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The Widow's Peak / The Widow Speaks: Carmen's Idle Talk In Miguel Delibes's Cinco Horas Con Mario, Teresa Boucher

Teresa Boucher

A widow's peak is "a point formed by hair growing down in the middle of a forehead: formerly supposed to foretell early widowhood" (Webster's 1527). Carmen Sotillo, the protagonist of Miguel Delibes's ninth novel, Cinco horas con Mario, was left a widow with five children when her husband unexpectedly died, presumably of a heart attack, at age 49. Carmen is widowed at an early age. Though in the novel there is no mention of widow's peaks, this widow speaks.