52 pages • 1 hour read
Manuel PuigKiss of the Spider Woman
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1976A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Molina is summoned to the warden, who says the president is eager for information. Molina offers nothing, saying Valentin is too weak to be interrogated again. Molina suggests that she tell Valentin that she is being transferred to another cell. The warden is hesitant, but Molina says, “[I]f he thinks I’m leaving, he might feel like getting a few things off his chest” (199). The warden gives her one week. Again, Molina gives the warden a list of groceries.
Valentin apologizes for his temper when Molina returns, explaining that he doesn’t like to get attached to anyone but that since they are alone in this cell, “[They’re] perfectly free to behave however [they] choose with respect to one another” (202). To this, Molina admits that she wants to earn Valentin’s affection, having never been close to another person besides her mother. Then she tells Valentin that she is going to be transferred to a different cell as the first step of the pardon process; Valentin is upset but congratulates her on the possibility of release. After resting, Valentin asks Molina to tell him how the zombie movie ends.
In the movie, the woman stumbles upon an altar with a Vodou doll resembling her husband and then a drum circle led by the majordomo, who is also the witch doctor. The witch doctor/majordomo starts hypnotizing her, but the housekeeper, having realized what was happening, then arrives with the woman’s husband, whom she found herself. The husband takes the woman back home but starts drinking again. Meanwhile, the witch doctor goes to the abandoned house where his estranged wife, the housekeeper, is caring for the first wife. The housekeeper tries to stab the witch doctor, but he kills her first. The witch doctor tells the first wife, who is a zombie with no free will, to kill the husband, so she does; as he is dying, he tells the first wife he loves her and asks her to set the abandoned house and herself on fire, freeing herself from her undead state. A storm rises, and the witch doctor is killed by lightning as he tries to escape from the household servants, who have learned from the dying husband that the witch doctor turned many of their loved ones into zombies. The first wife burns down the abandoned house and herself as instructed as the second wife boards a boat back to America.
Molina is downcast after finishing the story. She tells Valentin that she fears she will never be pardoned but that she also fears being transferred to another cell. Valentin tells Molina to think of her mother. He tries to comfort Molina and tells her she could join a political group to feel less alone. Then Valentin touches her back, initiating a physical connection. “I just want to die” (216), Molina says, prompting Valentin to comfort her and stop her crying. As Valentin continues to touch her, Molina says, “[Y]ou can do whatever you want with me…because I want you to” (218). They have sex, and afterward, Molina feels she’s no longer alone. She tells Valentin that she feels “As if now, somehow…[she]…were [Valentin]” (219).
Chapter 12 Summary
The next morning, Molina offers to make Valentin coffee or tea, saying she doesn’t trust the coffee from the guards. Valentin wants to return to his studying, but Molina tries to figure out how he’s feeling about the night before. Valentin says, “I don’t have any regrets about anything. The more I think of it the more I’m convinced that sex is innocence itself” (221). Molina no longer wants to discuss it. She wants to enjoy her feelings, saying she hasn’t felt this happy since she was a child and her mother used to buy her toys. Valentin asks what Molina’s favorite toy was, and when Molina says a dolly, Valentin laughs. “I swear, I’ve never seen you laugh before” (223), Molina realizes.
She then dives into another movie plot, which focuses on a reporter who falls in love with an actress at a masked ball. However, the actress is married to a wealthy, powerful, and abusive man who has virtually imprisoned her in her home. The reporter confesses his love to her, but she refuses to run away with him and misses a meeting they had planned because her husband has threatened anyone she gets involved with. After confronting both the woman and her husband at their home, the reporter begins drinking heavily. He loses his job and becomes depressed and heartsick.
Gloomy once more, Molina stops storytelling and Valentin shakes her, insisting that they aren’t going to let any unhappiness into their cell if he can help it.
Chapters 11-12 Analysis
Molina and Valentin’s sexual encounter brings The Fluidity of Gender and Orientation into sharp relief. Shortly before they have sex, Molina tells Valentin, “[A]s for my friends and myself, we’re a hundred percent female […] We’re normal women; we sleep with men” (203). He thereby further identifies himself as female, embodying gender stereotypes. He also reveals that he just wants to die (216). In distinguishing herself from gay men who pursue relationships with one another, Molina aligns herself with “normal” gender and sexual roles, opening up space for Valentin to sleep with her without questioning his orientation. Indeed, Valentin takes on a stereotypical male role in response, reassuring Molina and caressing her: “I feel like you really need me, so I can do something for you” (217). In keeping with masculine gender norms, Valentin wants to provide for Molina. Nevertheless, Molina’s nervousness the following morning implies that there is something subversive about the encounter, even as it seems to conform to heteronormative standards; if there were not, she would not worry about potential backlash from Valentin. Valentin, however, not only dismisses Molina’s concerns but seems to have developed real affection for her, saying, “I want to keep my promise to you, and make you forget about anything that’s ugly” (233).
Despite this, Puig foreshadows trouble for the relationship. When Valentin asks for another movie, Molina chooses a movie about a man and woman whose love is doomed. The woman is being manipulated by her husband, much as Molina is operating on behalf of the warden’s requests, and cannot give herself to the reporter as she would like to do. This suggests that Molina is at a crossroads, torn between her determination to get out of prison to take care of her mother and her developing feelings for Valentin. She explains to Valentin, “My mom’s affection for me is […] the only good thing that’s happened to me in my whole life […] and the only thing that keeps me going” (203). After she and Valentin have sex, however, the lines between these two allegiances begin to blur. Molina says, “I haven’t felt so happy since when I was a kid. Since when my mom used to buy me a toy, or something like that” (222). The comparison of her happiness with Valentin to her memories of childhood suggests that her devotion to her mother is starting to wane as she grows closer to Valentin.
This implied internal conflict reveals the naivete of Valentin’s contention that the prison cell constitutes a world apart. He suggests, “It’s as if we were on some desert island. An island on which we may have to remain alone together for years. Because, well, outside of this cell we may have our oppressors, yes, but not inside” (202). Besides demonstrating Valentin’s ignorance of Molina’s role as an informant, the remark also reveals the limitations of Valentin’s understanding of power. Influenced by Marxism, Valentin thinks of power in material terms. He overlooks not only the way gender and orientation structure his and Molina’s interactions but also The Power of Language.
