Narrative Structure and Time in The House of the Spirits
Narrative Structure in *The House of the Spirits*
The House of the Spirits (1982) is a polyphonic text with three narrators: Alba, Esteban Trueba, and a third-person narrator. These narrators can be classified into two types:
Narrator-Characters
Alba Trueba and Esteban Trueba are the two narrators who alternate in the first person to tell the story, offering two different perspectives of the same reality. Some chapters are narrated by Esteban, others by Alba, and some alternate between the two narrative voices in a rich counterpoint.
Third-Person Narrator
There are other chapters (VII, VIII, IX, XI, XII, and XIII) where the third person dominates. This coincides with the fastest pace of historical events narrated in these chapters, including a sense of objectivity.
The three narrators seem distinct:
- An external omniscient narrator who relates the text in the third person, telling the story based on Clara’s notebooks.
- Esteban Trueba, who writes the text in the first person from his point of view.
- The epilogue is written by Alba, in the first person.
Although the novel is narrated linearly, there are elements that break the idea of time, such as the structure of the novel and the use of anticipations or prolepsis.
The Effect of Polyphony
In reading the novel, the reader understands how Allende has written the multifaceted reality of the text. It is a polyphonic narrative far more complex than the simple alternation of two views. Alba rewrites the history of the extensive family saga, supported by the notebooks of her grandmother Clara and records of the estate. The two views encourage the reader to construct meaning personally. This polyphony is connected with one aspect of magical realism: providing greater complexity to the text and, therefore, the stated facts.
Time and Space in *The House of the Spirits*
At no time is any specific chronological mention made, nor is the location of the action explicitly stated. Allende manages to recreate some of the history of Chile and the story of a family for generations. Time and space go together.
Historical Time
The novel sets the action in the twentieth century, and the events described occur over a period covered by the development of the narrative material: several years (approximately from 1900 until 1973). During this time, we find the account of historical and fictional events together. Historical time corresponds to several eras: from the colonial era through the World Wars to the military dictatorship of General Pinochet in 1973. The novel covers, over the years, the evolution of social and ideological changes in the country. It introduces technological advances, changes in customs, the “new ideas” of socialism, the emancipation of women, ghosts, spiritualism, and Communists, leading to the Socialist victory and the subsequent military coup. The work will focus on the coup that corresponds to the year 1973. The coup overthrew the government of Salvador Allende after a period of heightened political polarization and social upheaval.
Novel Time
With this historical background, Isabel Allende begins her efforts to rescue the memory of the past with the story of a great family saga, the existence of four generations of the Trueba family, in which correspondence and romantic time are particularly relevant. Historical time helps us understand the family, social, and political facts of the novel.
Narrative Time
Narrative time refers to the order in which the facts are presented. The distortion of narrative time is one of the main features of The House of the Spirits. Events are repeated but appear with different perspectives. Events of the present, past, and future are also interspersed. It is a story that presents the facts most linearly in some parts, but temporal leaps forward can be observed, advancing the reader to some action that will happen later. This resource has a narrative sense: to look for an explanation of the present in the future that the narrator adds.