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Isabel Allende effectively describes Esteban Trueba’s office as to illustrate his personality. “two glass cases with marble and hard stone from the Orient.” The ‘hard stone’, and the ‘glass cases with marble’ represent Trueba’s character. He is a stubborn, bad tempered, ‘hard’ or cruel, disturbed man. “black leather chairs with their backs to the window,” The keyword of this quotation is ‘black’ because of its connotations. It represents Trueba’s ‘black’ sinister personality which ties in with the ‘hard stone’ and ‘glass’ metaphor used previously. The fact that the chairs are not facing the window or hit directly by the light tells us the lack of life or vivacity in Trueba’s personality. There is a dark side to the patron, he used to rape women. The chairs, however, are “strategically placed” so that there would be “good light” for reading. This tells us that there is some vivacity in Trueba’s life. He does have some joyful moments, especially when he is with Alba. His need for light also represents the need for him to forget all of his wrongful doings, the rapes and tortures. “A balcony, to which one descended via a spiral staircase made of wrought iron,” The ‘spiral staircase’ reflects the spiral in Trueba’s thoughts. He is confused and troubled at this point in his life. He faces constant problems and suffers, as if it were a vicious circle. The iron has been twisted in order to make the spiral staircase, just as Trueba’s personality is twisted and abnormal. “the only whim of the architect Esteban had consented to” This quotation reflects Trueba’s stubbornness, since he only allowed the architect to take in account one of his ideas for the construction. The office is “two stories high”, which tells us that the office is quite huge. On a deeper level of connotation, this tells us the degree of his “rage”, “frustrated desire” and “sorrow”. From context we know, that Trueba has never been affectionate or kind to Esteban Garcia, he practically ignores his existence.
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