# I explained — Trafalgar > Chapter companion for Trafalgar by Benito Pérez Galdós. ## 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. ## Character check-ins ### 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 lines > 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._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/trafalgar_se/chapters/i - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/trafalgar_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/trafalgar_se/chapters