The main character of the novel is Esteban’s wife Clara. Although Esteban possesses a great love for his wife he also wishes to be in complete control of her actions. “In all this time his love for her had grown to the point where it had become an obsession. He wanted Clara to think of nothing but him, and he could not bear for her to have a life outside that did not include him. He wanted her to tell him everything and own nothing he had not given her with his own two hands. He wanted her to be completely dependant.” (127) This quote shows Esteban’s intention to control every aspect of Clara’s life. The men in Chile was progressing from thinking that women were incompetent but were still wanting the women to have to depend entirely on them. Esteban has learned to love a woman naturally resulting in him to gain a slight amount of respect for her but he was still in the mind frame that women were inferior to men.

Isabel Allende uses the main male character, Esteban Trueba, to representChile's progressing views of women. By examining Esteban's thoughts about thewomen in his life and how he treats them we can observe the way women areperceived and treated in Chilean society. Esteban's views on his mother-in-law, wife, daughter, and granddaughter are very different and show progression in women's rights.

Esteban’s opinion of his mother in law Nivea is the most primitive view of women in the book. He is clearly disgusted with her involvement in politics and women’s rights campaigns and expresses that she should take a more traditional and domestic role. "She would chain herself with other ladies to the gates of Congress and Supreme Court, setting off a degrading spectacle that made all their husbands look ridiculous. [...] Their duty is motherhood and the home. At the rate they're going, the next thing you know they’ll be asking to be deputies, judges- even president of the Republic. […] What these cases really need is a strong hand.”(66-67) In this quote Esteban is expressing his belief that what Nivea is doing is wrong and shameful. He also makes reference to another of his beliefs, that men are more superior and should take more control of the women, showing us the repression that the women in Chile suffered. Esteban’s opinion of Nivea gives us insight into the treatment of women in Chile in the past but it also shows us the women who were rebelling against their restrictions and stepping outside of the boundaries, giving hope to the women of the future.