Focusing on the encounters in the whorehouse involving Esteban and Tránsito in Allende’s The House of the Spirits, Esteban seeks Tránsito’s physical and emotional attention after his beloved Clara passes away. Tránsito Soto, a prostitute at the Christopher Columbus whom Esteban has had past sexual relations with, is a friend of his he visits because he simply likes “spending time with [her]” (315). He enjoys Tránsito’s presence because “she [is] not squeamish about new ideas and the brutalities of love” (69). The fact that she wanted to become “rich and famous” was “amusing” to Esteban because he understood the difficulties of working for money, as “[he had] worked like a beast” earlier on in his life (20). He thought Tránsito would not be able to make her life worthwhile because she is a woman in a male dominated society trying to make a living on her own however, his thoughts about her success change towards the middle of the book because he is beginning to understand her reasons for working hard in order to follow her dreams of becoming rich and famous, something he thought only men were capable of doing. When he visits her for the second time in the Christopher Columbus, Esteban begins to “appreciate her” because he was able to easily “recognize whenever [he] encountered [ambition] in others” which was apparent by Tránsito’s newly adopted fortunes in the Christopher Columbus (118). Even though it took some time for Esteban to appreciate and understand her hard work in this underground business, he definitely appreciates her “bold, swarthy” body (118). Not only is Esteban friends with Tránsito because he is able talk to her about his trouble at home but this tough, independent women makes him feel like “[he] is twenty again...who didn’t make his hands feel heavy, [his] voice hard, [his] feet gigantic, or [his] beard too scratchy, but someone like himself”(118). She makes him feel like “himself” (118). Esteban turns to Tránsito in hope that she will help him forget his problems because she has the power to control his emotions by making love to him. After they finish making love the second time, he feels “happy”, something that does not linger in his own home due to the deterioration of the big house on the corner after Clara’s death (118). Their final sexual encounter, after the death of “Clara the Clairvoyant”, results in the discovery that “[Esteban’s] masculinity” is still “intact” and again, this makes him “happy” to know that he is still a man even though he is growing old (316). Again, he seeks the attention of this woman in hopes that her sexuality will make him feel more like a man, in which it does.
The idea of male dependence on women for sexual relations and emotions is a theme carried over in Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Bayardo San Román, a “strange man” who appears to be “around thirty years old” arrives in August and soon becomes interested in the beautiful Angela Vicario (Márquez 25). After seeing Angela and her mother cross the square “carrying two baskets of artificial flowers”, Bayardo immediately decides that “[he is] going to marry her” because “she’s well named” (29). Angela and Bayardo meet again at the “charity bazaar at which she was in charge of singing out raffle numbers”, and he was so interested in getting Angela’s attention that he bought several raffle tickets for a “music box inlaid with mother of pearl”, something he willingly gives to Angela for her birthday (29). His enthusiasm towards Angela first reveals his physical attraction towards her however, “she had barely seen” Bayardo and it was horrible for her to think she was obliged to marry a man she did not know (34). Engagements during this time usually lasted several months, but “theirs lasted only four months due to Bayardo San Román’s urgings” (35). His urgency to marry Angela reveals his selfishness because he did not even want to wait “until the family mourning was over” however, Pura Vicario demanded Bayardo to wait. (35). He feels the need to be close to Angela because she makes him feel like a true man, but when he discovers she is no longer a virgin, their relationship falls apart, which is more devastating and surprising to Bayardo than it is to Angela.
The difference between the characters in The House of the Spirits and Chronicle of a Death Foretold is the sexual relations between the characters. Esteban Trueba and Tránsito Soto’s sexual relations are the foundation for the emotions that branch off of that. Esteban feels “happy” when they are making love because he knows that his masculinity is intact. If these two characters did not make love, Esteban would not know what it is like to be happy or know who he truly is, as Tránsito makes him feel himself. Tránsito’s actions have a big impact on Esteban’s emotions, which means that this woman is the dominant figure in these situations; Esteban does not influence Tránsito. As for Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Román in Chronicle of a Death Foretold, they had one sexual encounter the night of their wedding. That night of their wedding, Bayardo discovered his lover was no longer a virgin, which was an utter shock to the Vicario family as it went against traditional Catholic beliefs that one should wait until marriage to physically devote themselves to another being. In this case, Bayardo does not have much sexual dependence on Angela, but he is selfish enough to want to marry her after only four months of engagement, which was “unlike engagements of the time”, because he wants to know what emotions transpire when in one is in love (35).
