Literary Presentation: Laughter

            In reading Mario Vargas Llosa’s, In Praise of the Stepmother, two instances of laughter are used to evoke sexual connotations. The first context of laughter is a malicious and perverted confrontation between a stepmother, and her stepson. The second is used to enhance the sexual activity performed by a husband and his step wife.

            In the first instance, the stepmother, Lucrecia is in a nightdress in her stepson, Fonchito’s room, thanking him for the birthday present he had left her. Fonchito returns the thanks, and embraces her. Lucrecia becomes awkward by the actions that her stepson gives to her. Freeing herself from his grasp, she tells him that he must go to bed, so that he would wake up early for school. He lets her go, stares at her and laughs, with an ecstatic look on his face. One can sense perversion provoked by the stepson’s embrace, and laughter, because even Lucrecia is hit by the sexual tension of Fonchito. Through the child’s laughter one can also sense the corruptive power of innocence in a sexual childish portrayal, which is relevant to the story because the genre is erotic-based.  

            In the second instance, Don Rigoberto and his step wife, Lucrecia are conversing about the fact that she went into her stepson’s room while only in her nightdress. He then jokes that his son, Fonchito, would have his first erotic dream because he had laid his eyes on her in her nightdress. Don Rigoberto and Lucrecia laugh. After, she pretends to slap him, beginning their foreplay activities. Through their laughter, one can sense the erotic arousal of their behaviors beginning to buildup. This text fits into the larger narrative in that it has an erotic tone and atmosphere to it, when the novel itself is based on physical love.

            There are two occurrences of laughter used to evoke sexual meanings in Llosa’s, In Praise of the Stepmother. The first provokes the corrupting power of innocence between a stepmother and her stepson. And the second is a starting point for a buildup leading to sexual activities between a husband, and his step wife. Llosa does an excellent job in using laughter in his text because it is both evoking and vivid in that the laughter allows a clear understanding of the tone of the literature.