The Familiar

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-12

Chapters 13-20

Chapters 21-31

Chapters 32-40

Chapters 41-55

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Chapters 32-40Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 32 Summary

Luzia is astonished that she bested the demons and wonders if she faced Satan. She is sent to her room, and Santángel says he will learn what he can, then come to her. She sees that the demons killed a man and a horse, and she wonders who created the shadows. Santángel reports that he doesn’t know who is responsible. Luzia tells him she had wished they might run away together.

Chapter 33 Summary

Santángel explains that he can’t run away because he is bound to the De Parades family. Luzia asks him to help her undress and comb her hair while she takes a bath. Santángel tells her a story of a young man—Luzia calls him a prince—who was very lucky and had everything. He had a trusted friend, Tello. When his father died, the prince began to fear death, so he went on a quest for eternal life. A stranger offered him a bargain: He could have eternal life if his friend gave up the thing he valued most, and the prince gave up the thing he valued least. The prince woke to find he had lost his luck, which he had never realized “was a kind of magic” (225), and that Tello had gained it instead. However, the prince also learned that his eternal life had been bound to Tello’s service, and if he tried to leave, he would die.

Since then, Santángel says, he has been bound to Tello de Paredes and all his descendants, and if he spends a night away from them, he will burn to ash when morning comes. He thinks he can die, but he has never wanted to die by suicide. They kiss and go to bed together. That same night, other couples around the palace are inspired to love-making as well. In the morning, Luzia says they will find a way to break the curse. Santángel doesn’t tell her Víctor offered him freedom in exchange for her.

Chapter 34 Summary

Guards storm the palace, sent by the Inquisition’s alguacil. Luzia fears they are coming for her, but they seize Teoda and her father. They learn that her father was associated with Calvinists and Teoda will be tried by the Inquisition as a heretic. Valentina brings Luzia cheese and says she was brave for defeating the demons.

Chapter 35 Summary

Pérez visits Luzia, and she admits to his face that she is afraid of him. The king wishes for the torneo to proceed with Fortún and Luzia remaining as contenders, but Pérez is not sure where the third trial will take place. Luzia thinks, “Faith could be won. Curses could be broken” (240).

Chapter 36 Summary

Víctor returns to the palace. Santángel understands that part of his curse is that he cannot harm Víctor or act against him. He wonders who was responsible for the magic at the puppet show. Pérez’s position is precarious, but Víctor will not withdraw. Santángel is sure that Víctor will find a way to control Luzia after he sets Santángel free.

Chapter 37 Summary

Alone in her room, Luzia thinks of the refranes and how she has used them over the years. She wonders about the source of the magic. Her aunt’s servant brings Luzia to the gardens, where Hualit says she is going away to Salonika and wants Luzia to come with her. She has left money for Luzia to take a horse and meet her at the port. Luzia wonders why, after they both realized Luzia could perform magic with the refranes, Hualit did not take her in. Now, Luzia realizes, “She didn’t want to be her aunt’s servant. She didn’t want a life of quiet and submission. She wanted her audience with the king. She wanted to eat and be full” (251). Luzia wants it to be her ambition, not her fear, that decides her fate.

Chapter 38 Summary

Luzia and Santángel talk in bed. She wonders again how to break his curse. Valentina takes Luzia for a walk in the gardens, and Fortún, the Prince of Olives, suggests to Luzia that they could be allies. Fortún says he seduced Doña Beatriz into being his patron because he had heard rumors about Víctor de Paredes and his creature. Fortún says that Santángel has been responsible for turning many people over to the Inquisition.

Chapter 39 Summary

In her room, Luzia reflects on her aunt’s offer of escape but decides she would rather be powerful than safe. She talks with Valentina, who wonders if Luzia could help her have children. Both women confess they have wanted more from their lives, but now Valentina wants to go home. She, too, warns Luzia about Santángel. Víctor comes to Luzia’s room and commands her to win, then slaps her. Luzia wants to kill him but decides she will wait for the right moment.

Chapter 40 Summary

Valentina helps Luzia dress, and they take coaches to the destination for the third trial. There is a body of water and a stage beside it. Santángel appears and tells Luzia that Víctor poisoned him to keep him away from Luzia the night before. The lady playwright, Quiteria Escárcega, flirts with Valentina. A representative arrives from the king, his new secretary. Víctor commands Luzia to perform brilliantly.

Santángel admits to Luzia that his deal with Víctor was to trade her freedom for his. He fears that Víctor will force her into a bargain. He counsels her to fail. Luzia says he doesn’t know yet what she might do.

Chapters 32-40 Analysis

In these chapters, Luzia begins to see the true nature of the people around her. She sees that Don Marius is vain and Valentina petty, seeking her own comfort. The Holy Child, Teoda, is revealed to be a Protestant, and so she is considered a heretic to the Catholic priests of the Inquisition. Pérez shows his ambition as well as his insecurities about his standing. Víctor de Paredes shows his cruelty and ruthlessness, which is a surprise to no one. Fortún reveals himself to be quite canny, not at all the country innocent he has pretended to be. Luzia also sees that her aunt, her one remaining family member, has always prioritized her own safety and protection, which is why she chooses now to escape Víctor, the Inquisition, and Madrid.

Luzia also learns more about Santángel. Even as they admit and express their desire for one another, Luzia understands that Santángel’s history is a parable about ambition and the confusion of value. She receives many warnings, both about him and about pursuing her ambition, both of which have dangerous repercussions. Hualit offers her the option of safety, but Luzia realizes there would be another bargain there, and she would be giving up her autonomy and her power. She wants both.

Luzia too has revealed her true nature, symbolized by her nudity in the bath, her exchanges in bed with Santángel, and his combing of her hair, which represents her most secret self. While she still does not understand the true source of The Power of Magic and Talent that she has—and why, for instance, the refranes work for her but not Hualit—it is important that she was able to destroy the demon shadows. Whatever its nature, her magic is more powerful than the work of the demons. While Pérez is delighted at the paradox that a lowly scullion should possess such power, and Víctor is suspicious of her for precisely this reason, both men in their greed and ambition miss the larger significance that the two most lower-class contestants—the olive farmer and the servant—are the only two remaining. Though not explicitly made use of here, it is a prevailing theme of medieval Christian belief that God can work the most powerful miracles through the lowest of subjects. Humility has its own power, a theme hinted at with the Christ child laid in an animal’s feed trough, a manger, at birth, as displayed in the puppet show.

This belief about the value of humility works in tandem with the warnings about greed and The Price of Ambition that grow stronger in these chapters. While she feels betrayed when she learns of the bargain Santángel made with Víctor—his power for hers—Luzia isn’t surprised that he too would barter for his own interests. However, as she has defeated the shadows, Luzia wonders what would break Santángel’s curse of service, demonstrating her growing faith in her own power. Her declaration that Santángel doesn’t know yet what she might do echoes and reinforces the curiosity that committed her to perform her milagritos. That term of “little miracles,” however, has fallen away or become ironic as Luzia begins to suspect she is capable of much more. Now she wants her power to be recognized—while at the beginning of the book she was content to be invisible, now she wants to be seen.