The House of the Spirits

by

Isabel Allende

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The House of the Spirits: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
A year and a half after the earthquake, Tres Marías is again a thriving estate. Esteban, now fully recovered, barges around the hacienda, throwing tantrums and threatening people. Even Clara fears him, which deeply upsets Esteban. As Clara grows more distant, Esteban’s love and need for her increases, but she spends all her time alone, writing in her notebooks. Esteban stops trying to build a relationship with Blanca, who has resisted him since birth. Esteban narrates that he now knows Blanca’s hate for him is rooted in her love for Pedro Tercero.
Esteban continually interrupts his retrospective narrative with interjections from his current perspective, which reminds the reader that he is telling a story. Tres Marías is again a thriving estate, in large part because of Clara and her hard work, which Esteban doesn’t seem to realize or appreciate at this time. Esteban is upset by Clara’s fear of him because he deeply loves her, whereas he seems unfazed by (or even unaware of) Blanca’s fear of him.
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Hoping to win back Clara’s love, Esteban stops using the slips of pink paper to pay the peasants. Clara is pleased, but it does nothing to make her love him. She has a bolt installed on her bedroom door and never lets Esteban in her bed again, except for when he forces himself on her. He tries flattering her with praise and gifts to win her love, and when that doesn’t work, he threatens to kick in the door and “beat her to a pulp.” Esteban knows Clara doesn’t love him, but he loves everything about her. He drills a hole in the wall so he can watch her undress, and he even returns to raping peasants to get a rise out of her, but Clara is unmoved.
The hole Esteban drills in the wall hearkens to Férula and the great lengths she went to in order to spy on Clara and Esteban. The more Clara pulls away from Esteban, the more he loves her, which reflects his own self-consciousness and insecurities. Despite Esteban’s obvious love for Clara, he still threatens her with violence, which further speaks to Esteban’s insecurities. He can’t win Clara over in a romantic way, so he plans to take her by force.
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Esteban tells no one when he starts to shrink. It is a matter of pride for Esteban, so he keeps it to himself, along with his crippling pain. As the country readies for the Presidential election, Esteban meets Count Jean de Satigny, a wealthy Frenchman looking for a partner in his chinchilla business. Esteban has seen many chinchillas on his land, but he never once considered making them into coats. Jean picks Esteban as his partner, and Esteban becomes the envy of all the other landowners. Even Blanca is impressed with Jean and puts on her fancy dress when he comes to dinner. She claims that Jean is civilizing them and puts out silver candlesticks.
Presumably, Esteban’s shrinking stature is a result of Férula’s curse that Esteban would “shrivel up” and “die like a dog.” However, Esteban’s refusal to tell anyone about his shrinking or his extreme pain (as many of his bones were shattered in the earthquake, his pain must be severe) suggests he is afraid of appearing weak. As a man, Esteban feels he must always be strong, and to admit otherwise is a hit to his masculinity.
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One night, while Jean is outside smoking, he catches movement and sees Blanca sneak from her window and disappear into the brush. He doesn’t follow, but Jean is worried that Blanca’s little escape will ruin his plans. The next day, Jean asks Esteban for Blanca’s hand in marriage, and Esteban is ecstatic. Mistaking her fancy dress and candlesticks for love, Esteban assumes that Blanca will want to marry Jean and asks her to meet him in his office. Blanca goes to her father’s office and throws the door open five minutes later, shooting Jean a hateful look.
Obviously, Blanca is sneaking out her window to meet Pedro. Jean clearly hopes to marry Blanca, but he doesn’t speak of love in the way Pedro does, which suggests Jean is only interested in marrying Blanca because she is the daughter of a rich landowner and likely has a large dowry and inheritance. Furthermore, Blanca is completely excluded from the decision to marry Jean, which again reflects the sexist nature of society.
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Even Jaime and Nicolás are won over by Jean’s good humor, and while they initially make fun of his manners and feminine clothing, they try to convince Blanca to marry him. After all, Blanca is 24 years old, her brothers remind her. Jaime is a quiet young man with strange habits. He doesn’t like anyone to breathe on him or stand too close, and he hates shaking hands and personal questions. Still, when any of the peasants come to him with a problem, he listens closely and promptly fixes it. He is extremely sentimental, and instead of studying to be lawyer and going into politics like Esteban wants, Jaime goes to medical school. He is close friends with Pedro Tercero, and together they talk “of justice, of equality, of the peasant movement and of Socialism.”
Jean is described in nearly feminine terms, which initially makes Jaime and Nicolás standoffish, as men are expected to be masculine and strong in their society. Jaime and Nicolás’s reminder to Blanca that she is 24 years old also underscores society’s sexist assumptions that women of age should get married and start families as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Jaime’s friendship with Pedro, his interests in justice and equality, and his refusal to follow in Esteban’s footsteps suggests that Jaime believes in socialist ideals.
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Nicolás is a handsome young man and incredibly smart. He fights with his brother constantly, though Jaime instantly feels guilty whenever he beats up the much smaller Nicolás. Nicolás makes up for his size with a big mouth, and Jaime is constantly fighting to defend him. Other than girls, Nicolás’s main interest is Clara’s supernatural powers, which he hopes to develop himself. On weekends, Nicolás visits the Mora sisters, where he meets Amanda. Amanda is beautiful and even smarter than Nicolás, and she teaches him all about yoga and acupuncture. He sends her love poems, which Amanda corrects and returns, but this doesn’t diminish his love for her.
Despite being twins, Nicolás and Jaime are very different, and they obviously don’t get along; however, Jaime’s protectiveness of Nicolás speaks to their connection as brothers. Nicolás’s interest in the supernatural, yoga, and acupuncture mirrors Marcos’s earlier interests, which again illustrates the connection between family members, even those of distant generations. Amanda is also an example of a strong and independent woman, as she is intelligent and capable and does not conform to societal expectations. 
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A few days before the Presidential election, old Pedro García dies. He was blind and deaf but retained a perfect memory of past and recent events. He sat each night on the porch, feeling the sun go down, with his great-grandson Esteban García at his feet. Esteban García and his father are the only “bastard offspring” to share Esteban Trueba’s name. Before Pancha died, she managed to convince Esteban García that if his father had been born in place of Blanca, Jaime, or Nicolás, he would own Tres Marías and maybe even be President of the Republic. As such, Esteban García hates Esteban Trueba, and he blames him for his miserable life on the hacienda. Esteban Trueba, however, has forgotten all about Pancha and his bastard son.
The fact that Esteban forgets so easily about the son he fathered with Pancha again reflects Esteban’s selfishness and feelings of superiority. As Esteban Trueba’s “bastard offspring,” Esteban García isn’t acknowledged by Esteban Trueba because he is a peasant. Pancha’s belief that her son and grandson would have the same opportunities as Blanca and the twins had they been born in their place again underscores the country’s class struggle—it suggests Esteban García is only of a lower status because Pancha is a peasant and not an upper-class woman like Clara. Ironically, old Pedro is the only character who can claim perfect memory, which is another way in which old Pedro is superior to those of the upper classes. 
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Quotes
Esteban García is 10 years old and in the habit of driving nails through the eyes of chickens, so when old Pedro García drops dead in front of him, he considers driving a nail through the dead man’s eye. Blanca arrives just as Esteban raises the nail and shoves him out of the way, never guessing that the boy is her nephew. The hacienda observes a three-day wake for old Pedro, and Esteban Trueba spares no expense. Jean is excited about the funeral and arrives with a camera and tripod. He snaps so many pictures of the dead man that the peasants destroy the plates, fearing so many pictures may steal his soul. 
Esteban García’s hobby of torturing chickens and his desire to do the same to old Pedro’s dead body suggests that Esteban García cares little about others and may have inherited Esteban Trueba’s violent ways. Since old Pedro saved Esteban Trueba’s life after the earthquake and saved the hacienda from the ant infestation, Esteban has great respect for the old man, which is reflected in his desire to give him an appropriate wake. Many cultures believe that having one’s picture taken can trap the soul, which is reflected in their destruction of the Jean’s photography plates.  
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Two priests, one of them Father José Dulce María, arrive to oversee old Pedro’s funeral rites. Esteban has heard of Father José and goes to throw him out, but Clara convinces Esteban not to make a scene. That night, Blanca sneaks out her window and goes to the river to meet one of the priests, just as she does for the three days of the funeral. Everyone but Esteban and Clara know that the priest with Father José is Pedro Tercero in disguise.
Esteban doesn’t want Father José on his property because Father José is a socialist known to spread ideas of equality and fair wages, which Esteban clearly doesn’t want on his land. If Father José’s message takes hold, Esteban won’t be able to exploit his peasants as easily.
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Quotes
Pedro Tercero takes the opportunity to tell the peasants that the presidential election is their chance to change their lives and “shake off the yoke under which they have always lived.” The peasants know that voting for the Socialist candidate is sure to get them in trouble with Esteban, but Pedro Tercero says Esteban can’t fire all of them. If they all vote for the Socialist candidate, they will be safe. Blanca reminds Pedro Tercero that the Conservative Party changes the ballots, but he says they will have someone to stand watch this time. The peasants listen politely, but when the time comes, they are too afraid to vote for the Socialist candidate.
This passage illustrates the corruption of the nation’s government. Even if the people do vote fairly for a more liberal candidate, their votes are switched out for conservative votes, which maintains the nation’s status quo and keeps the lower classes beneath the upper classes. Pedro Tercero’s message to “shake off the yoke under which they have always lived” encourages the peasants to rise. However, the fact that they are too scared illustrates the level of intimidation under which they live.
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In the meantime, Jean doesn’t give up on Blanca. No one seems to know much about Jean, and they have no idea how old he is or where in France he comes from. Clara turns to her tarot cards for answers, but Jean refuses to have his fortune read, and she doesn’t even know his astrological sign. Soon, Blanca begins to soften toward Jean, and she brings the silver candlesticks back out. She even goes on walks with him, during which they talk about literature. Blanca gives Jean a book by “the Poet,” and he falls in love with it, declaring it better than any French book ever written. Every chance Blanca gets, she reminds Jean that she will never marry him—though despite her bluntness, their friendship grows.
The fact that no one knows anything about Jean, in addition to his refusal to have his fortune read, suggests he is hiding something. Presumably, Jean isn’t who he says he is—he may not even be French—but the Truebas don’t suspect much yet. The character of the Poet is thought to be based on real-life Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who also served as Senator in the Chilean Communist Party. 
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Esteban gets two chinchillas as a test run, but within two weeks, they die from a strange disease Jean knows nothing about. The rodents’ fur turns black and falls out, and Esteban can’t even tan their skins. In the meantime, Blanca has no idea that Jean is spying on her; when she sneaks out her window to meet Pedro Tercero, Jean is watching in the darkness. He follows, and when he approaches the river, he finds Blanca having sex with the priest who officiated old Pedro’s funeral. Jean finds it a strange pairing, but he can tell it is not a chance meeting—Blanca and the priest seem to have a complete “marriage of body and soul.” 
Jean clearly knows nothing about chinchillas, which further suggests he isn’t who he says he is. Jean’s continued spying on Blanca also suggest he isn’t completely honest, as he tries to win Blanca through dishonest means rather than directly. Jean knows nothing about Pedro Tercero, but the love between Pedro and Blanca is more than apparent when Jean finds them together near the river.
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Jean sneaks quietly back to the house and bangs on the front door. When Esteban answers, Jean tells him all about Blanca and the priest. Esteban is confused, but he instantly realizes Pedro Tercero has tricked him. He orders Jean to wait at the house and jumps on his horse. “I’m going to kill them both,” Esteban says. He meets Blanca on the trail home and savagely beats her with his horse whip. She falls to the ground, and Esteban demands she tell him the truth, but she refuses.
This passage is further evidence of Esteban’s violence. He doesn’t just want to punish Blanca and Pedro, he wants to “kill them both,” which Esteban would likely do if not for Clara. Likely, Jean knew that Esteban would react in such a way (Esteban’s temper is apparent to everyone else, so it must be to Jean as well), but Jean selfishly betrays Blanca anyway.
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Clara is alerted to the drama by barking dogs and finds Blanca bleeding in the mud. Pedro Segundo helps Clara get Blanca upstairs, where Clara gently cleans her cuts and applies cold compresses to her bruises. Clara later finds Esteban pacing in his library with his whip, and he accuses her of raising Blanca without any morals, principles, religion, or (most importantly) any sense of her own class. Esteban says he should have killed Pedro Tercero when he had the chance, but Clara reminds him that Pedro Tercero has done nothing Esteban hasn’t done himself. Esteban has slept with many women not of his class, Clara says—the only difference is that Esteban raped them, whereas Pedro Tercero acts out of love.
Esteban’s comment that Clara has raised Blanca without any sense of her own class again identifies Esteban as both a classist and a sexist. He doesn’t want his daughter involved with a peasant, and when she disappoints him and falls in love with Pedro anyway, Esteban completely blames Clara. Esteban refuses to take any responsibility for his children, which he considers a woman’s job, and when things don’t work out the way he plans, he never takes the blame.
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Esteban reaches up and strikes Clara in the face, knocking her violently against the wall. He instantly begs her for forgiveness. Clara, bleeding profusely from the nose, spits out several of her teeth and walks as tall as she possibly can to the door. As she walks out the door, Clara collapses and falls into the arms of Pedro Segundo. Clara never speaks to Esteban again. Two days later, Clara and Blanca return to the big house on the corner, leaving Esteban at Tres Marías. After Pedro Segundo takes the women to the train station, he returns to his small brick house, packs his personal belongings, and leaves.
While Esteban frequently abuses the female peasants, this is the first time he is physically abusive to Clara. Despite the physical pain Clara is obviously feeling, she stands tall and refuses to let Esteban have power over her. As a woman, Clara has limited freedom, but she makes Esteban suffer for treating her and Blanca so badly by withholding her love from him—the only weapon she has to leverage.
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Afterward, Esteban is so lonely that Rosa begins to haunt his dreams. He can’t stop crying and blames Pedro Tercero for everything. One day, a peasant boy named Esteban García tells Esteban that he knows where Pedro Tercero is. He asks Esteban Trueba if he gets a reward for telling him, and Esteban tells him to take him to Pedro Tercero, then they will talk about a reward. He takes Esteban to the sawmill just outside the hacienda, where he finds Pedro Tercero sleeping.
Again, Esteban absolutely refuses to take responsibility for his own actions. Clara and Blanca have left, and Esteban’s marriage has been ruined because of Esteban’s violence and cruelty, not because of Pedro Tercero. Esteban García is obviously trying to get in Esteban Trueba’s good graces, which is why he is willing to betray Pedro.
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Esteban raises his rifle, and Pedro Tercero, sensing danger, opens his eyes. He jumps out of the way as Esteban fires, narrowly avoiding the bullet. Esteban sees a nearby axe and grabs it. He raises the axe and lets it fall, a spray of blood hitting him in the face. Pedro raised his hand at the last moment, and the blow strikes his right hand, severing three fingers. Pedro runs, leaving behind a trail of blood, and Esteban García picks up the fingers. Esteban Trueba vomits on the ground and tells the boy to drop the fingers.
From the way Esteban García picks up the severed fingers, it’s clear that he’s not put off by violence and torture, although Esteban Trueba seems to be negatively affected. Esteban Trueba nearly kills Pedro, but the fact that he vomits afterward suggests that Esteban wasn’t quite prepared to kill him, despite all his talk to the contrary.
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Back at Tres Marías, Esteban is horrified by his own violence and is thankful that Pedro Tercero was able to run away. Esteban knows what people say about him—that he has killed many men—but Esteban swears this isn’t true. “I’ve never killed anyone,” Esteban says. When Esteban García asks about a reward, Esteban Trueba tells him he doesn’t reward traitors and slaps him in the face. He forbids the boy to ever speak of what he just saw and pushes him out the door. Esteban Trueba slams the door, and they both stand there weeping. 
Obviously, Esteban García and Esteban Trueba aren’t weeping for the same reasons. Esteban Trueba is having a rare moment of insight into his poor character and violent ways, whereas Esteban García is weeping because his biological grandfather has rejected him. Esteban’s confession that he has never killed anyone suggests that his violence and poor temper are just a front, and he feels differently deep down.
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