Esteban's Social Class In The House Of The Spirits

Superior Essays
Social class is an important theme in The House of the Spirits. Esteban is the only character survives in the whole novel. Esteban’s character has changed a lot since he becomes the patron of Tres Marias. Specifically, Esteban’s social class changes affect his character from a pure and simple man to a powerful and demanding man.

Lower class Esteban has a pure love for his fiancée. He loves Rosa at his first sight, and he wants to be a wealthy man before marrying his fiancée. Esteban grows up in a poor condition family. His birth “had simply been a regrettable accident in the life of Dona Ester, who was destined to marry someone of her own class, but she had fallen hopelessly in love with that good-for-nothing immigrant, a first-generation
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After Rosa’s death, Esteban goes to Tres Marias and he is successful in transform Tres Marias from a place full of dust and spiderwebs to a prosperous place where people can live comfortably, and “they weren’t struck by some catastrophe such as drought, frost, plague, ants, or snails, in which case things became very difficult indeed. But after I arrived all that changed” (Allende 53). Esteban feels his importance in Tres Marias; he thinks that without him, this place would be still an impoverished place. However, his importance could not be denied. Obviously, he helps elevate the life of the people in Tres Marias. He thinks that his presence made people feel secure again. When he acknowledges his power, his character starts to change in a negative way. The peasants are scared of him, as they “hid their daughters and clenched their fists helplessly because they could not confront him. Esteban Trueba was stronger, and he had impunity” (Allende 63). When Esteban acknowledges his power, he turns himself into a barbarian. He finally forgets Rosa and begins the new chapter of his life as an upper class man in such a negative way. He raped girls in Tres Marias without bothering to hide. Esteban was not scared of what he did, because he acknowledged his power; therefore, he was afraid of no …show more content…
After setting fire to the peasants’ house, all that night he keeps “recalling the faces of the peasants, whom he had seen come into this world on his property, as they moved off along the highway. He cursed his bad temper” (Allende 386). The peasants are not just his “property”, but they are part of the soul of Tres Marias. According to the common American phrase, “Hatred is as blind as love”, Esteban is displeased when the peasants betray him, and it makes he think that he lost his power to the land he owns. He “cursed his bad temper” because Esteban regrets that he makes the peasants leave. He feels lonely in his own land, as people start to “move off along the highway”. Esteban feels even more lonely when his granddaughter is arrested by the police. When Miguel appears in his house, and Miguel “almost gave my grandfather a stroke, but in a few minutes he realized that the two of them of them had a common goal: to rescue me” (Allende 423). Esteban is old now, and he does not have enough power as he thought before to rescue his dearest granddaughter. He listens to Miguel, because he realizes the most important thing for him is Alba. Esteban’s character softens as he does not have as much as power before. When he is alone, Esteban finally realizes meaningful value in his

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