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City of Shadows: Chapter 33
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Shadow of the Wind, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Duality and Repetition
Possessive and Obsessive Love
Fathers, Sons, and Masculinity
Reality and the Written Word
Coincidence and Determinism
Summary
Analysis
Daniel dreams of Bea’s body all night. In the morning, Fermín returns to the bookstore and horrifies Mr. Sempere with his bruised face.
Daniel is feeling grown-up in many ways, taking care of Fermín and interacting with Barceló as an equal. His dream shows how much he links his developing manhood to sexual possession of women.
Themes
In the afternoon, Daniel returns to The Angel of Mist as planned and arrives before Bea. But it’s very cold and soon he ventures to the cellar to find wood for a fire. The mildewy smell makes him recall the damp morning on which they buried his mother. Daniel dispels the image and descends. After turning on a small boiler, he hears footsteps upstairs and assumes Bea has arrived, but returns upstairs to find she’s not actually there. He wanders the house until he finds a small bathroom that is drawing heat from the boiler.
In many ways, Daniel is becoming comfortable in the environment of The Angel of Mist, in the same way that Carax became comfortable among the Aldayas even though he ultimately wanted to escape from them. Still, even though Daniel wanders the house at will, the fact it’s reminiscent of the most traumatic event in Daniel’s past is a reminder of its ominous character.
Themes
Bea finds Daniel in the bathroom, where they huddle for warmth. But suddenly the wind blows out their candles. Someone bangs on the door several times, but when Daniel finally opens it, no one is there. Daniel and Bea get dressed and hurry downstairs, but Daniel notices that a previously closed door, carved with angels, is ajar. He descends the staircase behind the door and finds a crypt containing Penélope’s coffin, with 1919 listed as the date of death. While Daniel is looking at the coffin, a voice in the shadows tells him to “get out,” and he recognizes it as Laín Coubert. Daniel grabs Bea and runs out of the house without telling her whom he encountered.
This frightening episode affirms that the house is not to be trusted, no matter how much Daniel has come to associate it with his trysts with Bea. It’s important that Daniel’s recollection of his mother’s burial immediately presages his discovery of Penélope’s death. It gives the moment an aura of destiny, as well as linking Daniel’s childhood loss to Carax’s romantic grief.
Themes
Bea promises to call Daniel soon and walks away without a goodbye. Daniel sees Tomás looking at him impassively from the window of their house.
While Tomás is too kind to develop anything like Jorge’s enmity for his sister’s lover, for both Carax and Daniel, romantic love leads to the dissolution of childhood friendships.
Themes
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