Daughter of Fortune: Analysis of Major Characters
"Daughter of Fortune" explores the lives and complexities of its major characters against the backdrop of 19th-century Chile and the California Gold Rush. Central to the narrative is Eliza Sommers, a determined orphan raised by a wealthy English family in Valparaíso. Her journey, which begins with an ill-fated love affair with Joaquín Andieta, leads her to pursue him across the seas, where she faces numerous challenges while dressed as a man. Supporting characters enrich the story, including Rose Sommers, Eliza's glamorous yet lonely guardian, and Jeremy Sommers, the stern patriarch of the family who is contrasted by his adventurous brother John.
The narrative also introduces Tao Chi'en, a compassionate Chinese man who becomes a friend and protector to Eliza, and Paulina del Valle, a savvy businesswoman navigating the complexities of love and family expectations. Each character embodies different aspects of resilience and ambition, showcasing themes of identity, love, and the search for one's place in a rapidly changing world. The interactions between diverse characters highlight the cultural tensions and social dynamics of their time, providing a multifaceted view of their struggles and aspirations.
Daughter of Fortune: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Isabel Allende Llona
Alternate Title: Hija de la fortuna
First published: 1999 (English translation, 1999)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Valparaíso, Chile; Santiago, Chile; Canton, China; San Francisco, California
Plot: Historical fiction
Time: 1843–53
Eliza Sommers, “Elias” or “Chile Boy,” a strong-willed orphan raised in an English family. Born in 1832, Eliza is found in a basket on the doorstep of the Sommers family, wealthy operators of British Import and Export Company, Ltd., in Valparaíso, Chile. As a child, dark-haired, dark-eyed Eliza learns to play piano and cook and, as a teenager, becomes a voracious reader and diary-keeper. At sixteen, she loses her virginity to eighteen-year-old peasant Joaquín Andieta, becomes pregnant, and follows her lover to the gold fields of California. During her nautical voyage she befriends Tao Chi'en, who helps her recover when she experiences a miscarriage. Searching fruitlessly for Joaquín for four years, slender Eliza, dressed as a man to prevent assault, toils at a variety of jobs: brothel musician, food entrepreneur, entertainer, letter-writer, and nurse.
Rose Sommers, a spinster who raises Eliza from infancy. Attractive, well dressed, exuberant, and vivacious, Rose, at age sixteen, falls in love and has a scandalous love affair with the middle-aged, married Viennese operatic tenor Karl Bretzner before moving from England to Chile. After the romance ends, she fends off potential suitors, preferring to spend time alone. Rose writes notebooks that she shows no one: they are manuscripts that recount her affair with Karl, which her brother John has published as erotic novels.
Jeremy Sommers, the head of the Sommers family business. Born about 1802, Jeremy is a stern, pale, bearded man who always dresses all in black. Usually solitary and quiet, Jeremy challenges Karl to a duel after he discovers their affair, but the opera singer does not accept.
John Sommers, a sailor, the brother of Jeremy and Rose. John is large, tanned, dark-haired, and loud—everything Jeremy is not. He is often absent from home for long periods of time during his voyages to the far reaches of the globe. An inveterate gambler, drinker and womanizer, John is actually the father of Eliza by a young native woman. He abandons his daughter with the family because he is unable to care for her due to his occupation.
Mama Fresia, the Sommerses' Indian cook and housekeeper. She is a second mother to Eliza. She nurses Eliza on goat's milk, instructs her in Spanish and native languages, tells her about Indian myths and legends, and teaches her how to cook and read animal signs.
Jacob Todd, a phony preacher who later turns to journalism as Jacob Fremont. A redhead, Jacob is an abolitionist. He initially travels to Chile after betting he can sell Bibles anywhere, and pretends to be a missionary. He is smitten by the cheerful Rose Sommers, but she rebuffs him. Exposed as a fraud and disgraced, Jacob ventures to California and reinvents himself as a popular reporter and article writer.
Agustín del Valle, a wealthy landowner and sheep farmer. The descendant of Spanish Conquistadors, Agustín is a powerful feudal patriarch who has fathered many legitimate and illegitimate children.
Paulina del Valle, later Paulina Rodriguez de Santa Cruz, a daughter of Agustín. Paulina falls in love with wealthy gold miner Feliciano Rodriguez de Santa Cruz, and because her father does not approve of Feliciano, Jacob Todd acts as go-between in their clandestine romance. After marrying and bearing several children, Paulina proves herself a shrewd businesswoman, using her husband's money to set up a lucrative operation shipping supplies and fresh food to the California gold fields.
Feliciano Rodriguez de Santa Cruz, an aristocrat who becomes wealthy from mining in Chile. After joining the California gold rush, he renames himself Felix Cross and further improves the family fortunes. He is the devoted and submissive husband of headstrong entrepreneur Paulina.
Joaquín Andieta, an accountant at British Import and Export. Handsome, intelligent, and possessing a strong personality, eighteen-year-old Joaquín is athletic and does not smoke or drink. Eliza notices him when he delivers goods to the Sommerses' house and seduces Joaquín. Though he proves to be a clumsy lover who borrows material from romance novels for love letters to Eliza, she is deeply committed to him and pictures him as an ideal lover. Despite the fact that Joaquín embezzles from his employer to buy passage for the California gold rush—where it is rumored he becomes a bandit under the name Joaquín Murieta—Eliza voyages after him. She endures numerous hardships attempting to reconnect with Joaquín.
Tao Chi'en, a young Chinese man that John Sommers brought to Chile. Born into a poor family of healers, Tao is sold as a child and later becomes an apprentice to a physician in Canton, China. After his master commits suicide, Tao travels to Hong Kong to practice medicine; while there, he learns Western techniques of healing. After becoming a widower, he is shanghaied and serves two years on John Sommers's ship. Upon meeting Eliza, he becomes her friend, protector, and confidant, and their relationship blossoms into romance. In San Francisco, Tao practices medicine and works to rescue sickly and maltreated prostitutes.
Joe Bonecrusher, the middle-aged Dutch madam of a traveling carnival-brothel who has a tough exterior but a tender heart.
Babalu the Bad, a giant dressed in wolf skins, who is the enforcer for the Bonecrusher caravan but is not as bad as his name suggests.
Tom No-Tribe, an orphaned American Indian child who travels with the Bonecrusher show.
Ah Toy, a tiny, childlike Chinese dancer-entertainer. She invents the peep show, becomes the madam of a Chinese brothel in San Francisco, and hires Tao Chi'en to administer to ill or wounded prostitutes.