The stereotype of women passiveness rarely emphasizes the strengths behind staying silent. Isabel Allende writes with the perspective of magical, powerful women in 19th century Chile where they face the constraints of the patriarchy. The plot of the novel centers around the female family members of each generation. They tell their story and their hardships of living in a time of political turmoil. In addition to this, these women attempt to improve the lives of others in a society that does not believe in the capabilities of women. Gender inequalities imposed by the patriarchy plays a significant part in these women’s lives. However, by using the stereotype of passive silence, they are able to make significant impacts to those who abuse them. In this way, they prove themselves worthy to society and make a more meaningful impact than the men in the novel. Despite the abuse and restrictions of traditional gender roles in the novel, the female characters in The House of the Spirits reveal their strength to overpower patriarchal influences in their lives and find the power to exact permanent change in society.
At a glance, The House of the Spirits portrays its stance on feminism by having majority female characters and allowing them to tell the story. Prominent female roles remain the focus of the novel with the secondary characters being the men whom the women marry or fall in love with. In the beginning of the book, Nivea is introduced as the suffragette who would “stand on soapboxes and make speeches to women who worked” (91). This sets the stage to the background theme of feminism. While the rest of her family does not follow the same outright feminist path, her daughters and granddaughters still fight back against the men who try to control them. In addition to this, the women are not dependent on their husbands or fathers. For example, Esteban Trueba never plays a part in nurturing Blanca and “his relationship with his daughter has never been good” (296). Furthermore, the absence of a father in Alba’s life illustrates how they were not an instrumental part of these characters’ childhood. In addition to this, Esteban Trueba is not important in the lives of Férula and Clara. Férula and Clara are able to live on their own when they become separated from Esteban Trueba. For most of her life, Férula is trapped by circumstance because her brother was able to leave and be on his own. Férula is forced to care for her mother and she remarks how she “would like to have been born a man” to have the same privileges as her brother (50). Férula ended up dying in poverty; however, she was freed from her family and “magnificent in her queenly desolation, and on her face was an expression of sweetness and serenity she never had in her grievous life” (168). On her own, Férula does not need the support of Esteban and was actually happier being on her own. Another woman in Esteban’s life who does not need him is Clara. When Clara leaves him for hitting her and her daughter, she leaves and made a new life for them in the city. Without Esteban, Clara suffers no misfortune and she cares for those in need “like a small, happy, toothless queen” (233). Tránsito Soto exemplifies independence by her acknowledgment of the gender roles of society and understands how women often “have to sacrifice themselves for the sake of someone else” (130). She fights this stereotype by proclaiming she will “work for [her]self” and support herself instead of others (130). Tránsito Soto is even the savior of Alba and of Esteban in the end. The novel gives a voice to these females with independence; however, this does not mean they were exempt from sexism and gender roles of the time.
In the further examination of the portrayal of feminism in the novel, the abuse of women also becomes apparent. The effects of the patriarchy are deeply ingrained in the period of time where Alba’s story develops. Gender inequality plays a part in each of the character’s lives. Influenced by her mother, Clara tries to inform the women of Tres Mariás of the gender inequalities they face. The peasants, who live without the same privileges as Clara, do not question their place and only listened out of respect. They tell Clara “since when has a man not beaten his wife? If he doesn’t beat her, it’s either because he doesn’t love her or because he isn’t a real man” (118). These women are accustomed to their placement in society and marriages, so they do not know any other view because of their submission to traditional gender roles and inequalities. This view is reinforced by people like Esteban Trueba. Esteban Trueba is the product of a patriarchal society. He consistently commits abuses against women and further enforces their place in society by proclaiming “their duty is motherhood and the home” (75). Esteban rapes numerous girls in Tres Mariás and “simply used [them] as a hygienic method for relieving the tensions of the day and obtaining a good night’s sleep” (70). He uses these girls without fear of consequences and is a prime example of sexism in the 19th century coupled with the imposing of gender roles. Just as Nivea is the direct and outright symbol of feminism, Esteban is the direct portrayal of the abuses committed against women using gender roles. Every female in this novel is marked by gender inequality and has to face mistreatment from men in a patriarchal society.
In addition to the gender roles imposed in the 19th century, the stereotypes of women are visible in their actions. The stereotype of passiveness is visible in the novel’s cast of independent women. However, this trait is used to harm the men who abuse them. This characteristic of interiority is depicted through Clara. From her childhood, Clara has lived a vivid inner world and has used silence as a type of control over her life where she “was silent because she did not feel like speaking” (83). Silence is also used to deprive Esteban of his power he tries to assert over her. When Esteban screams at her and breaks the furniture in a rage, Clara is as “inattentive as ever” (119). This destroys the power behind Esteban’s form of aggression. Clara lives in her vivid inner world where Esteban has no power over her and thus can not invoke any fear. When Esteban uses physical abuse against Clara, she decides to never speak to him again and she leaves him. Clara says nothing but Esteban is left “humiliated and furious…with the sensation that something in his life had been destroyed forever” (224). She does not have to say anything at all in order to hurt him more than he has ever been able to hurt her with his violent fits of rage. Because Clara knows “the advantages of silence,” she understands her daughter’s method of staying silent as well (294). The power behind silence is also demonstrated through Alba. Alba uses the feminine stereotype purposefully in order to fight back against men in higher power. When Esteban García is interrogating Alba, she stays silent and only asks to go to the bathroom. Alba is raped and beaten, but she never gives them the information they want. Similar to how Clara did not fight back physically, Alba’s silence is a way for her to refuse the control of Esteban García psychologically, and “she was beyond his power” (461). Esteban Trueba and Esteban García may be able to hit and abuse these women, but they will never have access to what they truly desired. Demonstrated through silence, this psychological power of women is far more powerful than the strength the men believe they have over them.
The female characters’ stereotypically “feminine” traits of passiveness also allows them to make an impact on society in ways the men fail to. The men in this novel often try to achieve change through violent revolution because “radical change is never brought about willingly and without violence” (370). On the contrary, the females take action such as feeding the poor, educating children, and providing assistance to those in need in order to achieve permanent change. When Clara arrived to Tres Mariás, she “understood that there was a place for her in Tres Mariás and…her ability to see what was invisible immediately detected the workers’ resentment, fear, and distrust” (117). Esteban’s abuse of the peasants was obvious, but “there’s nothing [he] regrets” (61). She does not try to take control to improve the lives of the peasants. Instead, Clara is sympathetic and makes a substantial difference by providing care instead of forceful change. Alba follows in the footsteps of the women who came before her and in doing so “she took everybody else’s suffering onto her own back” (420). Alba also mentions the other “stoical, partial women of [their] country” who cares for anyone who is abandoned and takes note “that the days of Colonel García and all those like him are numbered, because they have not been able to destroy the spirit of these women” (477). The profound impact these women have, not just in their family, truly shows how women work within their gender roles to make significant change.
The women in The House of the Spirits are portrayed as powerful and independent, despite the constraints of the gender roles of society. Their passive silence denies the control the men try to exert over women. Isabel Allende tells the story of the generations of a family who endures the abuse of traditional gender roles in a patriarchal society. These women find strength with the stereotype that is forced upon them. They manipulate the stereotypically feminine characteristic of passiveness to display strength in a world that tries to control them. In doing so, these women find ways to weaken the patriarchal influence within their own lives and the world. While the men’s bloody revolutions take center stage, the resiliency of the women to care for the forgotten and make substantial change highlights the importance of such strong women in a society. These powerful women of The House of the Spirits demonstrate how to use the stereotypes enforced upon them to gain strength and make a difference in spite of all exceptions of society.
Works Cited
Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits, New York: Atria Paperback, 2015. Print.
2019-5-17-1558125492