57 pages • 1 hour read
Daughter Of Fortune
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Part 1, Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “1843-1848”
Chapter 1 Summary: “Eliza”
Eliza Sommers first arrived at the home of Jeremy and Rose Sommers in Valparaíso, Chile, on March 15, 1832, as an abandoned baby. Raised by Miss Rose, an English spinster, and Rose’s merchant brother, Jeremy, Eliza learns two different stories about her origins. According to Miss Rose, baby Eliza appeared on the doorstep in a fine wicker basket, with a mink coverlet, six gold coins, and a note affirming the infant’s good English lineage, despite her illegitimacy. Mama Fresia, the Sommerses’ Indian cook and housekeeper, contradicts Miss Rose’s account. Mama Fresia tells Eliza that she arrived in a crate, naked except for a man’s sweater, with no mink, no coins, and no note. The stout cook points at Eliza’s black Indian hair and warns her not to get any ideas: “You weren’t born to be a princess” (5). Despite being drawn to Miss Rose’s tale of the lavish basket, Eliza cannot accept it as truth because she recalls smelling wool and male sweat. Eliza possesses two special talents: an excellent sense of smell and a superb memory.
One and a half years before Eliza’s arrival, Jeremy Sommers emigrated from England to Chile to direct the British Import and Export Company, Ltd. Lacking any interest in marriage, Jeremy brought over his sister Rose to live with him, solving his domestic and social concerns. In her brother’s home, Miss Rose enjoys an independence not possible for a 19th-century married woman. The mothering of Eliza satisfied Miss Rose’s longing for a child. Gossipers suspect that Eliza was the product of Jeremy’s possible affair with a harlot since Miss Rose’s perennially tiny waist and church attendance absolved her from accusations.
Jeremy only pays for Rose’s necessities, assuming that their brother John Sommers, a sea captain, brings the items desired by Rose when he returns from his voyages. The brothers Jeremy and John are opposites: The former is pale and unmemorable; the latter is tanned, healthy, and likable. Captain John loves drink, women, and gambling. One person who sails on Captain John’s ship to Valparaíso is Jacob Todd, a “charismatic redhead” with a beautiful voice, aiming to win a bet by selling Protestant bibles in the Catholic country of Chile.
At the Sommerses’ residence, Eliza grows up in two contrasting worlds. As Miss Rose’s play toy, Eliza dresses like a duchess, speaks English, sings, dances, and reluctantly learns to play the piano. In the kitchen with Mama Fresia, Eliza runs barefooted, speaks a mixture of Spanish and Mapuche (an indigenous South American language), listens to Indian legends, and learns how to cook. Many years later, Eliza will use some of these skills to earn a living. Eliza will tell her friend Tao Chi’en in the future that the erratic, often distracted, Miss Rose had been a good mother to her because of the spaces of internal freedom Eliza experienced.
Chapter 2 Summary: “The English”
At Jeremy’s invitation, Jacob attends the musical evening hosted by Rose on Wednesdays. Jacob falls in love with Rose when he sees her, “not so much for her beauty as for her self-assurance and good cheer” (23). Jacob decides to court Rose as his future wife, but she will “destroy his peace of heart” (23). Jeremy’s introduction of the child Eliza as the Sommerses’ protegee confuses Jacob. Unaccustomed to the Chilean food and drink, Jacob falls violently ill. After bloodletting fails to cure Jacob, Rose sends Mama Fresia to heal him using rubdowns and Indian incantations, with Eliza serving as a translator. When Jacob finally recovers, Rose has already left on her annual shopping visit to Santiago, where she plans to sit for a portrait to be painted by the renowned French artist Monvoisin.
Floods destroy hundreds of houses in Valparaíso. The Catholic Chileans call for repentance. They organize a religious procession featuring Cristo de Mayo, the May Christ, a miraculous image that they believe will end the storms. A crying little girl accosts Jacob while he observes the fascinating, medieval-like spectacle. It is Eliza, who begs Jacob to take her home. Eliza had lost her way after persuading Mama Fresia to secretly let her see the Cristo de Mayo while the Sommerses were absent. Jacob kindly fulfills Eliza’s request.
When Rose returns to the city, she rebuffs Jacob’s proposal, declaring that a husband would only be a hindrance, unable to give her anything she does not already possess. The Sommerses, however, provide excellent connections for Jacob in Valparaíso’s prosperous English colony as these Protestants willingly finance his pretended and postponed missionary effort to the Patagonian Indians in the south.
With Jeremy’s support, Jacob gains membership in the Club de la Union, an enclave of rich Chilean landowners, although Jacob is politically liberal. The wealthy Agustín del Valle, a descendant of the first Spanish conquistadors, becomes Jacob’s friend. Agustín invites Jacob and the Sommerses to one of his country estates. The Chileans share a love of tradition with the English, but unlike the foreigners, Chileans hate eccentricity and fear ridicule. Agustín’s wife is like an old woman, burdened by her husband’s powerful patriarchal rule. The del Valle sons freely go carousing, while the del Valle daughters train for a lifetime of abnegation in arranged marriages. On the visit, Eliza plays with Paulina, the only daughter of Agustín, who has escaped the pattern of the del Valle women.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Senoritas”
In 1845, 13-year-old Eliza still looks like a child but finds her nightgown stained with red. Rose tells Eliza that the start of her menstrual flow indicates that she is a woman. Mama Fresia warns Eliza: “Your body will change, your thoughts will be jumbled, and any man will be able to do what he wants with you” (45). The only men Eliza prefers are Captain John and Jacob, both out of bounds for her since one is her uncle and the other is in love with Miss Rose. Eliza spends hours on her own reading classics in Jeremy’s library, Miss Rose’s romance novels, out-of-date newspapers, the Bible, and Captain John’s travel books, which enable her imagination to soar. Now Rose wants Eliza to attend Madame Colbert’s school for girls to make a good marriage. Rose knows that a wife is a husband’s property with fewer rights than a child. However, unlike Rose, a single Eliza would not have an older brother to shield her from abuse. Therefore, Rose plans to make Eliza marriageable by providing a dowry for her, with Captain John’s help, and teaching her the arts of manipulation and dissembling. Rose declares, “I would happily give half my life to have the freedom a man has, Eliza” (51). Rose does not reveal that the one time she tried to achieve on her own, reality blocked her. A determined Rose seeks a more successful outcome for Eliza.
Jeremy believes that Eliza does not need further education; she only requires a skill to earn a living. He refuses to send the adopted Eliza to Madame Colbert’s academy since only proper girls from rich families attend and “intelligence is a drawback in a woman” (47). Rose defies Jeremy by taking to her bed, ill for days with a blinding headache. Rose’s ally, Mama Fresia, intimidates Jeremy by lighting black candles and burning sage everywhere. Finally, Jeremy allows Eliza to go to the school, and Rose magically recovers her health.
Discoveries of rich veins of silver and gold in Chile allow new men to prosper. The ancient landed aristocracy feels threatened by these overnight tycoons. Feliciano Rodríguez de Santa Cruz makes a fortune from his gold mine, but the proud del Valles suspect his ancestors were converted Jews. Agustín plans to end his daughter Paulina’s romance with Feliciano by sending her to a convent. Jacob decides to help Paulina by conveying her letter to Feliciano and providing him with the convent location. Paulina escapes the convent and reunites with Feliciano. Agustín reluctantly accepts that their wedding would be better than murder to preserve the family honor.
Part 1, Chapters 1-3 Analysis
Allende introduces the two different cultural lineages of the novel’s protagonist, Eliza Sommers, by recounting two contrasting stories of how Eliza arrived as a baby at the Sommerses’ home. In the story told by her English maternal figure, Miss Rose Sommers, the elegant basket Eliza arrived in contained a note attesting to her good English heritage. In the other story told by her Indian maternal figure, Mama Fresia, the Sommerses’ cook, Eliza has Indian blood and arrived inauspiciously in a crate. The novel will show how Eliza is a blend of these distinct cultural influences, a mixture that will serve her well.
Through this discussion of Eliza’s origins, Allende also establishes the racial and class hierarchies existing in Chile in the 1840s. After Chile achieved independence from the Spanish Empire in the early 19th century, many immigrants came to the country, including English merchants who made fortunes as Valparaíso became an important Pacific port. Through the household of Jeremy Sommers, the director of a British import and export firm, Allende introduces the prosperous colony of English people who live in their own enclave in Valparaíso surrounded by the poorer native inhabitants.
Allende frequently uses contrasting pairs to highlight characteristics, such as the different maternal attitudes of Miss Rose and Mama Fresia toward Eliza. Another pair, Jeremy Sommers and his brother, John, are characterized as opposites in their appearances, personalities, and relationships with their sister, Rose, and her protegee, Eliza. John is healthy, strong, good-natured, open, and likable, while Jeremy is solitary, self-controlled, and impenetrable.
The novel explores the patriarchal control exerted by 19th-century men over the women in their households through the relationship between Jeremy and Rose. Allende’s writing has a feminist concern to illustrate the injustices experienced by 19th-century women. The character of Miss Rose both defies patriarchy, by refusing to marry and become a husband’s property, and perpetuates it, by trying to arrange a marriage for Eliza’s protection. Jeremy reflects patriarchal attitudes by declaring that intelligence is a hindrance in a female. Miss Rose’s manipulative tactic of feigning illness to convince Jeremy to send Eliza to school demonstrates the wiles a woman could use to circumvent the man’s authority.
The cultural and racial divisions in Chile are further examined when Jacob Todd, an Englishman, arrives in Valparaíso. Pretending to be a Protestant missionary, Todd receives generous funding to try to convert the Patagonian Indians. When Jacob witnesses a Catholic ceremonial procession, he feels like it is a spectacle from medieval times. Jacob’s friendship with Agustín del Valle introduces another group in Chilean society: the wealthy, proud descendants of the first Spanish conquistadors. When Jacob and the Sommerses visit the del Valle estate, Allende details both the racial oppression of del Valle’s dark-skinned servants and the patriarchal oppression of the del Valle women. As a politically liberal thinker, Jacob is the mouthpiece in Chile for egalitarian ideas. He also plays a key role in helping Paulina del Valle escape from her father Agustín’s domination to marry a newly rich entrepreneur, Feliciano Rodríguez de Santa Cruz, of possibly Jewish origins, unacceptable to Paulina’s family.
Allende utilizes the literary device of foreshadowing, hinting at upcoming events in the novel to create interest, by mentioning Eliza’s future friendship with Tao Chi’en in the opening chapter and how her piano playing will later help her earn money. Allende organized the three parts of the novel by years and included historical figures such as the French artist Raymond Monvoisin to convey the impression that her novel is an actual historical account. The third-person narration allows Allende to move among the experiences of several different characters instead of inhabiting the perspective of only one character using first-person narration.
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