Gender Roles In The House Of The Spirits

Avery Gordon
English IV
Llera
March 16, 2023 Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits takes a very interesting look at gender roles. The novel focuses on the Trueba and del Valle families, and how the magic the women possess impacts the established patriarchal societal structure. In the beginning, Allende attempts to make it clear how Esteban is the one in control, and the family is ruled by him, the patriarch. Throughout the book, however, this starts to be broken down, as the women fight back against Esteban and the patriarchy as a whole and over time become the ones in control. While Esteban tries to force his patriarchal control, the Trueba family is a matriarchy, as seen with his lack of control over the women of the novel. Esteban

Ferula lived with Clara and Esteban after her mother died. Ferula took care of Clara and treated her much better than Esteban ever had. Clara grew attached to Ferula, forming a sister-like bond, while Ferula was even more attached, feeling a deeper connection. She even wanted to “climb into bed with [Clara] and feel the warmth of her skin and her gentle breathing” (111). Esteban starts to realize Ferula’s deep attachment to Clara, and gains jealousy because of how Clara favors Ferula. He starts to interfere with their interactions, like “if Ferula tried to serve his wife a cup of chocolate, he grabbed it from her hands on the pretext that she was treating her like an invalid; if she kissed her good night, he pulled her away with a sweep of his hand, saying it was not right for them to kiss” (145). His attempts to regain control continue to not work, due to his lack of real power over the family. He ends up kicking out Ferula as his final attempt to destroy her connection with Clara, although this fails as Clara still cares about Ferula. She continues to attempt to find her, and even “spread a map of the city on the floor and held the pendulum a foot and a half above it, waiting for the oscillations to tell her her sister-in-law’s address” (148). Ferula still holds emotional control over Clara. Esteban’s attempts to sever Clara’s connection to Ferula only resulted in Clara having more

The Trueba family owns two estates, one in the city, and one in the country, which is called Tres Marias. Many people work to take care of the estate, including Pedro Segundo Garcia, and his son, Pedro Tercero Garcia. Each time the Truebas visited Tres Marias, Blanca and Pedro would be together, and over time fell in love. Their relationship continued developing, with them even “exploring their deepest intimacy, insatiably entering each other’s skins” (175). Esteban would not approve of this relationship, due to Pedro Tercero’s low class and opposing political standpoints. However, due to its secrecy, he is unable to control Blanca and stop it. During her secret relationship with Pedro, Count Jean de Satigny asks Esteban for Blanca’s hand in marriage, to which Esteban agrees. However, Blanca refuses this, and Esteban lashes out at her telling her that she will “change [her] mind” (206). Esteban’s attempt to force her into this marriage failed and demonstrates the lack of control he truly has over his family. Later the Count tells Esteban about Blanca and Pedro, and Esteban “[beat] her mercilessly, lash upon lash, until the girl fell flat and rigid to the ground” (222). Esteban again resorts to violence and abuse in an attempt to gain control, but Blanca is still in love with Pedro and will not marry the Count. Esteban again has no real control over Blanca and her feelings,