Curiosity Killed the Woman

I grasp for something that might start to unravel the knot that is the novel Aura, and grab hold of the final scene. That scene evokes instantly the myth of Cupid and Psyche, in which Psyche is told by her lover, Cupid, that she is never to gaze upon his face at night. This works well for a while, until Psyche is convinced by her sisters that she could, for all she knows, be sleeping beside a terrible monster. One night she lights a candle while she is sure he’s sleeping, and beholds Cupid in all his awesome godliness. As she is about to extinguish the candle, she drips hot wax on him. He, in turn, wakes up furious that she has broken her promise and hits the road. This story is reminiscent of both Pandora’s Box and Eve from the Bible. In all three tales, women are overtaken by curiosity and fuck up.

Aura ends with a similar story, but with gender roles reversed. Felipe, upon seeing the picture of himself and Aura, dated 1894, hasn’t even “got any hope left” (139). Night has fallen, and he now has evidence of who Aura really is, though how she can exist is not clear. Despite the sense of danger that this magic conjures, he visits her room anyway. He could be visiting her to discover his own identity, of course. With the discovery of this new picture comes a sense that Felipe will not discover the truth about himself until he discovers the truth about Aura and Señora Consuelo. But his visit to her is also driven by lust. Felipe proceeds to disrobe Aura even after she says, “Don’t touch me...” (143). Here, Felipe’s need for tangible proof of who Aura is and who he, himself, is, conflates with his lust for Aura. Lust acts as tangible reality. Feeling someone in the present is more effective than a photo from the past. Unlike Pandora, Eve, and Psyche, Felipe is driven more by lust than by curiosity. His story also ends much less negatively than the stories of those women. Though, like Psyche, Felipe reaches out to Aura in the dark despite her wishes, she does not crumple into dust or escape. Instead, she reaches back.