They are Two Different Personalities

                                       They are Two Different Personalities
    Isabel Allende has written Of Love and Shadows, which includes love, violence, institutions, corruption and more in it. There are many characters included in the story, having their special peculiarity. Irene is the main character in Of Love and Shadows and Beatriz Alcantara de Beltran plays the role of Irene’s mother. Though, Irene and Beatriz are in a relation of mother and daughter, they have great differences in their characters, attributes, which shows that they do not have intimacy in their relationship. 
    Irene is represented as a kind personalities, who give priority to help others; while her mother is busy in her own world. The story in the Of Love and Shadows starts with the description of the house, where old age people are taken care. Actually one portion of Irene’s house is reserved for the old age people (43). Though Beatriz shares the same compartment with the old people, she is not really interested to share their problems and happiness. “Beatriz had had the separate entrance constructed specifically so she could avoid walking through the geriatric home […] infirmity depressed her and was something she preferred to observe from a distance” (8). Beatriz is very much into her own life and her health; she cares about her looks a lot. As it is mentioned, “Fresh and tranquil after her session of Eastern exercises for relaxing tensions and forgetting the night’s dreams, she held a glass of fruit juice good for improving the digestion and toning the skin” (7). Beatriz is shown as a selfish woman; however, her daughter is having a different personality. Irene is interested in taking care of the old age people in the compartment. She goes to them, talks to them and she is involved in their lives. Irene is shown from Beatriz’s point of view as, “She seemed to have discovered a language that overcome their deafness and faulty memories. Now she was wandering among them, handing out soft candies in consideration for their false teeth” (8).  Here it represents the soft nature of Irene unlike her mother and the tone in which Beatriz describes her daughter does not seem admiring. Beatriz does not like the way Irene is subsumed in the lives of the old people.

They are Two Different Personalities

    Beatriz has somehow arrogant attitudes because of her wealthy status and she is intended to show off their wealth; however, her daughter, Irene, does not really care for whatever they have. Beatriz cares about her own status and at the same time she wants that her daughter should also care. As in one scene Beatriz is in conversation with the servant regarding Irene and says, “Why does not she go to the club to play tennis, where she can meet some young men of her own class?” (9). Beatriz is not really in favor of letting herself down in front of the people, she does not want to show if they do not have enough money or they are getting poor; whereas Irene does not have any issue regarding that. As it is mentioned by the narrator that Beatriz is not willing to leave their home and move to a moderate compartment, because that will show their poverty, but Irene wants to shift and remodel the house (43). Simply, Beatriz is one of those people who are having the nature when they do not want to degrade themselves in any case and it does not matter for them if they are happy or not. While Irene wants happiness of her mother and she is one of those people who give priority to happiness rather than their status in the society. Though Irene is brought up by her mother, she is not much influenced by her mother’s nature, which somehow shows that both mother and daughter are not much closed.
    Irene has the courage to confront adventures in life and she enjoys the adventurous circumstances for the sake of helping others; however, her mother wants a luxurious life and wants to stay far away from difficulties. It is mentioned by the narrator that Irene was raised in a peaceful world, keeping away from difficulties and providing everything because of their high class status, but then later on in her life she confronts very hard times when she decides to help Evangelina’s family in finding Evangelina, who is one of the characters, having a great trouble (117, 118). It is not easy to keep aside the luxurious life and choose a path where the possibility to confront difficulties and challenges is more often. However, people take the step when they start giving priority to humanity above all. They consider it the beauty of life when it is spent for the sake of others. Evidence of such life can be found in the form of Irene’s character in Of Love and Shadows. However, Beatriz wants a luxurious life. She struggles hard to look beautiful and young and gets pleasure from that. It is written about Beatriz, “When Beatriz lay on the warm sands of some tropical beach wearing nothing but one tiny triangle of cloth, and compared herself with women twenty years younger, she smiled with pride” (174). Thus, being in mother and daughter relation they differ from each other.

    The story Of love and Shadows is mainly about institutions, human rights, violence, where each and every character plays its role with peculiarity. It includes two important characters of Irene and Beatriz, who are in a relation of mother and daughter, but they are having a profound difference in their nature. Irene is shown as a soft nature woman, who cares about others and who is intentional to help others in difficulty; while her mother is aloof from others sufferings and sorrows, instead she does care about herself, her looks and her life. Beatriz also feels proud being wealthy, whereas Irene does opposite. Moreover, Irene loves of embrace challenges and Beatriz prefers comfort.