Gunnar wants nothing more than to be and become a part of his mother. There is no right or wrong in the process. Gunnar’s obsession with Estefania underwhelms her. She treats him like a sick extension of her, the closer he comes to her the more she retreats. She ignores the severity of Gunnar’s actions and behaviour.
“A child is a child” is what she thinks of Gunnar in absolute contrast to his sisters, Gabriela and Jacqueline, he is the one stripped of his strength, character and resourcefulness. Estefania thinks of him as absorbed by his sisters, as degraded, abject and cast away. The sacrificial son. And innocence will never find its way back to the mother.
Painting: “Portrait of the Artist’s Son Guilliellemus”
Artist: Jan Cossiers (1600-1671)
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Croque-Melpomene 