House of the Spirits

House of the Spirits

In Allende’s The House of the Spirits, Esteban Trueba is the principal male character. During the course of the novel, Trueba increases his power in the world as he progresses in status from a conservative landowner to a powerful senator. He is tyrannical, treating his family members and the tenants on his family hacienda, Tres Marías, like subjects rather than intimate community. The basis for most of Trueba's actions is the desire for power, control, and wealth, and he pursues these things at any cost, disregarding his emotional decline and the effects of his actions upon the people in his life.

The most brutal display of Trueba’s power are the many rapes he performs in Las Tres Marías: “…not a girl passed from puberty to adulthood that he did not subject to the woods, the riverbank, or the wrought-iron bed…he began to chase after those from the neighboring haciendas, take them in the wink of an eye, anywhere he could find a place in the fields.” Trueba rationalizes away his guilt, absolves his sins by “harden[ing] his soul and silenc[ing] his conscience with the excuse of progress” . His actions, however, come back to haunt him later in the novel, when the product of one of his rapes, his illegitimate grandson, Esteban Garcia, becomes a leader in the military regime and captures his beloved Alba, who is tortured and raped by Garcia's men.

Trueba also desires control over his wife, daughter, and granddaughter. He wants “control over that undefined and luminous material that lay with her [Clara] and that escaped him”. In addition, when Clara stated, “You can’t keep the world from changing, Esteban. If it’s not Pedro Tercero García, someone else will bring new ideas to Tres Marías,” Trueba ...

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...aracteristic he had had since childhood, when he used to throw himself on the floor foaming at the mouth, so furious that he could scarcely breath, and kicking like one possessed by the devil”.

Trueba is successful politically and financially, but he suffers emotionally. As Trueba's wealth and power grow, his relationships with his family members and tenants crumble. His failure to achieve a balance between his priorities and the needs of other people causes many disturbances in the social interactions throughout his life. Trueba attempts to solve many problems through the use of his uncontrollable fits of rage, and this is his ultimate downfall. Trueba is unable to comprehend the effects of his actions and he refuses to realize his emotional decline, resulting in his long and miserable life until he dies in the arms of his granddaughter, Alba, at an old age.