24 pages • 48 minutes read
Isabel AllendeTwo Words
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1989A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Belisa Crepusculario
Belisa Crepusculario, the protagonist, is the principal vehicle through which Isabel Allende explores the transformative power of language and examines themes of self-determination and independence.
Belisa represents power and determination. She successfully overcomes adversity, achieves independence, and gains the power to define her own identity, as demonstrated by her ability to choose her own name.
Her fortuitous discovery of language provides an opportunity for self-determination, which she seizes. Her chosen profession as a storyteller, using words as currency, is the mechanism through which Allende demonstrates the power of language to shape destiny.
Belisa defies the stereotypical roles of women in Latin American literature; she is not dependent upon a man for her survival, and she forges a life for herself by using her mind. Her intellect, as evidenced by her gift with words, brings respect and allows her to gain mobility and agency, traveling unchaperoned from one town to another. Her reputation as a wordsmith is a catalyst for the change that the transformative speech she writes for the Colonel provokes.
As the sole female character around whom the narrative is shaped, Belisa represents feminine power and ascendency. Her gender, sexuality, and femininity are not bars to her success but sources of power. The primary male characters find her alluring, and the Colonel succumbs to her. In addition to using language to achieve her goals, she uses it to gain control over the Colonel, directing his path while bending him to her will with the power of her words and her seductive qualities.
The Colonel
The Colonel is a symbol of transformation. Initially a symbol of power and authority, he is also vulnerable, both physically and emotionally. He desires change and wants to relinquish violence, but he lacks the power to bring it about. His name is tied to his violent past, “irretractably linked to devastation and destruction” (6-7). He recognizes that to leave that name behind and choose his own name, as Belisa has, he needs the power of language. However, he lacks the tools to shape his own destiny; unlike Belisa, he can neither read nor write, and this weakness makes him vulnerable. Despite his desire to create a new image, he uses violence and aggression in his first pursuit of Belisa, ordering her capture and kidnapping. This demonstrates that he is driven by actions and instincts. However, Belisa tames him through the power of her speech and her magical two wards. Language provides him the tools for seeking peace. The Colonel becomes infatuated by Belisa after she whispers her two magical words in his ear. He is tormented by the words and cannot rest until he sees her again.
There is little physical description of the Colonel. His skin is dark, his eyes are “puma-like,” and he is heavily scarred from battle. However, Belisa is surprised by the softness of his voice when she first meets him. When he recites Belisa’s political speech, the contrast between his physicality and his voice, which sounds like that of a professor, stuns crowds, and his words move them to tears. Her words prepare his path to the presidency; like Belisa, he travels the country spreading his words to the public.
El Mulato
El Mulato represents conflict. He is not the typical foil, nor is he an archetypical antihero. Rather, he illustrates resistance to change, in contrast to Belisa and the Colonel. El Mulato represents action and passion. The narrator provides little physical description of El Mulato, other than describing him as a “giant.”
He is passionately loyal to his commander, the Colonel, and violently captures and kidnaps Belisa at his request. He is a conflicted character who wants to serve his commander but does not support the change the Colonel desires. When he realizes the power Belisa and her two secret words exert over the Colonel, El Mulato takes her to him for a second time, hoping she can reverse the spell she cast on him. However, the Colonel becomes gentle in her presence, succumbing to her. El Mulato sees this as emasculation. At one point in the story, as El Mulato escorts Belisa back to her home, he finds himself attracted to her, but her words turn his desire to rage.
Related Titles
By Isabel Allende
