Transitio Soto in House of the Spirits
Transitio Soto in House of the SpiritsWily Dame Transitio Soto
The character of Transitio Soto is an enigma in the decidedly feminist House of the Spirits due to her status as savior and whore. Transitio Soto really is the anti-thesis of everything Nivea dellValle, Clara Trueba, and Alba Trueba worked against. She submits herself to men for money, and is completely dependent on their kindness and generosity. Eventually, unlike the dellValle/Trueba women, she rises above her station to become independent of these men. She fits Paglia’s ideal of the whore in control, of allowing men to subjugate themselves to her in order to deal with their fear issues with women.
The relationship between Soto and Clara is perhaps the most important part of the sexual politics of the novel. Although Trueba’s first conquest in the work is Pancho Gracia he shows her the same violence and fury that he eventually shows Clara. This is because of an inner passion. Esteban Trueba has a tendency to hurt everyone that he fears for. This stems from his parents abandonment, and then his stoic upbringing by Ferula. His only success in relationships is drawn from a lack of emotion, but because Esteban is capable of doing what Camille Paglia refers to as “paying for his power” his relationship with Transitio Soto is completely different. He is not afraid to be affectionate with her because he has paid her for her loyalty. Clara, conversely, learns that the love of Esteban comes easily at first in the careless early stages.
The problem with Clara, the part of her being that he cannot reconcile is her indomitable spirit. This is a problem all of the dell Valle/Trueba women encounter. They wish to surpass their station. Esteban is uncomfortable with this. He can’t conceive of a woman as his equal (except in the marriage bed). This is the cause of the eventual rift between Clara and Esteban, and why Esteban seems to appreciate her more in death. When Clara is six feet under the ground she can no longer pose a threat to Esteban.
In response to her stifled position Clara becomes a matriarch. She takes everyone in, ignores Esteban, and tries to focus her energies on cultivating her family and her spiritualism. At the same time, however, Clara seems defeated. She doesn’t have the same vibrancy as in her youth (specifically the time she spent at Tres Marias), and one can sense that this is not the life that Clara the Clairvoyant envisioned for herself.
Conversely, Transitio empowers herself. She uses her sexuality (a device Clara never employs) to entreat Esteban Trueba on her behalf. Once in the capital she uses her wit and wiles (another device that Clara more or less avoids, except when forced to run Tres Marias). Soto in no way resembles Clara and this is why she is so helpful in characterizing Esteban Trueba.
These two opposing women (Clara the Mama and Transitio the Prostitute) are an ideal (yup that’s right) Madonna/Whore contrast. Except Esteban has an inverted Madonna/Whore complex. He treats the whore with kindness, sympathy, and compassion. He then degrades the Madonna. Clara is nothing to him because she is so capable of emotionally destroying him. Even though the tables have turned on Esteban by the end of the novel he still does not feel threatened by Transitio. It’s also very ironic because in the end the Whore is the savior of the novel. In her Esteban finds his cathartic redemption by saving his granddaughter.
Transitio also represents the trajectory of the citizenry (or at least the downfall of the Trueba family) to power. At our first meeting she is simply a peasant. She is a member of the lower class, and actually depends on the patron. The second meeting she has changed yet she hasn’t surpassed the patron. She’s obviously changed her social status, but nonetheless she’s a hooker. The third meeting Transitio has reached Esteban’s status. By the fourth meeting she has surpassed him.
As comical that it is that the prostitute is the savior in this novel it is expected that she should represent the novel’s sexuality, or at least the temperance of that sexuality. As the trajectory of the peasants changes so does Transitio. At first, she’s nubile and uneasy. She’s inexperienced. By the second meeting as the peasants become more sophisticated so does Transitio the seductress. Her sexuality is therefore tied directly into the peasants move for control and power. Ironically, although the peasants are trapped once the military coup occurs, Transitio Soto is liberated.
The most important aspect of Soto, however, is not how she clearly draws Esteban or how she represents the peasants or her relation to Clara it is, I have mentioned, her role as the savior whore. This is so ridiculous in the fibula of the novel. Allende fills her work with Jesuits and Catholicism. Her characters live out live live more or less biblically inclined. The first few pages go so far as to describe a church scene (although admittedly this is the only instance of her characters going to church). As a matter of fact the majority of the characters live monogamous more or less devoted lives. Jaime and Clara seem to be sexless. Rosa died a virgin. Yet, it is the very sexuality of Transitio Soto that makes her such a powerful character. Where Esteban’s sex was what made him an outsider in his family, it is what makes Transitio successful. It is sex that in the end saves the Trueba name. This is the real significance of Transitio Soto. For all of Allende’s discussion of spiritualism, ending hate, and freeing society she (the perverted woman she is) has subconsciously written a novel about sexual liberation and the freeing power of sexuality. Sex is how everyone finds their inner selves and liberation. Take the coupling of Pedro Tercero Garcia and Blanca, or Miguel and Alba. Look at how Esteban is painted as a villain: through his acts of rape. This is the true House of the Spirits. Not a world of ghosts and magic, but of invisible hormones and spirited sex.