The House of the Spirits

by

Isabel Allende

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The House of the Spirits: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
“I can’t talk about it,” Esteban narrates, “But I’ll try to write it.” After Clara’s death, Esteban locks himself in Clara’s room with her body and tells her all the things he has wanted to say since she stopped talking to him after he beat Blanca and knocked out Clara’s teeth. He examines her body for any signs of sickness or death but finds nothing. He lies down next to her body, and they are “finally reconciled.” 
While it isn’t explicitly stated, it is implied that Esteban has sex with Clara’s dead body, which again suggests that love can transcend all things, even death. Furthermore, Esteban’s claim that talking is difficult but writing is possible reflects the therapeutic effects of writing and its ability to help one cope and heal after trauma.
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Just before daybreak, Esteban fixes Clara’s body so she will be presentable for her family. He dresses her in a white tunic and puts socks on her feet, so she won’t be cold. He brushes her hair and slides his gold ring on her finger to replace the one she threw out so many years before. He leaves the room and informs the servants they may bury her, and he tells them to bury Nívea’s head with her. The funeral is an event, and people come from everywhere to pay their final respects. Even the peasants from Tres Marías show up, and Esteban notices Pedro Segundo in the crowd, weeping.
Again, Clara was a good patrón, unlike Esteban, and the fact that the peasants make the trip all the way from Tres Marías to attend her funeral implies they had great respect for her. Pedro Segundo’s tears go beyond mere respect and again suggest that he loved Clara in a romantic way, and Esteban’s tender treatment of Clara’s body reflects his own love for her, as does finally giving Nívea’s head a proper burial.  
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After Clara’s death, the big house on the corner begins to decline. The flowers wilt in the vases, and Esteban wanders around the house dressed all in black, wearing Clara’s dentures on a chain around his neck. The house slowly decays: the faucets leak, the roof tiles crack, and stains spread across the wall. Only Clara’s room remains unaffected from the general deterioration of the rest of the house.
As the house is symbolic of Clara and her powers, it begins to deteriorate with her death. Esteban’s prolonged mourning and keeping Clara’s dentures around his neck again speaks to his deep love for her and the guilt he clearly feels for abusing her like he did. 
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Jaime and Nicolás remain distant from their father, and Jaime spends most of his free time working as a doctor for the poor. Esteban says Jamie is a “hopeless loser,” whose “utopian values” don’t exist. According to Esteban, “charity, like socialism, is an invention of the weak to exploit the strong and bring them to their knees.” Nicolás begins to teach Spanish dance classes at the house, but his students are mostly young people in search of a philosophy to help them understand life’s meaninglessness. Nicolás soon begins to charge for these sessions, which allows him to rent a house and open his own school, the Institute for Union with Nothingness.
The “utopian values” Esteban refers to here are Jaime’s socialist politics and his belief in Marxist ideals, which ultimately seek to build a utopian society. Esteban claims such a society doesn’t exist, and he calls Jaime a “hopeless loser” for believing such things. Ironically, it is Esteban who exploits the lower class, but he is convinced “charity” was invented to exploit money from the rich, which makes him appear even more classist and cruel.  
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Quotes
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When Esteban finds out that Nicolás is operating an eccentric school, he says nothing, even when the newspapers find out the school is operated by the Senator’s son. However, when Esteban finds Alba with her head shaved bald, repeating the word “Om,” he has a violent outburst like no other. After Nicolás stages a naked protest at the gates of Congress, Esteban puts him on a plane, sends him overseas, and tells him never to come back.
The fact that Esteban is initially willing to let Nicolás’s eccentric lifestyle go suggests that Esteban deeply loves his son despite the abuse he levels at him, and his outburst over Alba’s shaved head likewise illustrates his love and concern. However, Esteban’s rejection of his son when Nicolás’s actions threaten his political career implies that Esteban’s love has limits.
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Once Alba’s hair grows back, Esteban sends her to a British boarding school. Blanca doesn’t object, since she knows Alba’s future is already written in the stars. At school, Alba is introduced to tennis and the Bible; however, Alba is used to Clara levitating and playing Chopin without lifting the cover of the piano, so she is incredibly bored. The school’s headmistress calls Blanca and says that Alba is better suited for a school run by Spanish nuns, but Esteban uses his power to ensure his granddaughter stays enrolled at the school. He finds English far superior to Spanish, and he has finally accepted that not all women are “complete idiots,” so he believes that Alba can have a profession like a man.
Again, the fact that Blanca doesn’t object over Alba’s schooling because she believes Alba’s future is already written in the stars suggests that she puts a lot of stock in Clara’s magic after all. Esteban’s sexist assumption that women are “complete idiots” is beginning to soften because of Alba, which again demonstrates love’s power to transform people. Esteban’s transformation is slow, but love nevertheless forces him to see the error of his ways. 
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For Alba, Blanca is the only stable person in her life at the big house on the corner. Esteban still lives there, but his political cronies stop visiting, and he confines himself to his bedroom and library. He doesn’t seem to notice the house falling down around him, and he has no interest in his family. He gives Blanca money to run the house, but it is never enough, and she must always borrow from Jaime. Alba begins to suffer nightmares and starts sleeping in Blanca’s room. Every night, when Blanca gets into bed, she holds Alba’s hand and tells her bizarre stories from Uncle Marcos’s books. When Alba asks her to repeat the stories, Blanca can never remember them, so Alba begins writing them down. 
Esteban is clearly spiraling into a depression after the loss of Clara, and he even seems to be losing his interest in politics. Alba and Blanca’s close relationship again underscores the connection between family members, especially mothers and daughters. Like Clara’s stories, Blanca’s stories connect Alba to the past, and Alba writes the stories down just as Clara did before her. The sharing and recording of stories highlights the role personal narratives play in preserving history and family traditions. 
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It takes nearly two years for the construction to be completed on the mausoleum for Clara, and Esteban asks the del Valle family to transfer Rosa’s body to the mausoleum, but they refuse. When Esteban goes to Jaime and tells him they must steal Rosa’s body, Jaime isn’t surprised. “If they won’t give her to us,” Esteban says, “we’ll have to take her by force.” They wait until nightfall and go to the cemetery, where Esteban bribes the nightguard to help them. Once they excavate the coffin, Esteban opens it. Rosa is perfectly preserved, looking much like the day she died, and Esteban leans over and kisses her lips. Suddenly, a breeze blows through, and Rosa, who had been hermetically sealed, turns to dust. He closes the coffin and places her in the mausoleum next to Clara. 
Esteban’s comment that he will just “take [Rosa] by force” if her family won’t give her to him again underscores Esteban’s sexist belief that he is superior and can do whatever he wants, especially to women. Esteban doesn’t have any right to Rosa’s body, but he wants her, so he takes her. Obviously, Esteban deeply loves Rosa, but he is selfish in his love, and such behavior ends up turning Rosa to dust. Rosa’s body has been repeatedly violated since death, and Esteban’s theft of her here is no different. 
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Despite pulling away from his political friends, Esteban is still very much involved in politics, and he fears the Marxist support that is sweeping the country. “The day we can’t get our hands on the ballot boxes before the vote is counted we’re done for,” Esteban says. To Esteban all political parties except the Conservative Party are Marxist, and he calls the left “the enemy of the democracy,” not knowing that same phrase will later become the slogan of the nation’s dictatorship.
Esteban’s reference to the ballot boxes again points to the corruption of the nation’s government. Esteban is the nation’s Senator, and even he advocates for tampering with ballot boxes to ensure the Conservative Party stays in power. The admission that the country will soon be a dictatorship and “the enemy of democracy” hints to upcoming political unrest.
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Esteban’s wealth begins to dwindle after Clara’s death, and the foreman at Tres Marías urges him to sell. The peasants are disgruntled and issue new demands daily, but Esteban refuses to sell. The following years are rocky, socially and politically, and the struggle is reflected in Pedro Tercero’s songs, which can constantly be heard on the radio. He sings of hens, foxes, and of revolution, and Esteban has no idea that the singer is Jaime’s best friend, or that Blanca frequently takes Alba to see him.
Esteban’s disgruntled peasants and their willingness to make demands suggests they aren’t as afraid of Esteban as they once were, which means their desire for revolution is growing. The country is socially and politically unstable because support for socialism is growing, as is the opposition of the conservatives, which is reflected in Pedro’s songs.
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Despite their frequent trips to see Pedro Tercero, Blanca doesn’t tell Alba that he is her father. She doesn’t want to complicate Alba’s life with the truth about her birth, but that doesn’t keep Pedro from begging her to change her mind. Blanca does dream of packing her bags, taking Alba, and running away with Pedro, but she never finds the courage. Alba quickly learns not to mention Pedro’s name at home, and she suspects something awful happened between the singer and Esteban, but she never asks about it.
Again, the fact that Blanca refuses to tell Alba that Pedro Tercero is her father implies that she doesn’t think it is important. Blanca never finds the courage to run away with Pedro because they are of different classes, and they likely wouldn’t be readily accepted in each other’s social circles.
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After Esteban and Jaime successfully move Rosa into Clara’s mausoleum, Esteban begins to feel better. He keeps Clara’s room locked up, however, so he can find her spirit whenever he wants. He has only two friends, and one night to cheer Esteban up, they take him to the upscale brothel: the Christopher Columbus. When they arrive, they are greeted by a man named Mustafá, who provides them with catalogs of the women and young men available for hire, but none of the pictures appeal to Esteban. After his friends are led to their private rooms, Esteban sits, undecided. Mustafá offers Esteban the “best in the house” and leaves the room to fetch her. When Mustafá comes back, he is accompanied by Tránsito Soto.  
Like Blanca, Esteban has largely regarded Clara’s spirituality as nonsense, but his desire to find her spirit after death suggests that he believes in it now. The presence of Mustafá and the catalogue of prostitutes suggests that business is good at the Christopher Columbus, and Tránsito’s status as the “best in the house” suggests she is doing well, too. However, Esteban’s inability to choose a woman is evidence of his misery and heartache over Clara’s death.
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Esteban is delighted to see Tránsito, and she leads him to a private room behind a curtain. Tránsito is completely in charge of the Christopher Columbus now, and all the good ideas—like adding homosexuals to the catalogue and changing the décor—have been hers. The brothel is a raging success, and all the workers are partners. No one is exploited, and they all make more than enough money. Esteban and Tránsito have sex and soak in hot bathtub afterward. Esteban closes his eyes, and without realizing it, he begins to cry and call Clara’s name. Tránsito gently washes and dries Esteban, and then helps him into the bed. She gently kisses his forehead and leaves the room. “I wonder who Clara is,” Esteban hears her say as she exits.
The Christopher Columbus is a small-scale representation of a socialist society, in which everyone has an equal stake, and no one is held above the others. This equality ensures that no one is exploited and that everyone is given fair wages for fair work. Tránsito, who successfully guides the Christopher Columbus to such prosperity, is another example of a strong woman within the novel. She is capable and independent, and she refuses to conform to society’s sexist expectations of a proper woman.
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