The House of the Spirits: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

Clara and Blanca arrive at the big house on the corner and immediately go to work removing sheets from the furniture and opening drapes and windows. Clara says they will have to get some birds for the empty cages, and Blanca is surprised her mother is worried about birds when she is missing so many teeth. Soon, the Mora sisters arrive, as well as Clara’s other spiritualist friends—the Rosicrucians, the acupuncturists, and the telepathists—and they all settle into the house. Clara begins trying to communicate with extraterrestrial beings, but the Mora sisters, who are more conservative, think her attempts are nonsense.

Jaime, who is studying at the university, and Nicolás, who is in search of his destiny, both move into the big house on the corner, and Clara is ecstatic to live with her sons again. The boys pool their money and buy an old car, which they call “Covadonga” in honor of Severo and Nívea del Valle. One day, Jaime says that he thinks Blanca is pregnant, and Clara confirms that she thinks so, too, so she writes it in her notebook. Nicolás composes a cryptic message, and when a confused telegraph operator calls Esteban with the message, he immediately understands and smashes the phone in anger.

Esteban goes to find Jean de Satigny and orders him to marry Blanca. Later, Esteban arrives at the big house on the corner and angrily bursts through the door. Nicolás meets him in the foyer, and when he tries to explain, Esteban slaps him. Esteban doesn’t want to see Blanca—he insists she stay locked up until her wedding day, so she doesn’t cause a scandal with her condition—and Clara refuses to come out of her room. Esteban tries to break the door down without success, and the house is so full of arguments and anxiety that even the caged birds are silent.

Jean can’t decide if he is lucky to be marrying a rich heiress or cursed to be joining such a volatile family. In the meantime, Esteban decides a big party is what is needed to avoid a scandal. Blanca tries to resist, but Esteban tells her there will be no bastards in his family. Blanca says it is too late for that. After all, Esteban already has many bastards. Esteban angrily orders Blanca not to talk back to him and tells her that he killed Pedro Tercero. Blanca begins to weep and doesn’t stop for several days. Blanca and Jean’s wedding is a lavish affair and 500 guests flood the big house on the corner. Clara, however, still refuses to come out of her room.

Esteban finally convinces Clara to come down to the party for the sake of appearance, and she agrees. Blanca spends the entire party sitting in a chair alone, wearing a dress that’s specially designed to hide her pregnancy, with tears streaming down her face. Before Blanca and Jean leave the party, Clara pulls Blanca aside and tells her that Pedro Tercero isn’t dead. Clara has seen the truth in a dream, and Blanca instantly feels better and stops crying.

After the wedding, Blanca moves out of the big house on the corner, and Clara grows depressed. She tries communicating with Blanca telepathically, but Blanca never put much stock into Clara’s powers, which blocks Clara’s ability to communicate with her. They write each other daily, and these many letters take the place of Clara’s notebooks for a time. Jaime and Nicolás grow apart, too: while Jaime is busy studying medicine, Nicolás is dances flamenco, preaches free love, and quotes Freud.

Nicolás continues his interest in Clara’s spiritualist lifestyle, but Esteban insists it is not a suitable pastime for men. Nicolás grows closer with the Mora sisters, and they encourage his relationship with Amanda, who has recently started a job as a newspaper reporter. Amanda is a pessimist, so she smokes hashish to temper her depression, and Nicolás joins her. 

Jaime approaches the study of medicine as if it is a religion, and Clara remarks that Jaime should have been a priest. Clara’s comment angers Jaime, who believes that Christianity is just superstition that makes men weaker. The only thing Jaime is interested in other than medicine is Amanda. Jaime loves Amanda with all his heart, but he keeps his distance out of respect for Nicolás. Amanda frequently visits the big house on the corner, always with her five-year-old brother Miguel in tow.

In the meantime, Esteban decides to devote his life to politics. He is the perfect candidate for the Conservative Party, mostly because he is a self-made man and provides his peasants with a good and comfortable life. He has a healthy respect for the law and the nation, and other than tax evasion, he has never broken a serious law. The big house on the corner begins to fill with politicians and propaganda leaflets, and Clara and her following of spiritualists are pushed to the back of the house. Each time a new guest arrives to stay with Clara and call the spirits, she has a new room built, and the house begins to look like a “labyrinth.”

As the elections draw near, Esteban grows increasingly nervous and knocks on Clara’s door. She opens the door, and Esteban asks her if he is going to win. Clara nods without speaking, and Esteban kisses her in a moment of joy. “You’re fantastic, Clara!” he says. “If you say so, I’ll be senator.” Esteban is elected Senator of the Republic 10 days later, and even though Clara still won’t talk to him, she is seen as the most charming and elegant politician’s wife in the whole nation.

In the following months, Esteban greatly enjoys his new position of power, and has no idea that Jaime meets frequently with Pedro Tercero, whom Jaime considers a close friend. After Esteban’s assault on Pedro with the axe, Pedro ran to Father José Dulce María, who tended to his severed fingers and helped him to heal. Now, Pedro Tercero lives in the capital with an important member of the Socialist Party. He pines for Blanca and is angry that she married Jean, even though Jaime tries to convince him that she didn’t have a choice. Pedro Tercero continues to write popular songs about hens and foxes, which Esteban has no idea about because he doesn’t allow radios in the house.

One day, Jaime comes home and says he wants to change his last name to del Valle. Ever since Esteban was elected, the other students at the university have been giving Jaime a hard time. Esteban is furious. He got married so he would have legitimate sons to bear his name, Esteban yells. But after Jaime gives his pants to a beggar and walks all the way home in his underwear, Esteban finally agrees to let him change his name, though he weeps in disappointment and anger.

Nicolás continues moving from one interest to the next, and eventually decides that he wants to fly just as Uncle Marcos did years ago. Nicolás decides to go over the mountains in an air balloon, and he is so busy preparing that he doesn’t notice Amanda has stopped visiting. Clara’s friends and family worry about Nicolás’s safety flying the air balloon, but Clara has a “hunch” that he will never lift off. Just as she suspects, Nicolás’s takeoff is stopped by the local police, who, unbeknownst to Nicolás, were dispatched by Esteban.

After this incident, Jaime asks Nicolás where Amanda has been, but he doesn’t know. He has been so busy with his air balloon that he didn’t even notice her absence. Nicolás asks Clara where Amanda is, but she has already forgotten about the girl. Nicolás decides, for the first time, to visit Amanda at her house, and he goes to the tenement where she lives with Miguel. Miguel opens the door and Nicolás sees Amanda is in bed, looking very ill. Nicolás approaches her, concerned for her health, but Amanda tells him she isn’t sick—she is pregnant.

Nicolás asks Amanda what they are going to do. “An abortion, of course,” Amanda says calmly. Nicolás is relieved, but he tells her they can get married if she wants. Amanda laughs. She doesn’t love him that much, she says. Nicolás is shocked. It never occurred to him that Amanda didn’t want to marry him. Nicolás looks around the room. To him, poverty has always been an abstract concept, and Amanda suddenly becomes a stranger. 

Amanda makes tea, and as they sit and talk, she tells Nicolás that after her mother died, she took responsibility for Miguel. Nicolás feels his love for Amanda intensify, and he has a burning desire to protect her. Still, Nicolás doesn’t quite know how to handle Amanda’s pregnancy or the abortion, so Amanda suggests they go to Jaime for help. When Nicolás knocks on his brother’s door, Jaime is reading a book of love sonnets written by the Poet, who is a frequent guest of Clara’s at the big house on the corner. Jaime is irritated—he sees Nicolás’s frivolous lifestyle as a personal insult—and Nicolás wastes no time telling Jaime that Amanda is pregnant.

On Sunday, Jaime waits outside the clinic where he does his training, and Nicolás goes to pick up Amanda in the Covadonga. When they arrive, Jaime helps Amanda to the surgical table. He has never administered anesthesia before and he is extremely nervous as he turns on the ether. When Amanda falls asleep, Nicolás removes her clothing and straps her to the table, thinking that this is much worse than rape. Jaime immediately goes to work. Nicolás begins violently vomiting, so Jaime orders Nicolás to leave the room and finishes the procedure alone. Jaime gently dresses Amanda and cleans up the blood, and when she wakes, she asks him if she will still be able to have children. He answers yes, but he tells her she should find a more responsible father.

Jaime and Nicolás take Amanda back to the big house on the corner so that Clara can keep an eye on her as she heals. Clara immediately tells them to go get Miguel, and she takes to pampering Amanda. Over the next few days, Amanda runs a fever, and Jaime diligently watches over her and gives her antibiotics. Clara notices that Nicolás asks about Amanda’s wellbeing but makes no effort to see her. Jaime, however, lends her his favorite books, and come Thursday night, he forgets all about his Socialist Party meeting.

In the meantime, Esteban travels to the United States to see a foreign doctor about his secret shrinking problem. His clothes continue to get bigger and bigger, and Esteban worries that his brain is shrinking, too. After the American doctor pokes and prods at Esteban for days, he claims there is nothing at all wrong with him. He has always been the same size, and his shrinking problem is all in his head. Esteban returns to his country and decides to ignore his shrinking stature. After all, Esteban thinks, all the greatest politicians in the world, like Napoleon and Hitler, have been short.