Dona Flor And Her Two Husbands

Western world convention dictates, primarily through religious teachings, that a marriage should be comprised of one male and one female. Polygamy is legal in some countries, under Islamic law, and in some African nations. Based upon their religious and cultural foundations, the system of polygamist marriages has stood successfully for centuries in those countries.

In Western culture, there have been attempts to establish polygamist groups, primarily based upon differing religious viewpoints; however, most of these have not been able to withstand the pressure applied by the religious and cultural majority. If one wants to live and prosper in a given society, it is not advantageous to swim too hard against the current.

In the movie, “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands,” while it ends with the three main characters living together happily ever after, it is in a spiritual sense that they do so, rather than an actual polygamist relationship. Dona Flor’s first husband’s spirit remains with her during her second marriage to fill something lacking in her new relationship. In a sense, we all do this in our relationships. A bit of the essence of our past loves remains with us throughout our lives, filling whatever voids may be present in our current relationships. The only time I could see that as being a problem is when, in the current relationship, the voids outweigh the fulfillment and we put more emphasis on the ghost rather than the actual current rela...