Beatriz (“Bea”) Aguilar Character Analysis

Beatriz is Daniel’s lover, whom he meets through her brother, his best friend Tomás Aguilar. Like Penélope Aldaya, Carax’s secret lover, Beatriz is the pampered and sheltered daughter of a wealthy family; when she meets Daniel she’s preparing to marry Pablo, a young Falangist handpicked by her controlling father. Unlike Penélope, Beatriz is pragmatic, capable, and much more successful at escaping her father’s clutches. Although Daniel claims to love her for her confidence and independence, she’s immediately submissive to him even though he’s younger than she is, and she quickly sublimates herself in his quest to find Carax. At the end of the novel, although she’s gained some relative independence, she’s settled down as a conventional wife and mother. Notably, Beatriz shares her name with the woman the Italian poet Dante loved in real life and wrote about in his Divine Comedy. Dante’s Beatrice is also a woman characterized through a man’s desire, as well as a character, like many in The Shadow of the Wind, who exists on both the page and in real life.