Kiss of the Spider Woman

Molina is severely ill but refuses to go to the infirmary. Valentin is studying, so Molina imagines a film. Puig uses stream-of-consciousness to explore Molina’s fantasies. In the movie, which Molina only thinks about, a young man moves into a U.S. countryside home with his fiancé but is immediately sent off to war. With no tenants, the spinster and the maid, the latter of whom has traveled to work here, have nothing to do. Molina interrupts his own thoughts to engage with Valentin, but Valentin is studying, so Molina returns to his thoughts.

In the movie plot, a young soldier arrives wanting to rent the home. As he thinks of the soldier, who has a facial scar, he also thinks about lovely faces, and what it’s like to kiss them, and then imagines himself kissing Gabriel. Molina then gets angry with Valentin: “Just because I ask a question he gives me that black look […] they condemned me for eight years for fooling around with a minor but mom never gave me that black look” (105). Molina’s mother was present in court, when they convicted him, but she assured Molina that time would go fast: “Will