Thematic Analysis of Isabel Allende’s ‘The House of the Spirits’
Thematic and Formal Features in ‘The House of the Spirits’
The House of the Spirits is a generational story of the Trueba family, which the author considers a typical middle-class American family. Through this family, Allende seeks to portray the social classes, cities, and customs of Latin American life.
The plot centers on four generations of women who influence one man, Esteban Trueba, spanning from the early 20th century to the 1970s. The novel depicts a rigid patriarchal society built on traditional values and the oppression of the poor, the powerless, and women.
The socio-historical context, while not explicitly stated, is easily recognizable as Chile. The environment and events leading up to the coup d’état shaped the work, establishing it as a cornerstone of Latin American literature.
City vs. Country
The use of city and country settings allows the narrator to position the action in two distinct locations: the corner house and the estate, ‘the three Marys’. This juxtaposition highlights the contrast between two opposing social worlds.
Themes Explored
The House of the Spirits explores universal themes such as love and death, as well as infidelity, violence, ghosts, and magic. The novel also delves into the ‘social question,’ the struggle for women’s political rights, the labor movement, the rise and fall of a popular government, and the subsequent military coup.
The novel’s tension stems from class conflict, a result of a seemingly unchangeable social order. Allende uses the art of false authorship, presenting the story as a collection of writings by the character Clara, to enhance the story’s verisimilitude.
Magic Realism
This alleged reality is intertwined with magic realism, where fiction and fantastic elements blend seamlessly into everyday life.
Circular Structure
The structure is circular, beginning with the death of a young girl and ending with another massive and bloody event. The culprits are the same, but with different labels. The novel opens and closes with the same sentence from the girl’s diary, indicating a relentless cycle. The family history, rescued from records, serves as a pretext for Alba’s journey through the Trueba family’s past.
Narrative Perspectives
The point of view shifts constantly, as the book is a compilation of writings by different authors. There are three types of narrators:
- Third person: An omniscient narrator who knows everything about the characters, including their thoughts.
- First person: Esteban Trueba narrates his own story and that of his family, justifying his actions.
- First person: Alba, the main narrator and the author’s voice, is responsible for preserving the family’s memory.
The play concludes with a monologue by the granddaughter, who reflects on her grandfather’s death and the state of the house of spirits (an allegory for Chile) after the military coup.
Genre and Analysis
The House of the Spirits is a romance novel with a series of relationships and the traditional conflict between love and social order. It is also a historical novel that analyzes Chile over a century. The characters are both actors and representatives of socio-historical conditions, as well as archetypes of universal human experiences.