This is a summarized presentation on Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits wherein I uses a historical-biographical approach to analyze the novel. It would be better interpreted using a feminist approach, but then what i tried to cover is the relationship of the setting and the characters to Chile's history.

1. ANALYSIS OF
„THE HOUSE OF
THE SPIRITS‟
Traditional Approach (Historical-
Biographical)
Andrea May C. Malonzo

2. Summary: Clara
 The del Valle (Rosa and
Clara)
 Uncle Marcos
 Rosa‟s death
 Esteban Trueba
 Tres Marias
 Pedro Segundo Garcia
 Pancha Garcia
 Transito Soto
 Ester Trueba‟s death
 Big House in the corner
 Clara and Esteban‟s
marriage
 Ferula
 Clara‟s first Pregnancy
 Blanca
 Summer at Tres Marias
 Clara‟s Pregnancy
 Nivea and Severo‟s
death
 Missing head
 Jaime and Nicolas
 Ferula‟s banishment
and death

3. Summary: Blanca
 Blanca and Pedro
 Love affair
 massive earthquake
 Esteban‟s broken
bones
 Clara‟s domestic job
 Pedro Segundo
foreman
 Pedro Tercero‟s
socialists ideas
 Banishment of Pedro
Tercero
 Count Jean de Satigny
 Death of Pedro Garcia
 Discovery of love affair
 Punishment of Blanca
and Clara
 Pedro Segundo, Blanca
and Clara left
 Esteban‟s revenge on
Pedro Tercero
 Blanca‟s Pregnancy
 Marriage to Satigny
 Esteban won the
election
 Amanda‟s abortion
 Alba‟s birth

4. Summary: Alba
 Little Alba and the
Trueba
 Esteban Garcia‟s
molestation
 Clara‟s death
 Nicolas sent abroad
 Mausoleum for Clara
and Rosa
 Esteban‟s obsession on
“Marxist cancer”
 Alba and Miguel
 Jaime and the
“Candidate”
 Socialists won
 Pedro proposes
marriage to Blanca
 Economic sabotage
 Agrarian reform
 Esteban as hostage in
Tres Marias
 Pedro freed Esteban
 Military coup
 President and Jaime
killed
 New government (no
democracy)

5. Summary: Alba
 Esteban destroyed
the peasant village
 The Poet‟s funeral
 Esteban admits his
mistakes
 Reconcile with
Blanca and Pedro
 Alba was captured
 Esteban Garcia‟s
torture and rape
 Clara‟s appearance
 Miguel helped
Esteban
 Transito Soto
 Alba was freed
 Writing of the novel
 Esteban‟s death
 Alba‟s pregnancy

6. Interpretation
Theme of the Novel
 Social Injustices and Conflict of Classes
“It would be lovely if we were all created equal, but
the fact is we're not.” - Esteban Trueba
 The patron and the tenants of Tres Marias
 The upper class conservatives (democratic)
 Gender inequality (oppression of women)

7. Analysis
The House of the Spirits is a magical realism
novel written by Isabel Allende after she fled from
Chile because of the political turmoil in the
country. The president during those times was
Salvador Allende, Isabel‟s uncle, who was killed in
his office during the military coup.
The same political history occurred in the
novel which made a significant connection
between the two. The House of the Spirits reflects
the Chilean society before and during the political
turmoil during the 1970‟s between the democrats
and the communists.

8. Elements of the Novel
 Plot
 Exposition
 Del Valle and Trueba
 Complication
 Esteban Trueba
 Climax
 Military coup
 Resolution
 Esteban admits his
mistakes
 Ending
 Alba
 Setting
 Chile
 Tres Marias
 House in the City
 Point of View
 “I”- Alba
 “I”- Esteban
 Omniscient

9. Severo
del
Valle
Nivea
del
Valle
Pedro
Tercero
Garcia
Clara del
Valle
Trueba
Esteban
Trueba
Blanca
Trueba
Jaime
Trueba
Pancha
Garcia
Rosa
del
Valle
Alba Trueba
de Satigny
Esteban
Garcia
Ester
Trueba Ferula
Trueba
Nicolas
Trueba
Pedro
Segund
o
Garcia
Pedro
Garcia
Esteba
n
Garcia
Amand
a
Miguel
Jean
de
Satign
y
CHARACTE
RS
Uncle
Marcos
Nana
Transito
Soto
Ana
Diaz
3 Mora
Sisters
The
“Candidate/
President”
The “Poet”

10. Historical Context of the
Novel

11. “The Great Chilean Earthquake”
- The 1933 Chilean
earthquake was
actually a series of
strong earthquakes
that affected Chile
between 21 May
and 6 June 1933.
There where an
estimated10,260
people who died.
"There's going to be
an earthquake!"
Clara announced,
daily growing paler
and more, agitated...
This time it's going
to be different.
There will be ten
thousand dead."

12. The “Poet”
Pablo Neruda
Neruda became known as a poet while
still a teenager. He wrote in a variety of styles
including surrealist poems, historical epics,
overtly political manifestos, a prose
autobiography, and erotically-charged love
poems such as the ones in his 1924
collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of
Despair. In 1971 Neruda won the Nobel Prize
for Literature. Colombian novelist Gabriel
García Márquez once called him "the greatest
poet of the 20th century in any language.“
Neruda always wrote in green ink as it was
his personal color of hope.
Neruda was hospitalized with cancer at
the time of the Chilean coup d'état led
by Augusto Pinochet. Three days after being
hospitalized, Neruda died of heart failure.
Already a legend in life, Neruda's death
reverberated around the world. Pinochet had
denied permission to transform Neruda's
funeral into a public event. However,
thousands of grieving Chileans disobeyed the
curfew and crowded the streets.

13. “The Candidate”
Salvador Allende-
Gossens
He was a Chilean physician and
politician who is generally considered the first
democratically elected Marxist to become
president of a country in Latin America.
In 1970, he won the presidency in a
close three-way race, formally elected by
Congress as no candidate had gained a
majority.
Allende adopted the policy
of nationalization of industries
and collectivization.
On 11 September 1973 the military,
citing a call by the Chilean Congress to end
his presidency, staged a coup against
Allende. As the armed forces surrounded La
Moneda Palace, Allende gave his last speech
vowing not to resign, and committed suicide
thereafter.After Allende's ouster, Chile was
led by a military junta, and then as

14. Military Coup d'état
Government of
Junta 1973
The 1973 Chilean coup
d'état was a watershed event of
the Cold War and the history of Chile.
Following an extended period of social
and political unrest between the
conservative-dominated Congress of
Chile and the
socialist President Salvador Allende.
A military junta led by Allende's
Army Commander-in-Chief Augusto
Pinochet eventually took control of the
government, composed of the heads
of the Air Force, Navy,
Carabineros (police force) and the
Army.

15. The Author: Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende was born August 2, 1942, in
Lima, Peru, the daughter of Chilean diplomat
Tomás Allende and his wife, Francisca Llona
Barros. Her father was a first cousin of Salvador
Allende, her godfather, who later became
president of Chile.
Allende became a noted journalist in
Chile, authoring regular magazine columns,
editing a children's magazine, and even hosting
a weekly television program. In the meantime,
her uncle Salvador Allende was elected
President of Chile on his fourth attempt at the
office. When his government fell to a military
coup on September 13, 1973, the author's life
took a dramatic change. For fifteen months, the
author helped many people escape the military's
persecution at the risk of her own life,
witnessing events that she would later
incorporate into her first novel.

16. Evaluation
The House of then Spirits is a very good
and well written novel with thrilling political
backdrop.
It is highly recommended for those who are
interested in political history and political
themes.
Those who are also interested in love
stories may also find this novel worth reading.

17. n END