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Plot summary

The main female character in the novel, Fermina Daza, is the strong axis around which the story revolves. Fermina easily rejects Florentino Ariza in their youth when she realizes the naïveté of their first romance, and she weds Juvenal Urbino at the age of 21, the "deadline" she had set for herself, ultimately because he seemed to be able to offer security and love to her. Urbino is a doctor in medicine devoted to science, modernity, and "order and progress." He is committed to the eradication of cholera and to the promotion of public works. He is a rational man whose life is organized precisely and who values his importance and reputation in society to the utmost. Urbino is a herald of progress and modernization.^[1]

His function in the novel is to provide the counterpoint to Ariza’s archaic, baldly romantic, love. Urbino proves in the end not to have been an entirely faithful husband, confessing one affair to Fermina some years into their marriage, and leaving another to be apparently uncovered by Fermina after his death. Though the novel seems to suggests that Urbino's love for Fermina was never as spiritually chaste as Florentino Ariza's was, it also complicates Florentino's devotion by cataloging his many trysts and apparently a few, possibly genuine, loves. By the end of the book, Fermina has recognized a change in Ariza and their love is allowed to blossom in their old age. For most of the novel, their communication is limited to occasional public niceties or uncertain correspondence by letter; not until the end of the book do Fermina and Florentino converse at length.

Other characters

• Lorenzo Daza – Fermina Daza’s father, a greedy mule driver; he despised Florentino and forced them to break up
• Jeremiah de Saint-Amour – The man whose suicide is introduced as the opening to the novel; a photographer and chess-player
• Aunt Escolástica – The woman who attempts to aid Fermina in her early romance with Florentino by delivering their letters for them. She is ultimately sent away by Lorenzo for this.
• Tránsito Ariza – Florentino’s mother
• Hildebranda Sánchez – Fermina’s cousin
• Miss Barbara Lynch – The woman with whom Urbino confesses having an affair
• The Captain – The captain of the riverboat on which Fermina and Florentino ride at the end of the novel
• Leona Cassiani - She starts out as the "personal assistant" to Uncle Leo XII at the R.C.C., the company which Florentino eventually controls. At one point, it is revealed that the two share a deep respect, possibly even love, for each other, but will never actually be together. She has a maternal love for him as a result of his "charity" in rescuing her from the streets and giving her a job
• América Vicuña - 14-year-old girl, who towards the end of the novel is sent to live with Florentino; he is her guardian while she is in school. They have a sexual relationship, and upon failing her exams because of her love to Florentino, she kills herself. Her suicide illustrates the selfish nature of Florentino's love for Fermina.