how and why does the novel conflate love and sickness? in what ways are the concepts related?

In Marquez's novel, love and sickness are conflated repeatedly, and a love like Fermina's and Florentino's, like a sickness, does not follow societal rules, so it is appropriate that the social guidelines allowing the sick a certain freedom (quarantined on the ship, but free to move across the waters) also give freedom to Fermina and Florentino.

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