Trafalgar · Chapter
I explained
The narrator recounts his impoverished childhood in Cádiz, his mother's love and death, his abusive uncle, his life as a street urchin, and his rescue by Don Alonso Gutierrez de Cisniega and his wife, who take him into their home and employ
What happens
The narrator recounts his impoverished childhood in Cádiz, his mother's love and death, his abusive uncle, his life as a street urchin, and his rescue by Don Alonso Gutierrez de Cisniega and his wife, who take him into their home and employ him as a page.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Mobility
The narrator's rise from the lowest class of Cádiz to a respectable household illustrates the possibility of social mobility through fortune and character.
Family and Loyalty
The narrator's deep bond with his mother contrasts with the cruelty of his uncle, highlighting the importance of familial love and loyalty.
Patriotism and National Identity
The narrator and his friends mimic naval battles with fierce patriotism, believing Spain to be the best nation and the English to be villains.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The narrator describes his early life in Cádiz, his mother, his uncle, and his eventual rescue by Don Alonso.
- Doña Francisca
Mentioned as the wife of Don Alonso, who together with him takes the narrator into their home.
- Don Alonso Gutierrez de Cisniega
A ship's captain who rescues the narrator from the press-gang and employs him as a page.
- Napoleon
The narrator recalls his childish fantasy that Napoleon resembled a smuggler from Gibraltar.
Key passages
“I laugh when I recollect the wild ideas I had about the persons and events of the time. I heard a great deal about Napoleon and how do you think I had pictured him to myself! In every respect exactly like the smugglers whom we not unfrequently saw in our low quarter of the town: Contrabandistas from the lines at Gibraltar.”
The narrator finds his childhood misconceptions amusing, having imagined Napoleon as a Gibraltar smuggler.
Illustrates the narrator's youthful ignorance and the romanticized view of world events.
“My mother must have loved me dearly. I fell ill of yellow fever which was raging in Andalusia and when I got well she took me solemnly to mass at the old cathedral and made me kneel on the pavement for more than an hour, and then, as an ex-voto offering, she placed an image in wax of a child, which I believed to be an exact likeness of myself, at the foot of the altar where the service had been performed.”
The narrator recalls his mother's devotion, exemplified by her offering a wax figure at the cathedral after his recovery from yellow fever.
Highlights the mother's love and the religious customs of the time.