Island Beneath the Sea (Spanish: La isla bajo el mar) is a 2009 novel by Isabel Allende. The novel is quite different from Allende's most famous works and owes more to Historical Fiction than to Magic Realism.
The story is set in late 18th-century Haiti from the POV of Zarité "Teté" Sedella, an Haitian-born slave and her lifelong struggle to obtain freedom for her and her children. Her story is entangled with History, as she happens to live during the tough times of the Haitian Revolution, which is quite faithfully described. The second focus is on her master, the French planter Toulouse Valmorain, along with his Spanish brother-in-law Sancho García Del Solar, Madame Violette Relais, as they live through the revolution and eventually settle in Louisiana as it is about to be sold to the United States of America.
The book displays the following tropes:
- Aesop Amnesia: Toulouse Valmorain goes through multiple Break the Haughty experiences, but never learns anything from them:
- Tété saves his neck during the slave revolt in exchange for her and Rosette's freedom. He then takes credit for their escape and frees them only years later, when Father Antoine shames him into doing so and never learns to treat Tété as a person.
- His grossly rude treatment of Tété and Rosette, their daughter, eventually costs him the relationship with his son, but never manages to grow out of his racism.
- Beautiful Slave Girl: Averted with Zarité herself; a lifetime of work wears down her looks. Rosette is a subversion. She was conceived as a result of Valmorain raping Teté. Teté lives in fear because while Rosette lives a privileged life as playmate to Valmorain's son (her fair complexion helps) she can be sold or given away, as she is property of Valmorain. Horténse even proposes to do so, unsuccessfully. This fear ends when Valmorain is coerced into granting Teté and Rosette their freedom.
- Bittersweet Ending: Zarité lives free and so do her husband and children, but Rosette is dead. A grieving Maurice leaves their son in Zarité's care and goes away. He rarely sees his child, has abandoned his abolitionism ideas, and never repairs his relationship with his father.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Valmorain wets his breeches when the rebels are about to attack his home in Le Cap, Saint-Domingue.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Maurice and Rosette are half-siblings and aware of it.
- But Not Too Black: In 18th-century Creole society, having darker or fairer skin could literally change your life. Zarité is a slave-born mulatto but she looks specifically black. Madame Violette and Tété's daughter Rosette are free quadroons (born of a white father and mulatto mother) and are able to pass themselves as white, if not of Hispanic heritage.
- Child by Rape: As a result of Valmorain raping the enslaved Teté, Jean-Martin (later adopted by Violette and Étienne Relais) and Rosette.
- Dead Guy Junior:
- Maurice is named after his late paternal grandfather.
- Zacharie and Zarité's son is named Honoré, after the latter's Parental Substitute.
- Historical Domain Character: Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution appears in a few chapters. Gambo, Zarité's First Love, eventually becomes his right-hand man.
- Antonio de Sedella, better known as Père Antoine, helps Teté finally become a freewoman.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Violette Relais made a career out of her beauty, but she is one of the most compassionate and good-hearted characters.
- An Immigrant's Tale: Most of the main characters are Black Haitians, white Frenchmen and Spaniards who migrate to the recently American Louisiana after the Haitian revolution.
- Madwoman in the Attic: Valmorain's first wife, Eugenia, slowly loses her mind in Saint Domingue, due to her family history of mental illness (among women; her brother is sane if quite eccentric) and the increasing paranoia about a possible Slave Revolt.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage:
- Doctor Parmentier is in a Common Law Marriage with a black woman and they have several children, but they've been hiding their relationship for decades because it would hurt his business.
- Étienne Relais couldn't care less about social and racial prejudices and marries the mixed-race Hooker with a Heart of Gold Violette out in the open. His reputation as The Dreaded helps to keep unwanted attentions at bay.
- Married at Sea: How Rosette and Maurice finally marry. The captain marries them on waters out of government jurisdiction that would nullify an interracial marriage or one between half-siblings.
- Mean Boss: Horténse is brutal with the slaves. She insists that Teté must stay up until she is ready to go to bed, even though she already has a personal servant and Teté must wake up at dawn.
- "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Zarité and Zacharie's daughter is named after Violette.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Several slaves lose their children due to the their unbearable conditions.
- Sadly, Zarité has to mourn the loss of Rosette, who succumbs to fatigue and illness due to the pregnancy and harsh conditions on jail.
- Practically Different Generations: Zarité's children by Valmorain are much older than the two she has with Zacharie. The youngest, Honoré, is actually younger than his nephew Justin (Rosette and Maurice's son).
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Violette initially finds herself with two lovers who regard their relationship as exclusive: rich planter Valmorain and military officer Étienne Relais, who has a rather modest income. Eventually the love triangle resolves itself peacefully, as Valmorain's intentions were never serious, and Violette ends up happily married to Relais.
- Second Love:
- After being widowed, Violette Relais finds a new love in Sancho Garcia del Solar, Valmorain's eccentric brother-in-law.
- Years after losing Gambo in the mists of a civil war, Zarité falls in love with Zacharie and are Happily Married.
- Slave Liberation: The book describes how the enslaved of Saint Domingue successfully rebel against their French masters, thanks to the instability of revolutionary France and the ratio of one master for ten slaves. It was really a now-or-never situation and it made for the only successful revolt on history.
- Teté spends the second half of the book and the rest of her life as a free woman.
- Surprise Incest: Subverted. Maurice and Rosette are revealed to be siblings when they declare their intention of getting married, but it turns out they knew all along, but weren't allowed to behave as such and the distance put between them and puberty made sure that their feelings for each other turned out romantic.
- Wicked Stepmother: Horténse Guizot marries Valmorain and spends years trying to conceive a son that would steal the right to inherit from Maurice, to no avail because Valmorain is too attached to his son, and because she keeps giving birth to daughters. Also is that to Rosette; she even tries to pressure Valmorain into selling her at age 7 (Valmorain refuses) and much later, instigates Rosette's imprisonment and eventual death.
