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Chapter 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The House of the Spirits, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Class, Politics, and Corruption
Women and the Patriarchy
Magic and the Supernatural
Love
Family
Writing and the Past
Summary
Analysis
If not for Clara and Blanca’s letters, Esteban narrates, he would have remained completely ignorant of the events during this time. Clara is devasted with Blanca gone, but she knows that their separation will only be for a short time. Blanca doesn’t know exactly why she agreed to marry Jean, but she knows it had something to do with her fear of her father. To Blanca, it seems safer to have married Jean than to run off with Pedro, but she knows she will never consummate their marriage. Blanca will never give her love and intimacy to Jean.
Esteban again points out the fact that he is writing the story, and that he is able to write it because of Clara’s notebooks, which further underscores the importance of writing and preserving the past. Blanca will never give her love to Jean because she is still in love with Pedro, even if she can’t be with him. This mirrors Clara’s own acceptance of a loveless marriage to Esteban when she was a young woman. And, like Clara, Blanca fears Esteban. This again underscores Blanca’s oppression as a woman—Esteban can’t technically force her to marry against her will, so instead he scares her into it.
Themes
On their first night as husband and wife, Jean goes into the bathroom, where he stays for a long time. When he emerges—wearing silk pajamas and a velvet Pompeian robe—he explains to Blanca that he is only in love with the arts and cannot love her in the traditional way. Blanca is relieved. “Thank you, Jean!” she cries, throwing her arms around him. “You’re welcome,” he says pleasantly.
Allende implies that Jean is not heterosexual. His elaborate clothes and time spent getting dressed aligns with common stereotypes of gay men, and he clearly isn’t interested in having sex with Blanca.
Themes
The next day, Jean cashes the enormous check Esteban gave them as a wedding present and proceeds to spend nearly all of it buying clothes and accessories to match his new status. While he is gone, Blanca goes to the big house on the corner to visit Clara. Esteban meets her in the kitchen and screams at her. He tells Blanca that she is crazy for coming; if anyone sees her pregnant, they will know she wasn’t a virgin when she married. Blanca replies that she wasn’t a virgin when she married, and Esteban begins to fume. He raises his arm to strike her, but Jaime suddenly steps between them, silently daring his father. Esteban drops his hand and leaves the room.
Jean immediately cashes Esteban’s check and spends it on himself, which, along with the fact that he obviously doesn’t love Blanca, suggests that Jean only married Blanca to become upwardly mobile and improve his class standing. Like Pedro Tercero, Blanca and Jaime aren’t afraid to stand up to Esteban, and Esteban’s silent exit suggests that he is losing his grip on the power he holds over them.
Themes
That same day, Jean and Blanca take a British ocean liner to the farthest northern province, where Jean rents an old mansion. He decorates according to his own tastes, so the house reflects his new status, and he hires several Indian servants. Blanca dislikes the house, and she doesn’t trust the servants. They never seem to do any work, and when she talks to them, it is like they don’t understand Spanish. After Blanca sees one of the male servants wearing a pair of antique heels with velvet laces, she writes Clara about her concerns, but Clara says it is just Blanca’s pregnancy playing tricks on her mind.
Jean and Blanca move to the farthest northern province so they can more easily hide Blanca’s pregnancy from their social circle. No one knows Blanca or Jean in the north, which again reflects Blanca’s oppression as a woman, as she is forced to uproot her entire life to cover up her pregnancy and protect her reputation. Again, the feminine shoes worn by the male servant reflect homosexual stereotypes, which suggests that Jean isn’t heterosexual and that he didn’t marry Blanca for love.
Themes
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The first few months of Jean and Blanca’s marriage are quiet. Blanca keeps to the house, but Jean begins a busy social life. He frequents the local casino, where he loses large sums of money, and he develops a taste for baroque French porcelain. Jean and Blanca get along just fine—unless she tries to look into their finances, which Jean insists is a man’s concern. Despite Blanca’s dowry, they never seem to have any money, and bill collectors line up at the end of every month. Blanca slowly stops thinking about Pedro Tercero and believes she has lost her ability to love.
Jean’s belief that finances are a man’s concern again demonstrates the sexist nature of society in the novel, especially since it is Blanca’s money in the first place. Obviously, Jean has spent all of Blanca’s dowry and Esteban’s wedding present (both of which were presumably substantial), and he doesn’t want Blanca to look into the finances because she will discover that they are broke—and that Jean isn’t a wealthy count like he claims to be.
Themes
Blanca grows curious as to the contents of Jean’s “laboratory,” which he has ordered her to stay out of. Once Jean leaves for his morning walk, Blanca devises a plan. She tells the servant in the high-heeled shoes to go to town and get her some papaya, and once he leaves, she breaks down the door to Jean’s secret room. Blanca is stunned. There is a golden trapeze suspended from the middle of the room with a life-size puppet hanging from it; however, Blanca is most alarmed by the pictures. On every wall hangs erotic photographs, in which Blanca recognizes the household servants, naked and aroused. She leaves the room and heads right to the train station. Blanca is going home to Clara; she just hopes she doesn’t go into labor first.
Jean’s “laboratory” is proof that he isn’t who he says he is, and that he married Blanca for her money, not because he loves her. Jean hired the servants as sex workers rather than as domestic help, which is why they never seem to do any housework. While Blanca is clearly uncomfortable with Jean’s sexuality, it is the perfect excuse for her to leave him and go back to Clara and the big house on the corner, which is exactly what she wants to do.
Themes
