The House of the Spirits

Esteban Trueba is the patriarch of the Trueba family and the second narrator of the story. A tall, strong man, Esteban initially seeks to make his fortune in the mines; however, upon the death of his fiancée, Rosa, he chooses to move to his family’s hacienda and take over running the estate. Esteban finds great success here, his role as a firm and ruthless patrón fitting well with his belief in a naturally occurring social hierarchy—one in which men like him are most deserving of control and power. This philosophy eventually translates into political interest, and Esteban goes on to become an important senator in the Conservative Party.

Esteban is a passionate and virile man who feels all things intensely. He fell in love with Rosa the instant he first set eyes on her and was heartbroken after she passed away. He feels a similar instant connection with Clara, and his love for her remains deep, consistent, and overwhelming throughout her life. Esteban longs to possess Clara completely and is often left frustrated by Clara’s natural detachment from most material things. Nevertheless, Esteban treasures Clara more than anyone else in his life; he instantly regrets the one moment when he loses control and strikes her, and he mourns the irreconcilable divide that it causes between them for the rest of his life. The only solace Esteban finds after Clara’s death is in his relationship with Alba, which softens him. That Alba has inherited Rosa’s green hair seems to be a factor, highlighting how Esteban’s fondness for Rosa has continued long past her death.

Just as Esteban loves intensely, he also feels passionate anger and hatred. His opposition to communism is apparent from the very beginning, when he vehemently opposes Pedro Segundo’s ideas for bettering the lives of the peasants. Pedro Tercero becomes a later target for this antipathy when he begins preaching socialist ideology amongst the peasants. Esteban’s political affiliations are a natural and inseparable extension of his personal ones, and Pedro Tercero affronts both these sensibilities deeply through his relationship with Blanca. It is when Esteban discovers the affair that he is at his worst: He whips Blanca unconscious, strikes Clara, and (initially) sets out to kill Pedro Tercero.

Though Esteban frequently regrets his most violent actions as soon as his temper cools, he is beyond repairing his relationships with his wife and children; his chance at redemption arrives in Alba, with whom he is able to begin on a somewhat clean slate. She comes to be the most important person in his life after Clara. Alba’s presence, combined with the atrocities he witnesses following the coup, eventually leads Esteban to see the error of his ways. By this point Jaime and Clara are both dead and Nicolás is overseas; though he will physically lose Blanca too, Esteban manages to reconcile with her before he helps her and Pedro Tercero escape to Canada. Alba’s arrest solidifies Esteban’s transformation. Desperate and alone during this period, he sets about actively changing his ways when Alba returns to him. Symbolically, grandfather and granddaughter set about cleaning and repairing the house together, and it is Esteban who suggests that Alba write the story of her family.

If Alba’s role as a narrator is to provide an omniscient perspective, Esteban’s is to display the capacity for change and growth within a single lifetime. From a harsh, brutal, patriarchal man, he evolves into a grandfather whose life revolves around his granddaughter—a man capable of admitting his mistakes and willing to make amends for all the wrong in his life. This character arc is highlighted by the fact that the one promise or prophecy that does not come true in the book is Férula’s curse: Despite her condemning him to die alone and suffering like a dog, a changed Esteban dies peacefully in the company of his beloved granddaughter.

Clara is the youngest of the del Valle children, a precocious child born with clairvoyant abilities. Clara predicts her sister Rosa’s death when she herself is 10 years old; in a similar manner, she correctly foresees a number of events throughout her lifetime, including her parents’ deaths and a massive earthquake that devastates the country. Clara’s marriage to Esteban Trueba links the fates of the del Valles and the Truebas forever.

Magic and mysticism surround Clara from the very beginning, lending her an air of detachment from most material things. She leaves the running of the house and mundane childrearing tasks (such as bathing and dressing) to Nana and Férula, spending her time communing with spirits in the company of other spiritually inclined people, like the Mora sisters. Despite this, Clara is a loving and affectionate mother; she carries an infant Blanca (and later a young Alba) everywhere she goes, and she consequently has strong ties with both her daughter and granddaughter. Though she does not share an equally strong bond with her sons, they nevertheless seem to hold great affection for her, mourning her deeply after her passing. Clara’s natural intuition, although unhelpful with everyday matters, helps her divine the innermost feelings and desires of her children, allowing her to give them space to grow and be themselves.

Clara’s detachment is a sore spot for Esteban, as she evades his complete possession. When she is forced to be more present while caring for him following the earthquake, she grows further apart from him, recognizing and despising his ill temper. Despite remaining married to Esteban for the entirety of her life, Clara holds vastly different personal beliefs than her husband. She disapproves of the way he treats his peasants and defends Blanca’s affair when he whips his daughter. The latter situation causes Esteban to strike her, creating a permanent rift between husband and wife. It also leads Clara to display her strong sense of self and independence: She removes her wedding ring, refuses to speak to Esteban ever again, and reverts to using her maiden name.

It is Clara who inspires the title of the book. As Alba describes her grandmother, she inhabited a different world—one governed by magic and frequented by spirits, in which time and space meant different things. Such a world ceases to exist with Clara’s death, and the Trueba family falls on hard times. Clara is the soul of the household; she exemplifies and brings together the various elements of magical realism in the book. It is only fitting that it is her memories and recollections that eventually allow her husband and granddaughter to heal.

Blanca is Esteban and Clara’s oldest child and only daughter. She represents the second generation of del Valle women on whom the story focuses. A beautiful and stubborn young woman, she inherits her father’s obstinacy, and her love for Pedro Tercero places her in opposition to her father from a very early age.

Blanca grows up with few important relationships in her life; nevertheless, these relationships are intense in their strength and the impact they have on her. She has a strong relationship with her mother—a bond forged by the family tradition of storytelling. The most important relationship in Blanca’s life is her extraordinary bond with Pedro Tercero. The two share an instant connection as children, and as they grow their friendship organically evolves into an intense love. Blanca’s love for Pedro Tercero transcends class and ideological differences; that he is the son of her father’s foreman and that he is Esteban’s ideological rival are unimportant to her. Her love for Pedro Tercero comes before all else, and she risks everything to continue her relationship with him.

Blanca’s love for Pedro Tercero is eclipsed only by two things: her instinct for self-preservation and the well-being of her daughter. A conflation of the two leads her to keep her daughter’s parentage a secret and marry the count upon her father’s directive. This same set of instincts sees her flee her marital home when she discovers the count’s secret sex life. Even when she reunites with Pedro Tercero, she does not disclose Alba’s parentage, and she also refuses to commit to Pedro Tercero for many years. For a woman whose life has been constantly dictated by men and their political ideologies, it remains her sole avenue of resistance.

Blanca’s consistently unhappy and lonely adult life finally finds some happiness when Esteban sees the error of his ways and arranges safe passage to Canada for Blanca and Pedro Tercero. Father and daughter reconcile and express their love for each other before Blanca exits their home and the story. As a character, Blanca serves as a bridge between generations: a way to display how the trials and tribulations of the del Valle women continue until Alba eventually finds resolution.

Pedro Tercero García and Miguel are the respective love interests of Blanca and Alba. While both men are instrumental to the plot in different ways, they share the commonality of embodying revolutionary thought and forbidden love.

Pedro Tercero García is the son of Esteban’s foreman, Pedro Segundo García. He becomes a revolutionary songwriter and even goes on to hold an important government post when the Socialists come to power. Following the military coup, he becomes a wanted man. Pedro Tercero shares an instant connection with Blanca from their very first meeting as children, and he goes on to become the love of her life. Pedro Tercero is also Alba’s father, though he only learns this much later.

As a character, Pedro Tercero serves as a nemesis for Esteban. He represents everything that Esteban opposes: a working-class man with communist ideas who steals away his daughter. Pedro Tercero and Esteban are linked forever through Blanca. Their initial interactions are unpleasant owing to Pedro Tercero’s political ideology; this culminates in horrific violence when Esteban hunts him down and attacks him after discovering his affair with Blanca. At later points in the story, however, each saves the other from an impossible situation, both times at Blanca’s behest. Esteban’s eventual acceptance of Pedro Tercero and Blanca’s love highlights Esteban’s character growth.

Miguel is Alba’s lover and possibly the father of her unborn child. Like Pedro Tercero, he holds revolutionary beliefs; however, his stance is more radical, as he discounts the potential success of a democratic revolution and later goes on to join the guerrillas. Just as in Blanca and Pedro Tercero’s case, Miguel and Alba’s connection is instantaneous; it even seems destined, as Miguel inadvertently witnessed Alba’s birth, though he does not remember doing so.

Miguel enters the story later than Pedro Tercero, and his impact on the story owes more to his political affiliations than his individual character. He serves to advance the plot in different places, including being the reason for Alba’s arrest; his relationship with Alba also develops themes of forbidden love and repeating intergenerational patterns.