Womens Situation in Isabel Allendes Novel The House of the Spirits - Essay Example

Portrayal of Women’s Situation in Isabel Allende’s Novel “The House of the Spirits” Isabel Allende’s novel, “The House of the Spirits”, depicts a crude, male macho culture where women do not possess the right to have any ‘say’ against their male counterparts. Therefore, their response to the male monopolies and patriarchal ideologies of their society is quite feminine. Breaking the traditional norms, Allende chooses to portray women’s age-old condition from a female perspective in patriarchal society. She shows that in a male dominated society, a woman’s story is basically almost the same for three generation. It is the story of the cruel, snobbish and haughty male dominance over women. On the contrary, the women are passive, subservient and puppet-like in the hand of their male counterparts. It is not that they do not long for freedom of action and choice; indeed, they long for it and attempt to exert stealthily. But when their ambition are revealed, they have been mercilessly silenced down by the men around them. All of the protagonists in Allende’s novel are, more or less, vulnerable to male violence and brutality. They are powerless in the face of the men’s superiority and macho possessiveness. Despite their powerlessness, they challenge the patriarchal authority by feminine mode of protests such assuming reclaiming maiden name, resort to silence, self-withdrawal, etc. After all, the women’s status, as portrayed in the novel, is more like an addendum to their men than a self-dependent individual. Like any patriarchal society, the fate of Allende’s women is determined greatly shaped and determined by the men around them. They are the objects of male lust like other properties which belong to a man. Obviously, these women belong to a society which is run by rigid patriarchal ideologies. In the novel, Esteban’s character seems to personify all those patriarchal ideologies. He believes that marriage is the best protection of a woman who is unable to ensure their own safety because of their psychophysical inferiority. So, he sent “Jaime and Nicolás were sent to a Victorian English boarding school” (Allende 78). The father in Esteban believes that Blanca’s destiny was “marriage and a brilliant life in society, where the ability to converse with the dead, if kept on a frivolous level, could be an asset” (Allende 78). Indeed, Allende’s women are imprisoned in a rigidly defined social gender-role. He believes that since women are both physically and mentally immature, their activities should remain confined to childrearing, cooking, etc within the four-walls of their husbands’ house, as Esteban says, “If women dont know that two and two are four, how are they going to be able to handle a scalpel? Their duty is motherhood and the home” (Allende 34). A perfect patriarch like him cannot even imagine in his wildest dream that women are worthy of being “deputies, judges – even President of the Republic!” (Allende 84). In a male dominated, even the majority of the women think a man’s ability to tame his wife with brute force as a part of his macho manliness. When Esteban beats Clara, the poor peasant of Tres Marias comments on this macho manhood as following: “Since when has a man not beaten his wife? If he doesnt beat her, its either because he doesnt love her or because he isnt a real man” (Allende 56). Allende further shows how women in a male dominated society is taught to sacrifice their ‘self’ in order to please their male counterparts. The pathetic situation of women in a patriarchal society is that though men are traditionally considered as the savior of women, they, in reality, are mostly oppressed by their male counterparts. In an article, Alina Camacho-Gingerich comments on the portrayal of women as following: “The world that Allende recreates…is a violent, corrupt, patriarchal world where women are among the most abused citizens, with very little power and almost no control over their destinies” (32). Indeed, women are in a dilemma regarding their position in a male dominated society. For security, safety and physical provisions, they submit themselves to their men. In return, they themselves are stripped of their individuality and power to decide on their own wellbeing (Nwosu 8-9). On the other hand, the men are vested with despotic power to do anything on their own accord. Transito Soto, the prostitute-friend of Esteban, identifies this dilemma of women in a patriarchal society as following: “In that respect women are really thick….They need a man to feel secure but they dont realize that the one thing they should be afraid of is men. They dont know how to run their lives” (Allende 89). Soto has pointed out an interesting thing about the women’s situation in the society. She comments that “they have to sacrifice themselves for the sake of someone else” (Allende 78). Here, she points out the selflessness of women; obviously, this selflessness is symbolic of their lack of identity. Though in this speech, Soto points to a prostitute’s status, her comment coincidentally reveals a woman’s situation in conjugal life. Her statement seems to echo Clara’s situation as well. In Allende’s society, a woman whether she is a wife or a daughter, is vulnerable to physical violence of her husband or father. Clara has spent her whole as a modest housewife who puts up with her husband, Esteban’s tyrannical authority over her individuality and his promiscuous sexuality. But her loyalty is not reciprocated by love. Soto seems to say that, for women, the institution of marriage in a patriarchal society is worse than prostitution, as she comments, “They throw their lives away working for some pimp, smile when he beats them, feel proud when hes well dressed…and when he goes off and takes up with a woman half their age they forgive him everything because hes a man” (Allende 142). The striking similarity between a wife (Clara) and a prostitute (Soto) is that when as a wife Clara sacrifices herself for her husband, a prostitute sacrifice herself for “some pimp” (Allende 142). Referring to one of Clara’s sacrificial traits, Jane Ahrling says, “she does not speak for 9 years after the death of her sister Rosa….This can be seen as an evidence of involuntary female sacrifice for the benefit of a man” (5). Both Clara and Soto are subdued, oppressed and stripped of the freedom of choice. They are overshadowed with the manliness of their male counterparts alike. It is remarkable that Soto tells these words to her patron, Esteban. Amazingly, she seems to portray Clara’s situation as a wife. The words “bondage” and “servitude” seem to best represent a woman’s pathetic situation. In Allende’s novel, women are commonly the victims of male lust, which is traditionally considered as the part of macho manhood. Esteban rapes any woman whomever he wants. When he does not find “more available women in Tres Marías”, he starts to “chase after those from the neighboring haciendas, taking them in the wink of an eye, anywhere” (Allende 35). Indeed, Esteban can be considered as the best representation of the patriarchal macho manhood. Esteban makes frequent sexual relationship with those as if they were his property, as Kathryn M. Smith notes, “The women whom Esteban rapes are not notable to him because he views them as his property and feels entitled to use them as sexual objects” (82). Generally, Allende’s women are victims of the same macho manhood, as the narrator (referring to the rape of Pancha) tells about the common fate of women as the object of male lust: “neither Panchas humble origin nor the pressing demands of his desire allowed him to reconsider….Before her, her mother – and before her, her grandmother – had suffered the same animal fate” (Allende 67). In the novel, Esteban has been portrayed as a transgressor; but his granddaughter Alba is going to pay for his sin. In such macho culture, it is not surprising that Ferula, Esteban’s sister “would have preferred to have been born a man” (Camacho-Gingerich 32). The society will condone Esteban’s relationship with Soto, the prostitute, because “he’s a man” (Allende 142). Even he will be exempted from the rape of Pacha because of his high social status. But a woman’s secret is a serious blow to the manliness of a man. When Blanca’s affair with Pedro Tercero gets revealed, Esteban whips her severely and knocks the frontal teeth of Clara. Allende has successfully portrayed the pathetic situation of women in a patriarchal society. Her women are victims of patriarchal authority and male-lust. More pathetically, they live like bandits within the society defined gender roles and institutions. As a wife, Clara sacrifices her own individuality and submits herself completely to her husband Esteban. But her loyalty is not reciprocated. As a woman, Pancha suffers from his lust and a daughter, Blanca is beaten violently for injuring his honor by maintaining an affair with a boy of the inferior class. In this patriarchal macho culture, they are powerless and stripped off their right to choose and act on their own accord. Allende shows that in patriarchy, marriage is a social tool which men manipulates for subjugating and putting a woman in his servitude. Ironically, he believes that marriage is the best protection of a woman who is unable to ensure their own safety because of their psychophysical inferiority. Indeed, Allende’s women are imprisoned in a rigidly defined social gender-role. Their fate is mercilessly determined by their fathers, their husbands or sex-crazed people like Esteban. Works Cited Ahrling, Jane. A Feminist Reading of The House of the Spirits, Song of Solomon, and One Hundred Years of Solitude. English Studies, Mid Sweden University. 2010. 08 April, 2014. Available at Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits. trans. Magda Bogin. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. Camacho-Gingerich, Alina. “In Search of the Feminine Voice: Feminist Discourse in Contemporary Latin American Literature,” St. Johns Law Review: 69.1(1995): 27-36. 08 April, 2014. Available at Nwosu, Maik. “‘Barrabás came to us by sea’: Absence and Presence in Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits”, Transnational Literature. 1.2 (2009): 1-12. 08 April, 2014. Available at Smith, By Kathryn M. “Telling (T)he(i)r Story: The Rise of Female Narration and Women’s History in Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits”, Florida Atlantic Comparative Studies Journal. 11(2009): 79-92. 08 April, 2014. Available at Read More