Maurizia Rugieri was a singer obsessed with the opera. She was married to Ezio Longo, an architect and builder who had fallen madly in love with her. He studied her so carefully he learned to divine her dreams, and he built for her a giant mansion. Soon Maurizia became pregnant, and gave birth to their child. But none of those things could keep Maurizia from Leonardo Gomez, a young man studying for a medical degree. He was also very into the opera, and in their affair they’d pretend they were characters from the play Tosca. After Ezio learned of the affair, he found Leonardo in a tearoom and tossed him against the wall in a blind rage. He locked Mauriza in her room for 2 days to reflect on her actions, and afterward implored her to reconsider. Her only response was more fasting, and she declared that she would die without Leonardo. Ezio said she may run off with him, but that if she does, she may never see their son again. Mauriza embarked on an arduous journey to reunite with her new lover (whom she still addressed as Mario), and finds herself in a somewhat unkempt encampment somewhere in the woods. She refused to accept the reality of her surroundings and her lover, and made up for their shortcomings by embellishing things in her head. Maurizia saw herself as a heroine in a play, and Leonardo as her perfect lover. After working as camp doctor for 10 years, Leonardo decided to move to Agua Santa with Maurizia. The community addressed them as Tosca and Mario, as she was so deeply entrenched in the stylings and ways of the opera. They were seen as a perfect couple. Some years later, Leonardo succumbed to a fever. In public, Maurizia found herself playing the dramatic part of a widow, but in private, she sometimes felt relieved that she would no longer have to use her imagination to make up for her lover’s shortcomings. She gave up singing and would only wear black. Soon enough, Ezio’s building company came to Agua Santa to build a highway, and Maurizia found herself conflicted. She initially wanted to hide from her past, but when she heard that Ezio and her son were in the town’s tavern, she couldn’t restrict her curiosity. As she watched them from the shadows, she finally realized she’d spent 30 years playing pretend. She was about to step from the shadows, but realized their world had no room for her. Mauriza walks out of the tavern, knowing she is not the star of her own opera.
Setting
The setting is very important in Tosca because it bridges the main characters together at the end of the story and explains the transition between Maurizia Rugieri leaving her son and joining her new husband, Leonardo Gómez, on a journey to a foreign place where she serves as a nurse and he works as a doctor to help treat people with terrible diseases. Initially, Maurizia falls in love with Leonardo because they both have an affinity for the opera. Isabelle Allende helps readers visualize the actual setting of the place in which both characters reside while they also perceive the dream-like reality of a real life opera story as a metaphysical representation of the real setting.
Theme
The theme correlates with a desire to build relationships through a false reality in order to overcome loneliness. This is displayed when Maurizia wallows in her loneliness while she is living with Leonardo Gómez. He is always busy working as a doctor, trying to treat/help people with diseases. Maurizia attempts to pretend that they still have a powerfully romantic relationship in a mystical opera fantasy to get over his sene of loneliness. However, Leonardo continues to work and not express his love for her like she believed he was doing before. After 10 years of accompanying him and working to help others, they leave after his health has deteriorated and decide to settle in Agua Santa. The residents of the small rural town treat both of them with hospitality. She organizes a choir and teaches them about different Opera shows. Soon, the people of Agua Santa refer to them as Tosca and Mario, which represent a romantic relationship between both characters. This intimacy never really materializes though as Leonardo has been worn down from his work before later dying. Due to her fantasy, Maurizia intially believes that her reality has been destroyed and her beloved is gone. She starts wearing all black, symbolizing death and despair. These dark feelings impact the rest of the people of Agua Santa, who feel awful for Maurizia. Irony interrupts her sorrow when her son and husband come to work with a company in Agua Santa. Guilt and Regret consume her soul as she conceals herself from the outside world. After a little while, Maurizia cannot resist seeing her old family again. Walking out of her home and standing in the shadows, Maurizia is heartbroken to see Ezio and her son enjoying themselves without her. With hesitation, Maurizia begins to step out of the shadows to reveal herself and join them again, but she knows it is too late. Ezio and her son then share a good laugh, which prompts Maurizia to step back into her lonely reality while simultaneously seeing the truth: she should have never left them. Allende's use of irony bolsters the theme of Tosca because it forces Maurizia to realize her mistake after she is left alone. The reason she left her family was to live a life of adventure and never be alone, but that is precisely what happened at the end of the story.
Style
Isabelle utilizes authorial reticence within Tosca by writing a story in which readers have to interpret what would have happened if Maurizia hadn't left her son behind. Maurizia realizes her mistake at the end of the story as sees her ex-husband and son in Agua Santa. Her demeanor is this scenario is difficult to describe because she enjoys seeing her family happy together but is also sad that she is no longer apart of it. Although it might seem clear that Maurizia is upset, she also walks away happily in a way because she finally has broken her facade of reality. She never truly loved Leonardo. Now, Maurizia Rugieri can learn from her past mistakes and live her life out alone in Agua Santa. The writing that Allende uses in this sequence is very powerful as it causes the reader to connect between the elements of fiction within the story and Magical Realism. Magical Realism is represented through the authorial reticence and style of writing used by the author. For instance, Maurizia Regieri is described as having a supernatural type effect on her first husband, Ezio Longo, as well as the people of Agua Santa. Ezio Longo strives to keep her with him because he is madly in love with her and knows he cannot let her leave his grasp. He does everything he can to please her, but it is not enough. Leonardo Gómez emanates a similar radiance to the one Maurizia conveyed to Ezio, which causes her to leave her family and go with him on an adventure. Throughout the duration of the story, Isabllle Allende makes it known that this love has dissipated while Maurizia feels distant from Leonardo due to his work. Once they've moved to Agua Santo, they attempt to love each other like before, but their youth and relationship is visibly weaker. When Leonardo dies, Maurizia is left alone with an added insult of having to see her old family move on without her right in front of her eyes. The only consolation prize she obtains is the life lesson from this experience. There was nothing wrong with reality. Her problem was that she tried to live her own fantasy/dream without ever seriously considering the repercussion she would later face.