The big house on the corner, where generations of the Trueba family live, symbolizes family, as well as Clara and her supernatural powers. Esteban begins construction on the mansion when he is engaged to Clara, and they move in—along with Esteban’s sister, Férula—after they are married. Esteban builds the sprawling mansion to reflect his family’s high social standing, and he intends for several generations of Truebas to live and prosper there. Clara, however, doesn’t take any real interest in the house until after her twins, Jaime and Nicolás, are born. Soon after, the Mora sisters and other students and enthusiasts of spiritualism arrive at the house and move in. Clara orders the construction of a new room with each new guest, and the house soon turns into a twisted web of crooked hallways and dead-end staircases—a complicated and eerie structure which reflects Clara’s mysterious powers, like her ability to levitate furniture and communicate with spirits.
Clara’s granddaughter, Alba, knows that Clara is the “soul” of the big house on the corner, which is something the rest of the family doesn’t appreciate until after Clara’s death. Clara dies when Alba is just seven years old, at which time the house begins to deteriorate. The curtains and windows remained closed, flowers wilt in their vases, and tiles begin to break from the roof. In the following years, the house falls into ruin, except for Clara’s bedroom, which Esteban keeps sealed and pristine so that he can find Clara’s spirit whenever he wants. At the end of the novel, as Esteban begins to slowly heal and mend family relationships he previously neglected, he orders the restoration of the house. The big house on the corner again resembles the grand mansion it once was, which, since Esteban built the house for the Truebas, underscores the unbreakable connection and resilience of family.
The Big House on the Corner Quotes in The House of the Spirits
His house would be the reflection of himself, his family, and the prestige he planned to give the surname that his father had stained. […] He could hardly guess that that solemn, cubic, dense, pompous house, which sat like a hat amid its green and geometric surroundings, would end up full of protuberances and incrustations, of twisted staircases that led to empty spaces, of turrets, of small windows that could not be opened, doors hanging in midair, crooked hallways, and portholes that linked the living quarters so that people could communicate during the siesta, all of which were Clara’s inspiration. Every time a new guest arrived, she would have another room built in another part of the house, and if the spirits told her that there was a hidden treasure or an unburied body in the foundation, she would have a wall knocked down, until the mansion was transformed into an enchanted labyrinth that was impossible to clean and that defied any number of state and city laws.
The Big House on the Corner Symbol Timeline in The House of the Spirits
