Chess by Rosario Castellanos Page 138
Stephen Achorn
Because we were friends and sometimes loved each other,
perhaps to add one more tie
to the many that already bound us,
we decided to play games of the mind.
We set up a board between us:
equally divided into pieces, values,
and possible moves.
We learned the rules, we swore to respect them,
and the match began.
We've been sitting here for centuries, meditating
ferociously
how to deal the one last blow that will finally
annihilate the other one forever.
Stephen Achorn
I think that Chess by Rosario Castellanos is about a man and a woman who have a
history of being together. They have a rocky relationship in which they try to be friends,
but it always seems to lead to intimacy. A quote that makes me think this is, “Because
we were friends and sometimes loved each other.” This quote sounds like they made
love instead of simply the emotion of love. They cannot be together for some reason
because they have conflicting morals or ideals. They each think their own way and they
cannot change each others opinions.
The way the poem is written makes me think that they are in a sort of stalemate.
They each cannot figure out how to defeat the other one. A quote to show this is,
“We’ve been sitting here for centuries, meditating ferociously how to deal the one last
blow that will finally annihilate the other one forever.” I think that this either means that
they are trying to get the other one to change the way they think, or they are just trying
to get away from each other because they both know it is a bad situation.