A Long Petal of the Sea

Despite Roser’s humble origins, her talent provides her entry into Barcelona’s middle class. In Professor Dalmau’s opinion, she is his most talented student of music. Throughout the ordeals of civil war, the French camps, the passage on the Winnipeg, and adjusting to life in Chile, Roser uses her talents to ensure that culture in the form of music continues. She studies and teaches music in Chile, and is later instrumental in forming an antique orchestra. Even when Victor and Roser return to Chile in the last years of Pinochet’s dictatorship, she brings music to the poor shantytowns. Through Roser, Allende demonstrates the necessity of culture and music to people and to civilization.

As Victor’s wife, Roser grows to love him truly and to understand the real meaning of love. When she fell in love with Guillem as a young woman, Roser had the “conviction that he was the only man she could love” (36). She marries Victor as a matter of necessity so they can escape Europe. Over time, however, she comes to love Victor and does everything in her power to find him when he is imprisoned in Chile. She has affairs, including a lengthy one with Aitor, but there is never any question that she will leave Victor. He is her family.

Roser’s character is stronger than Victor’s. She more easily acclimates to change and adapts to different cultures, as evinced in the temporary move to Venezuela. She is practical and focused on achieving her goals. When Victor falls into despair, Roser gives him perspective. Even when diagnosed with a fatal illness, Roser makes the best of her remaining time and accepts her own death. She is a force of life, both in her love and her music, and she is Victor’s “anchor” (206).

Representative of a protected, upper-class woman, Ofelia initially comes across as rebellious and unwilling to accept her consigned role. Upon returning from Europe with her parents, Ofelia’s character starts to demonstrate depth and a social conscience. It is she who ensures the Jewish family is not disembarked for the sake of the del Solars, and she who gives that family clothing. Upon her return to Chile, she ponders the predicament of women and tries to transcend her limited choices. She has a passion for art, similar to Roser’s passion for music.

When Ofelia falls in love with Victor, everything changes. Even if Victor was not married, their different social classes would not allow for marriage. When Ofelia becomes pregnant, the burden of her gender is overbearing. She loses self-esteem and all regard for her appearance. She resents Victor and writes off their passionate attraction as an infatuation. Now able to recognize her suitor Matias’s unconditional love, she agrees to marry him and give him the love he deserves. In so doing, she accepts her lot as an upper-class woman. In old age, Ofelia becomes a superficial character, with little interest in meeting her daughter when she learns of her existence. Through this character, Allende shows the numbing impact of traditional roles for women.

Representative of the son of an elite family, Felipe has the freedom to shape his own life. He is the means with which Allende brings the Dalmau and del Solar families together. As a young man, Felipe supported progressive causes, including welcoming Spanish immigrants into Chilean society. Impressed with the Dalmaus, he hosts them in his own home and forms a long-term friendship with them. Allende uses Felipe to highlight the prejudices of the upper class, which he rejects in his youth but embraces in his later years. Over time, it becomes apparent that his interest in progressive causes was a hobby or curiosity, and he grows more politically conservative. He recognizes his own material interests, but he is more enlightened than his parents. In some ways, there is no place for Felipe in Chile’s class structure. He moves to England and is more comfortable there than at home. While he cannot completely reject its benefits, Felipe is cynical enough to see through his class’s prejudices.

Isidoro embodies the typical conservative patriarch in the Chilean upper class. He is domineering, determined to mold Ofelia into an acceptable daughter and willing to slap her if necessary. Rigid in his support for traditionalism and conservative ideals, he labels his political opponents as communists and atheists. He has no interest in a dialogue or in understanding the perspectives of the less fortunate. He leaves Chile when Salvador Allende comes to power, only to return when Pinochet overthrows that democratically elected regime.

The wife of Isidor, Laura exposes the unhappiness and lack of fulfillment for women in Chile’s upper class. She does not enjoy fulfilling the social obligations that her husband demands, and she is not particularly close with any of her children. She finds solace in prayer and turns to that instead of nurturing relationships. Cooperating with Father Urbina’s scheme to take Ofelia’s baby without her knowledge, Laura chooses loyalty to social norms and the church over her own daughter’s well-being. That decision haunts her until her dying day.

Victor’s mother Carme allows Allende to describe the experience of the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath from an older generation’s perspective. Because Carme did not want to slow the progress of Roser and Aitor’s escape, she went off on her own, willing to accept death. She was a dedicated teacher before and during the war. Her commitment to family causes her to doggedly pursue Victor and Roser’s whereabouts in Chile. More like Roser than Victor, Carme is a personality, and she has a major impact on her grandson Marcel despite meeting him later in life. Given her age, she never loses her attachment to Spain, but she finds belonging in Chile as well.

Supervising the household staff and serving as nanny for the del Solar family, Juana has adopted their worldview. She is conservative despite being a member of the working class. Practical and hard-working, she ensures the proper running of the del Solar household. She is closer to Felipe than his own mother and also loves Marcel as a baby. Juana’s character demonstrates that many working-class people do not embrace ideologies in their material interest and shows how indispensable the staff is in the del Solar household, even for basic parental care.

A true friend of Victor in the war, Aitor does him the favor of escorting Roser and Carme in their escape to France. He later finds Victor in the French camps and urges him to get out. After the war, Aitor betrays Victor to some extent when he has a seven-year affair with Roser. By his own admission, Aitor was not the best father and husband when he had his health. He made lots of money and lived large in Venezuela, losing track of the most important things in life. Later, however, he comes to appreciate his family.

Born in France in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, Marcel only knows Chile as his homeland. When he returns to Chile in the late years of Pinochet’s rule, he says, “I’m going to stay here. I’m Chilean” (268). In his personality, Marcel does not take after Guillem, his biological father; Roser, his mother; or Victor, whom he considers to be his father. He is quiet, athletic, and smart, later becoming an engineer. Attached to Carme, he takes her passing very hard. He visits his parents regularly and urges Victor to find love again after Roser dies. Marcel’s very existence is the reason for Victor and Roser’s marriage and Carme’s motivation to live during the retreat from Spain. He represents the future and gives some insight into the next generation’s perspective.

Although Guillem dies during the Spanish Civil War, he casts a long shadow over Roser and her relationship with Victor. It takes Roser a long time to get over Guillem and to love romantically again. Like Roser, Guillem is a force. Intense in his feelings, he fought passionately for his ideals, and when he fell in love with Roser, he did so wholeheartedly.