Daughter Of Fortune

Miss Rose embodies the 19th-century English lady, bound by her corset and social conventions. Her past reveals a different story, however, as Miss Rose once risked everything to pursue a passionate affair with a Viennese tenor. Her attempt to live her life as she pleased was quickly squelched by her brother Jeremy, who ended the affair and concealed it to preserve the honor of their family. Although Miss Rose wishes to enjoy the freedom possessed by men, she compromises by refusing to marry, experiencing more independence as a spinster living with her Jeremy, and expressing her emotions in writing. The losses in Miss Rose’s life seem to be partly assuaged by her maternal relationship with Eliza. Miss Rose is an erratic mother to Eliza, often treating her like a doll she can dress. She demands that Eliza take piano lessons and stand up straight. Miss Rose loves Eliza and tries to arrange a good marriage for her protegee so that Eliza can have a better fate than her own. Miss Rose’s reluctance to share her own experience with a first love drives Eliza away from confiding in her.

As a Mapuche Indian, Mama Fresia represents the culture of the indigenous people of Chile. Mama Fresia is the cook in the Sommers household and serves as a second mother to Eliza during her childhood. Mama Fresia uses herbs and incantations to protect Eliza’s health, teaches her Indian legends, dream interpretation, and cooking skills, and provides a warm, nature-based alternative to Miss Rose’s proper English way of raising Eliza. Mama Fresia loyally helps Eliza to escape to California when Eliza feels disgraced and needs to find her lover.

Jeremy Sommers is the self-controlled older brother of Miss Rose. A model of British rectitude, Jeremy has served as the head of the Sommers family since the death of his father. Jeremy embodies the patriarchal attitude that women need to be protected from making their own decisions since they are prone to undisciplined impulses. Jeremy intervened to end his sister’s passionate affair. Jeremy is a bachelor who dreads intimate contact, and Miss Rose chooses not to marry so they reside together in a mutually beneficial, if not entirely amiable, domestic arrangement. Jeremy’s impenetrable personality is the opposite of his good-natured brother John. Jeremy’s preoccupation with maintaining appearances and his lack of human understanding contribute to Miss Rose’s concealment of secrets from him.

John Sommers is a hard-drinking, woman-chasing, likable sea captain and the brother to whom Miss Rose is closest. When he learns that his sister is writing manuscripts of her fantasies, he takes them to a London publisher and deposits Miss Rose’s profits in a bank for her. John is grateful to his sister for taking care of Eliza, whom he secretly fathered with a Chilean woman whose name he has forgotten. Although John appears to be tolerant and adventurous, Eliza realizes that the good name of his family is his highest priority. Tao Chi’en realizes that John retains his English prejudices and he will never be Tao’s friend, only his self-defined social superior.

Known only as Fourth Son until age 11, Tao Chi’en was born to a poor family in China. Descended from a long line of healers, Tao possesses knowledge of plants and salves that improves his circumstances. After his father sells him to a caravan of merchants, Tao’s successful treatment of an injured merchant results in the transfer of his indenture to a famous Canton zhong yi (a traditional Chinese physician and acupuncture master). The aged master teaches his apprentice about ancient Chinese medicine and gives him the name “Tao,” representing the journey of life, and his own surname, “Chi’en.” Although Tao’s master eventually dies by suicide, the training Tao has received provides him with a livelihood as a qualified zhong yi. Tao takes his master’s golden acupuncture needles and a case of medical instruments to start a new life in Hong Kong. When Tao earns enough in his medical practice, he buys a sweet-natured wife with tiny feet. Through his wife, Lin, Tao learns about love, intimacy, and companionship with a woman, altering the assumptions he was taught in that patriarchal culture. In despair after Lin and her baby die, Tao realizes the danger of the traditional Chinese practice of binding a woman’s feet. Tao’s work among sailors in the poorer section of the city leads to his kidnapping as he is forced aboard Captain John Sommers’s ship to function as a cook.

The unassuming Tao plays a pivotal role in Eliza Sommers’s life, helping her to stow away on a ship bound for California and saving her life when she has a miscarriage on board. Tao also assists in Eliza’s recovery in California and her search for Joaquín. Tao gives her masculine clothes to wear and allows her to pose as his younger brother to avoid unwanted attention. After Eliza independently travels on a quest for her lover, she gradually realizes that she idealized Joaquín and values her close companionship with Tao. Tao’s mission of rescuing young Chinese females forced into prostitution prolongs his stay in California. The spirit of Lin helps Tao to realize his love for Eliza.

Described as a charismatic redhead with an eloquent voice, Jacob Todd enters the Chilean culture as an outsider. The Englishman initially enjoys friendships in the English colony, among the Spanish landowning families, and in the circle of poor Chilean intellectuals, including Joaquín Andieta. Arriving in Chile to win a bet to sell Protestant bibles in the Catholic nation, Jacob finds that the Sommerses’ musical gatherings are the perfect introduction to the English colony in Valparaíso. When Jacob falls in love with Miss Rose Sommers, he extends his stay in Chile even though she rejects him as a suitor. Jacob’s talent for inventing stories spurs the English people to give him funds to invest in a fraudulent mission to the Indians and, eventually, leads to his ruined reputation in Chile.

Gaining a second chance by reinventing himself in California as an Americanized journalist, Jacob falls into the same habit of embellishing events with his imagination. Jacob’s articles on the legendary bandit, Joaquín Murieta, spread his fame across California and provoke the angry Americans into starting a manhunt that results in the deaths of a group of Mexicans, whose leader may or may not be Murieta. Jacob provides the crucial information to the Sommers family that Eliza is alive in California.

Darkly handsome with Andalucian features and a virile grace, Joaquín Andieta is a catalyst for the development of Eliza Sommers. Impoverished as a result of his illegitimate birth, Joaquín has the qualities of a natural leader and the impulses of a revolutionary. Even Jacob Todd and Miss Rose sense Joaquín’s magnetic charisma. Employed at the British import and export firm directed by wealthy Jeremy Sommers, Joaquín is paid an unjustly meager salary. He is Eliza’s first love, and the overwhelming passion she conceives for him leads her to willingly sacrifice her virtue, as defined by Chilean society, in rendezvous with him. Although Eliza idealizes him as the perfect lover by reading his poetic letters, Joaquín seems to be more preoccupied with political ideas than with his love for her. With the news of the Gold Rush, Joaquín seeks his fortune in California, precipitating Eliza’s lengthy quest to find him.

Jacob invents imaginative articles about a legendary outlaw, Joaquín Murieta, who may or may not be his friend, Joaquín Andieta, transformed by California circumstances, angered at the unjust treatment of Hispanics.

An intelligent girl who boldly defies her father, Agustín del Valle, to marry Feliciano Rodríguez de Santa Cruz, Paulina provides a hopeful alternative to the oppressed women in her childhood family. Her happy marriage to the entrepreneurial Feliciano is based on his willingness to let his wife develop her business talent. Feliciano learns that Paulina’s visionary ideas result in stupendous profits. Always planning ahead, Paulina requests that her husband place 20% of the profits she earns in a bank account in her name as protection against being a penniless widow in the future. Even though married women cannot buy or sell without their husband’s authorization, Feliciano accedes to her request. During the Gold Rush, Paulina immediately sees the profit in owning a steamship and transporting Chilean produce packed in glacier ice to the miners in California. Paulina decides to move with her family to San Francisco, more at home in a place with the opportunity to invent a new life than in the class-segregated, socially constrained life in Chile.

Feliciano is a newly rich Chilean who has made his fortune by entrepreneurial means rather than by inheritance. Feliciano’s obscure, possibly Jewish origins make him an unsuitable candidate for the hand of Agustín del Valle’s daughter, according to the proud del Valles. With the help of his friend Jacob Todd, Feliciano and Paulina succeed in overcoming the del Valles’ opposition and marrying. Feliciano reflects the future as an unusual husband who encourages his talented wife not to spend her time on domestic chores. The couple mutually benefits from Paulina’s visionary business ideas. Despite his initial shock at the idea of a married woman with money of her own, Feliciano agrees to open a bank account in Paulina’s name with 20% of the profits she earns for him. Feliciano also plays a pivotal role in persuading their friend Jacob to immigrate to California. He helps Jacob acquire a job at a leading newspaper.

The Viennese tenor Karl Bretzner embodies Miss Rose’s romantic ideal. As a 16-year-old aspiring singer, Miss Rose falls under the spell of Karl’s powerful voice. Although the much older tenor resembles a vulgar butcher, he is a well-practiced lover who introduces Miss Rose to passion and lovemaking. Miss Rose’s experience with the theatrical singer provides the inspiration for all of her later fantasies and erotic writings. The pair’s reckless affair ends when Miss Rose’s brother Jeremy intervenes, informing his naïve sister of Karl’s wife and children. This scandal is a tightly held secret shared by Jeremy and Rose, determining Rose’s future as a lifelong spinster dedicated to filling her notebooks with her suppressed passion.

A respected Canton zhong yi (a traditional Chinese physician and acupuncture master) gives the new name of Tao Chi’en to his apprentice who was previously known as Fourth Son. Tao’s master teaches him the knowledge of ancient Chinese medicine so that he can become a zhong yi, destined to ease pain and achieve wisdom. The aged master warns the youthful Tao against the evils of gambling and frequenting brothels. Discouraged by the humiliating defeat of China by Great Britain in the Opium War, Tao’s master ends his life before he fulfills his intention to adopt Tao. However, the training Tao receives provides him with a livelihood as a qualified zhong yi. Tao continues to commune with the spirit of his acupuncture master, who provides him with guidance even in California regarding his mission to alleviate the suffering of the young Chinese female prostitutes.

Dr. Hobbs is initially described as a foreigner who towers over the Chinese in a Hong Kong market. A young man with noble features, Dr. Hobbs is an English aristocrat lacking the typical arrogant attitude towards the Chinese. Dr. Hobbs represents one of the earliest Western medical men who realizes that he can benefit from learning about Eastern medical practices. Dr. Hobbs is the first Westerner to share a friendship with Tao Chi’en. The two men exchange knowledge about their respective specialties. Dr. Hobbs advises Tao Chi’en to spend as much time with Lin as he can when he sees that she is dying. Dr. Hobbs is Tao’s Western counterpart and a source of validation when Tao faces discrimination as a Chinese man trying to get a medical license in California.

The wife of Tao Chi’en, Lin serves as an important promoter of spiritual growth in her husband. When Tao bought his wife through an agent in China, he dreamed of a sweet-natured, submissive woman with tiny feet. Accustomed to thinking of women as either creatures for work and reproduction or expensive pleasures, Tao is amazed by Lin’s complex and humorous personality. Lin teaches Tao about love, intimacy, and companionship with a female. When Lin descends into ill health because of the difficulty of walking on her tiny, bound feet, Tao realizes the evil of the traditional Chinese practice. Tao despairs when Lin and their baby girl die, but Lin’s spirit continues to guide Tao. Lin’s presence on board Tao’s boat to California convinces Tao that he must use his physician skills to save Eliza from dying. Tao’s experiences with Lin prepare him for his developing relationship with Eliza.

A Chilean prostitute with Indian ancestry, Azucena helps nurse Eliza, keeping the young woman alive when she is desperately ill on board the ship bound for California. Sympathetic to Eliza’s tale of thwarted romance, the maternal Azucena preserves her secret when Eliza’s father, Captain John Sommers, demands to know where Azucena obtained the brooch that was his gift to Eliza. Azucena represents the dream of Chilean prostitutes to earn fortunes in California and return to Chile to live like queens, instead of being exploited by men. Although Azucena may not succeed in her goal, she achieves genuine happiness in California.

A Pennsylvania Dutch woman who always felt like a man condemned to the body of a woman, Joe Bonecrusher wears men’s clothing as the madam of a traveling bawdy house. Although she runs a brothel, Joe Bonecrusher is the antithesis of Ah Toy. Joe’s maternal instinct prompted her to rescue her four prostitutes from worse situations, supporting them as they withdrew from drug addictions, and paying them fairly. The girls treat Joe with the loyalty of daughters, and the brothel provides a substitute family for them. Joe represents the nonconformity possible in the undeveloped territory of Gold Rush California, where her devoted nursing of sick miners gains her acceptance in the community. Joe Bonecrusher’s brothel provides Eliza with a piano-playing job and protection while she searches, disguised as an effeminate “Chile Boy,” for Joaquín.

Based on a historical figure in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, Ah Toy symbolizes the cruelty of the system of prostitution patronized by men. A clever prostitute, Ah Toy develops a peep show to profit from the California men’s lust in a society where females are scarce. Then Ah Toy becomes a ruthless madam with a chain of brothels, taking advantage of Americans’ indifference to Chinese suffering to import young Chinese girls and exploit them. Ah Toy is Tao Chi’en’s archenemy, opposing him in his battle to save the girls from harm. Ah Toy’s miniscule feet, the result of years of being bound, disturbingly remind Tao Chi’en of the unhealthy Chinese practice that he used to venerate.