THE TREE (El árbol)
by María Luisa Bombal, 1941

Along with her novella The House of Mist (La última niebla), "The Tree" ("El árbol") is the most-recognized work by the Chilean writer María Luisa Bombal. The story is characteristic of her work in that it presents a poetically rendered reality and the theme of a woman's isolated and marginalized existence in search of love, communication, and understanding.

The protagonist's tale is a recollection during a concert of her past life. As Brígida listens to a pianist, she evokes her solitary and misunderstood life with a family who find her simple and a husband who ignores her. In the gum tree of the title, which not only serves as her sole companion but also shields her from the ugliness of the outside world, Brígida seeks comfort and fulfillment. Her inner sanctum is invaded, however, when the tree is cut down. The harsh, raw light and the din from the city streets penetrate her solitude, bringing her tragic life into focus for both Brígida and the reader.

Although the themes of the misunderstood woman and the clash between reality and illusion border on cliché, Andrew P. Debicki has asserted that the story's complex structure keeps Bombal from this danger. By means of a delicate interweaving of the present and the past, as well as the protagonist's outer and inner realities, Bombal communicates in a concise and vivid manner a woman's existentialist plight.

The most notable element of the story is the contrast between the vigorous narrative movement and the protagonist's static life. The structure oscillates between two types of realities, the temporal and the spatial. The first establishes a three-part framework in which Brígida listens to the piano music and re-creates key moments of her past. The other movement emphasizes space with the evocation of Brígida's shady and protective bedroom and its transformation by the outside world. The denouement brings both the action and the recollection to a crashing halt as the pianist finishes his performance. The audience's applause emulates the felling of the tree, an act that invades Brígida's consciousness and solitude and that merges her solitary past with the present. Reality and illusion clash vividly in the tragic outcome.

The stylistic and structural elements of the story revolve around three concrete elements: music, water, and the gum tree. As the pianist begins the concert with Mozart (or perhaps it is Scarlatti, Brígida speculates), the music leads the protagonist "by the hand" to remember her youth in lyrical terms. The scene of a young girl on a bridge by a quiet brook is offset by recollections of a motherless upbringing and by scorn and indifference on the part of her family. The white dress of her memory contrasts vividly with her black concert attire, which reminds the reader of Brígida's present mechanical existence. The delicate music and the brook blend powerfully to embody the strength of Brígida's illusion, which has allowed her to survive her misunderstood childhood and her solitary adult life.

In the middle of the story's tripartite structure the music shifts to Beethoven. The water image becomes that of the sea, broadening and strengthening the reader's consciousness of Brígida's tragedy. Because she demonstrates awareness of the composer in this segment of the program, we divine her maturity and understanding of her own life. Beethoven's powerful chords also suggest summer scenes—of Brígida's marriage to an older man as well as the tree's growing prominence in her life. Luis, a condescending man who treats Brígida as a child, displays the solid qualities of the gum tree. Unlike the tree, however, he offers his wife practical solutions but no sense of comfort or protection. As the marriage deteriorates, the tree becomes a substitute for the compassionate man for whom Brígida longs. At this point in the story Bombal presents the tree in an archetypal light as a "world submerged in an aquarium" and as a refuge for the neighborhood birds. Recalling the Yggdrasil of Norse mythology, this joyful embodiment of nature contrasts vividly with Brígida's stuffy and glum house, which in turn is a metaphor for her marriage.

The Chopin études in the third part of the concert spotlight the story's resolution. Rain through the gum tree enters the segment of Brígida's life that marks the end of her relationship with Luis. Ironically, at this point the personified tree becomes the stabilizing force that keeps Brígida in her place. Its "knuckles" rapping on the windowpane, it urges Brígida to remain with her husband and to accept his practical and unimaginative perspective. An autumnal landscape blends with an acceptance of the tree as a mature and natural companion. Falling leaves accentuate Brígida's melancholy realization that her longing will be unfulfilled, that alienation will be her permanent condition. As she philosophizes on the impossibility of attaining happiness, the narrative pauses and Brígida reacts.

At what appears to be an intermission, time and space become blurred as we are abruptly transported to Brígida's bedchamber. The end of the music recalls the sound of the ax and the fall of the tree, and the auditorium lights evoke for the reader the "terrifying" glare that overtakes the room. Recalling Luis's justification for progress and community relations, Brígida confronts her new reality without the tree. In a powerful image her room shrinks before our eyes as she becomes aware of an enormous skyscraper that has replaced the tree. As she looks out the window, a narrow alley offers the picture of a bright red service station and of boys playing soccer, reminders of the progressive and practical modern world to which the natural, illusory life is sacrificed. Resigned to a childless, lonely existence in the midst of a vulgar world, Brígida leaves Luis.

In the story Bombal effectively develops a conflict through her protagonist's sensitive outlook. The intricate structure and effective use of concrete imagery contribute to a vivid portrayal of the protagonist's agonies, providing the reader with a universal experience of isolation and alienation in a changing world.

—Stella T. Clark