Iguana Analysis

After discovering that the events in the novel were the illusions of a madman, I find it very difficult to interpret The Iguana. The most vital sections of the book to analyze would be the last chaotic chapters that jump through space and time, but these are the hardest for me to understand. In the beginning of the story, Daddo makes a joke about discovering the story of a man who fell in love with an iguana, and some manuscript written from the oppressed's point of view that he could bring back to Italy and publish for the nobility to read. Ironically, this very situation comes true, which could have been taken as a sign that the the Count was imagining the whole thing. There are several confusing, contradicting statements and descriptions throughout the story, and I would probably need to read through it again to begin to understand what is actually happening in the novel and what underlying meaning it could have. 

A quote that I believed was important is, "You could say that this cavalier was a fundamentally good man, but had come to find himself at a crossroads, since it was time for him to die, but he was still attached to life; and Death encourages him to put an end to the question by making a choice. He's told he should lovingly choose Death and willingly follow it, and that he shouldn't try to choose life, since life no longer has any need of him."(116) Ilario's feelings about his actions concerning the Iguana could be explained very well by this quote, but now I am unsure if there was ever any relationship between the two of them. "To die," in this instance, means that it was time for Ilario to get married in order to finally get his family out of debt. "Life," is the Iguana. Ilario must leave the island forever, in turn leaving the iguana, but since he has been so cruel to her for the past few years, she no longer had any need for him- the attachment had long been severed.