his own physical likeness onto theperson who has metaphorically replaced him alongside his beloved.“La tarde del encuentro” reworks “El esposo”’s storyline in auniversity setting. 118 The narrator, Professor Valverde, has just returnedto Panama from a year abroad and is waiting to see his lover who isalso his student, Anayansi, who stopped writing to him while he wasaway. An overall uneasiness is the set tone and the vocabularydescribes the symptoms of obsessional desire experienced by theprotagonist as he waits for Anayansi at the university: “una ansiedad, elnerviosismo, asombro, desesperado, calmar la emoción, ladesesperación” (43-44). There is a sense of urgency as Valverde waitsimpatiently: “Hacía rato que la esperaba impaciente…, demorabamucho tiempo en salir…, desde hacía más de una hora…, media horamás tarde” (43-44). He finds himself in such a state, “ya la estabaesperando en el colegio con una ansiedad que me impedía fijarme enlos rostros de los alumnos y profesores que pasaban a mi lado” (43-44).Doubt about the reality of his absence sets in for the reader.When he asks a vaguely familiar student for Anayansi’s whereabouts,her expression is one of surprise at seeing him as presumably she hadjust seen him in the classroom. Valverde is overjoyed at her mention ofhis “former” classroom, “como si todavía fuera el mío”. The fact that he118 Jaramillo Levi, “La tarde del encuentro”, Duplicaciones, 43-45.69