Fermina Daza is enraged at Florentino Ariza’s proclamation. She struggles to find herself as she reconciles her old life with her husband, and she realizes that in becoming a wife, she lost her identity. Finally, after three weeks of pent-up rage, she sends Florentino three pages of insults. He replies with a typed treatise of his philosophies on life, death, and love.

Meanwhile, Florentino tells América that he is going to marry. She does not believe him, but she becomes deeply jealous when he neglects her on the weekends and begins to pass her off to the servants. Fermina Daza never replies to Florentino’s letters, though they help her manage her first year of widowhood. Florentino ambushes Fermina Daza at Urbino’s one-year memorial, and she tells him that she is grateful for his letters. He replies with a note of gratitude. One day, Florentino appears at her door, and she allows him in; while he waits for her, he has an attack in his bowels and he rushes out the door after they make a date for two days later; in the coach, he relieves himself. His coach driver says nothing except to “[b]e careful, Don Floro, that looks like cholera” (300).