The Obscene Bird of Night: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Obscene Bird of Night" is a novel that intricately explores the lives of its major characters, primarily through the lens of Humberto Peñaloza, also known as Mudito. Humberto serves as the secretary and historian for the influential Don Jerónimo Azcoitía, with whom he shares a complex and symbiotic relationship that intertwines their identities. Throughout the narrative, Humberto's role evolves, reflecting his multifaceted nature as he adopts various identities, highlighting themes of power and personal transformation.
Don Jerónimo, a powerful politician, derives a portion of his sexual potency from his enigmatic connection to Humberto, suggesting a deeper commentary on dependency and influence. In contrast, Doña Inés, Don Jerónimo's wife, undergoes a dramatic transformation from a devout woman seeking sanctity to one who becomes embroiled in a bizarre competition for possessions among her fellow inmates. The character of Peta Ponce adds layers to the narrative with her mystical qualities and her entangled relationships with both Doña Inés and Humberto, blurring the lines between servitude, friendship, and manipulation.
Additionally, Boy, the deformed son of Doña Inés, is emblematic of the family's dysfunction and isolation. The unique dynamics among these characters create a vivid tapestry that examines themes of identity, power, and the complexities of human relationships. The novel's exploration of these major characters invites readers to reflect on the interplay of reality and perception in shaping human experiences.
The Obscene Bird of Night: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: José Donoso
First published: El obsceno pájaro de la noche, 1970 (English translation, 1973)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Chile
Plot: Magical realism
Time: One year in the 1960's, with flashbacks to the eighteenth century and the periods during and after World War I
Humberto Peñaloza (ewm-BEHR-toh pehn-yah-LOHzah), also known as Mudito (mew-DEE-toh), or “Little Deaf Mute,” who has served as Don Jerónimo Azcoitía's secretary, the Azcoitía family historian, and the overseer of Don Jerónimo's estate, La Rinconada. In the process, he has worked for the family most of his life. As a youth, in an effort to “be someone,” Humberto imagines a fusion between his personality and that of Don Jerónimo. Living in the family's home for the retired female servants of rich families as the novel opens, Humberto serves as the story's schizophrenic narrator-protagonist. He takes on multiple identities (including that of a female, a large papier-mâché head, and a phallus) before becoming, ambiguously, a sexless and timeless bundle. At the close of the novel, after centuries, the bundle's contents are emptied and tossed on a fire, leaving nothing of Humberto but “the black smudge the fire left on the stones.”
Don Jerónimo Azcoitía (hehr-OH-nee-moh ahs-koyTEE-ah), a powerful and influential politician for whom Humberto works and with whom Humberto has fused his own personality. The relationship between the two is strangely symbiotic, as virtually all of Humberto's power (limited as it is) derives from his relationship with Don Jerónimo, whereas Don Jerónimo's sexual potency is mysteriously tied to his relationship with Humberto.
Doña Inés de Azcoitía (ee-NEHS), Don Jerónimo's wife. A pious woman early in the novel, she works diligently to have the family's home for retired servants beatified because of an eighteenth century miracle said to have occurred there. After returning from an audience with the pope, however—and, according to Humberto, after receiving the transplanted organs of her servant, Peta Ponce—she becomes an inmate of the home herself. Rather than dedicate the rest of her life to prayer, as she had intended, she sets about winning the belongings of her fellow inmates in a strange dog-racing game. After being sexually attacked by Humberto, she is taken away to an insane asylum.
Peta Ponce (PEH-tah pohns), a crafty servant woman and apparent possessor of demonic powers. Among her many bizarre activities is the mysterious encounter she arranges with herself, Humberto, Doña Inés, and Don Jerónimo so that Doña Inés might be impregnated, presumably by Humberto (because Don Jerónimo is thought to be incapable of the act). Later, Peta's organs are said to be transplanted into Doña Inés, with whom the servant shares an odd relationship akin, at least in its strangeness, to that between Humberto and Don Jerónimo, though the relationship between the two women actually borders on friendship, something not true of the relationship between the two men. One result of the alleged transplants is that, as Humberto tells it, Doña Inés resembles Peta Ponce more each day, a “fact” that concerns Humberto because of his fear of Peta.
Boy, the deformed son of Doña Inés and either Don Jerónimo or Humberto, conceived during the mysterious and intentionally unclear encounter. Boy lives on the family's estate, La Rinconada, where he is surrounded by other deformed people so that he will be sheltered from the outside world. When Don Jerónimo announces his intention to close the estate and take Boy back to the city with him, Boy and the others conspire against him, leading to Don Jerónimo's symbolic death.