“The House of the Spirits” from the Jungian-Marxist Perspectives

Ever tried comparing your life to your house?   

 In The House of the Spirits, the screen adaptation of Allende’s classic novel, one sees that the life a family leads may be the same with the structure of its house. Funny it may sound but a house indeed contributes to the quality of life a family lives. A big family needs a bigger house if the parents want their children to be comfortable and a small family may be satisfied to a smaller house for as long as they are together. Those are the realities of living a family life.  

 In the novel however, the family of Trueba and Del Valle do not at all care about what happened to their house and not even to what happened to their family. Indeed, the house is a metaphor of their family and their family’s twists of fate, which includes the problems ww the family will face. 

The House of the Spirits is a heartwarming and an utterly soul-stirring film stocked with selfless characters who serve as foils to Esteban Trueba, the novel’s fortress of selfishness and materialism. He’s a man with a shallow perspective on how the world really works. With him is his wife, Clara, a woman of ethereal beauty and a heart so pure, and spiritually gifted. Their only daughter is Bianca, a woman full of courage, hope and love. 

The novel does not have a single plot. It has a mixture of subplots of stories from the past, present and future centered on different characters. Since it has subplots, the story revolves on several themes: 

First, it talks about fate. Clara’s clairvoyance allows her to understand people’s fates by predicting the future. Though she can predict, she cannot change the future making fate as an arbitrary experience in the story. 

The film also talks about the empowered female protagonists who are working in different ways to assert their rights. Feminism is also very evident in the story, not to forget, the novelist is also a woman. Clara, Bianca and Alba are those females who shaped the entire story. 

In some parts of the film, much exploitation can be seen of the poor by the rich. At the very beginning of the film, one can easily feel and see the tension between the upper class and the lower class – of the landowner and the peasants – of the del Valle and Trueba Families and the Garcia Family. It is about the struggle between classes by the major characters. It begins in a relatively calm political atmosphere and then ends in a political uproar. 

The story also covers a lot of issues: revenge, politics and how amazing how true love can reach beyond death. 

Archetypes:This remarkable screen adaptation of Allende’s classic novel captures all of the nuances that captivate the audience of the film. The film is made that much more effective and astonishing through the abundantly use of recurring images and symbols. 

The different houses in the film are an archetype of a society with varying social classes. A certain house that was described as grandiose is the society where the upper class lives. Full of relentless materialism and otherworldliness. 

Also, the title itself is ambiguous. The spirit in the title doesn’t really entail to supernatural entities but to the horrors of the past of Esteban that keep on haunting him. 

“At birth Rosa was white and smooth, without a wrinkle, like a porcelain doll, with green hair and yellow eyes—the most beautiful creature to be born on earth since the days of original sin, as the midwife put it, making the sign of the cross.” 

The quoted lines above are taken from the novel itself. It is a perfect example of how magic realism works in the story. Rosa is a symbol of perfection among women. A very real character, with a beauty that is other-worldly. Rosa’s mother realizes that she is too beautiful to last and is not surprised when she dies before marrying Esteban. 

Power and class struggle:

The House of the Spirits is a story of class struggle. All of these aspects are affected by the class structure that divides society into two basic groups – the white, educated elite of European descent who control politics and business, and the poor workers and peasants who have little access to education or politics. The resentment that builds as the characters struggle against this oppressive class structure propels much of the action of the climactic final chapter. The film is driven by its plot, not by the characters that populate the film. Events fly by as fast as the decades, with political activities gaining importance as the movie races towards its conclusion. What starts out as a relatively simple love story ends in a clash between cultures and classes, between the old ways and the new ones.

Many of the characters, both major and minor, are ciphers for a certain point-of-view or belief. This includes, the lower-class revolutionary; Esteban Garcia , the unprincipled army officer; and even Ferula, the maligned and misunderstood sister who wants only to be shown love and affection.“The Socialists are going to win.” A line uttered by Esteban in the film. He believes that the ones who always win are going to win again. There’s a sense of inevitability to victory for him. The notion that anyone who opposes the ruling party is totally unreasonable. “The ones who always win are going to win again” becomes a sort of catchphrase for Esteban Trueba, and something that they rely upon. They become complacent that they will always be in power. 

Conclusion:

The film overall is about making decisions in life of doing good and bad. That whatever you do, everything boomerangs to you, through someone you love. The story was edgy and creepy in some areas. But it holds truth to be told. Definitely an underrated and recently forgotten epic.

onceuponatimein-paris asked: Kapitan! I followed 'ya :D

Owryt!! =D

Moved

Nothing can really make me feel better than the love and support of my mother. Her reinforcement did work as I expected. Life goes on for me! :D

:(

Lord, help me get through this.