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Nicolás Trueba
Severo’s wife. Nívea is the mother of 15 children (four of whom have already died at the beginning the novel), including Clara and Rosa. Like Severo, Nívea has political aspirations. Nívea wants to fight for women’s rights from the inside, and she is referred to as “the country’s first feminist.” She stands on soapboxes and protests with her suffragette friends, but she can’t bring herself to take off her corset like the rest of them, which reflects the power of the patriarchy to control even the strongest women. Nívea is a loving mother, and Clara grows up hearing her outrageous stories of the past and their family history. Nívea and Severo are killed in a car accident when Clara is an adult, during which Nívea is decapitated and her head misplaced. Clara manages to find Nívea’s head—thanks to her supernatural powers—when even police bloodhounds fail. However, Esteban Trueba fears people will ask how Clara found Nívea’s head, so instead of having the head properly buried, he puts it in a hat box in the basement. Years later, when Clara dies, Esteban buries her with Nívea’s head. Nívea is the personification of female strength and power within the novel. She believes in women’s rights, and it is because of women like Nívea that future generations of women can vote and wear long pants. Nívea’s fight, however, isn’t easy, and many men (including her son-in-law, Esteban) condemn her. Esteban says Nívea is “sick in the head,” and claims what she really needs is a “strong hand” to keep her line.
Nívea del Valle Quotes in The House of the Spirits
The The House of the Spirits quotes below are all either spoken by Nívea del Valle or refer to Nívea del Valle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
At times Clara would accompany her mother and two or three of her suffragette friends on their visits to factories, where they would stand on soapboxes and make speeches to the women who worked there while the foremen and bosses, snickering and hostile, observed them from a prudent distance. Despite her tender age and complete ignorance of matters of this world, Clara grasped the absurdity of the situation and wrote in her notebook about the contrast of her mother and her friends, in their fur coats and suede boots, speaking of oppression, equality, and rights to a sad, resigned group of hard-working women in denim aprons, their hands red with chilblains.
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Nívea del Valle Quotes in The House of the Spirits
The The House of the Spirits quotes below are all either spoken by Nívea del Valle or refer to Nívea del Valle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
At times Clara would accompany her mother and two or three of her suffragette friends on their visits to factories, where they would stand on soapboxes and make speeches to the women who worked there while the foremen and bosses, snickering and hostile, observed them from a prudent distance. Despite her tender age and complete ignorance of matters of this world, Clara grasped the absurdity of the situation and wrote in her notebook about the contrast of her mother and her friends, in their fur coats and suede boots, speaking of oppression, equality, and rights to a sad, resigned group of hard-working women in denim aprons, their hands red with chilblains.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
