Heartbreak Tango Literary Elements

Fiction

The action takes place in the present time in Argentina.

The action is told from the perspective of a third-person subjective point of view.

The tone and mood is a neutral one.

There is no antagonist in the story but the protagonist is identified as being Carlos.

The major conflict is between reality and appearances.

The story reaches its climax when the characters who refused to believe he was a philanderer admit the truth.

Among the women who got involved with Carlos there are some who are either in stable relationships or are even married. This knowledge is used here to foreshadow the moment in which the partners of the women who were unfaithful will find out about the relationship between those women and Carlos.

The novel begins with the description of the city in which the action takes place. This location is described as being an extremely quiet one and a place where nothing is happening. This is however an understatement because the narrator later admits that life in this city is far from being a quiet one.

One of the main allusions we find in the story is the idea that it is acceptable for men to behave in a way that is seen as immoral but not for women.

An important imagery appears at the beginning of the story when the narrator describes the house in which Carlos lived his last moments. The house is described as being in a very bad state, almost crumbling. This image is important because it is a visual representation of Carlos’s inner persona.

One of the most paradoxical ideas is the way in which Carlos is the most popular man in his community even though he is known for his actions.

N/A

The letters are used here as a general term to make reference to the fragile connection which appears between people who spend a lot of time together.

We have a personification in the sentence “those letters spoke volumes of his true self”.