The Bridge of San Luis Rey Trivia Quiz

Answer: Yes

The bridge of San Luis Rey did indeed exist, and the description of it in the first paragraph of Wilder's novel is quite accurate. Crafted of native fibres, it spanned the gorge of the Apurimac river, some 118' below. It was a masterful example of a catenary suspension bridge and is still regarded as one of the great engineering feats of all time.

The collapse of the bridge described in the novel as occuring in the early eighteenth century is fictional, as are most of the characters in the novel. The bridge did indeed collapse, but not until 1890, by which time it had long since fallen into disuse. Built in 1350 A.D., the bridge had lasted more than 500 years.

Answer: Her son-in-law, Conde Vicente

The Marquesa is the most well-developed and fascinating of the five victims. An awkward and unloved child, she is married against her will to a nobleman and gives birth to one child- a daughter, Clara- who becomes the great overriding passion of her life. Sadly, the very intensity of the Marquesa's love drives her daughter away and makes her unloveable to her as well. Upon reaching marriageable age, Clara deliberately chooses a Spaniard, the Conde Vicente d'Abuirre, as her husband, thus putting an entire continent between herself and her overbearing mother.

Bereft of her daughter's company, the Marquesa writes her numerous letters, hoping to achieve with words the intimate relationship with Clara that she was not able to develop during the girl's childhood. Into these letters the Marquesa pours all of her latent charm, wit, eloquence, and literary skill (this practice of the Marquesa was inspired by the letters of the great French writer Madame de Sevigney). She is destined never to know that Clara pays scant attention to these letters, barely glancing at them before discarding them. The Conde, however, retrieves the letters and reads them with great interest and pleasure. It is he who preserves the letters, though even he has no idea how celebrated they (and the Marquesa) will become.

Answer: Esteban

Esteban is one of a pair of orphaned twin brothers who are raised by Madre Maria del Pilar, prioress of the convent of Santa Maria Rosa de las Rosas. The other brother, Manuel, becomes enamored of the beautiful actress La Perichole, who employs him to write letters for her on condition that he will keep their contents in utter secrecy (both brothers are employed as scriveners). Sensing that his budding relationship with Perichole is driving a wedge between himself and his brother, Manuel relinquishes his job as her secretary. Shortly thereafter, he cuts his knee open on a piece of jagged metal and becomes an invalid. It becomes Esteban's unenviable duty to daily change the dressing on his brother's wound, which causes Manuel excruciating pain. During one of the changings, Manuel cries out his love for La Perichole and curses Esteban, for whose sake he relinquished his relationship with her. Manuel eventually dies of an infection, leaving Esteban consumed equally with grief and guilt.

Esteban makes the acquaintance of a seaman, Captain Alvarado, who convinces him to join his crew. The desperately unhappy young man agrees, on condition that Alvarado will keep him continually busy, so that he will have no time to think about his brother. The following morning, Esteban tells the captain that he has changed his mind. When Alvarado urges him to reconsider, Esteban tells him to wait while he gathers his belongings. After waiting for some time, Alvarado goes up to the door of Esteban's room, where he hears the sound of plaster being scraped from the ceiling beam and a rope being tied to it. Alvarado hesitates, thinking that it might be best to let Esteban end his misery, but when he hears the chair being kicked away, he breaks in and catches Esteban, breaking his fall. Sympathetic to Esteban's distress, Alvarado nonetheless urges him to push onward, and the two set off for Lima. Alvarado goes down to the stream to see to some merchandise, but Esteban crosses by the fatal bridge.

Answer: Jaime

Jaime is the five year-old son of La Perichole, born out of wedlock. His father is Don Andres de Ribera, the Viceroy of Peru. Jaime is traveling with Uncle Pio, the friend and mentor of La Perichole, who had asked the boy's mother to let him raise the child.

We are told that Jaime suffers from convulsions (epilepsy?), a condition inherited from his father; he also shares his father's profound sense of embarassment when these convulsions occur in public. He crosses the bridge on the shoulders of Uncle Pio, who notices that the child has grown tired. Shortly before starting across the bridge, Pio stops to converse with Captain Alvarado, a friend of his; afterward he meets the Marquesa, who is accompanied by Pepita, and exchanges a few words with her. At this point, we are told that "...Jaime tried to conceal his shame, for he knew that one of those moments was coming that separated him from other people." In one of the novel's most poignant moments, Pio, sensing the boy's discomfiture, tells the child that they will rest after crossing the bridge (which, of course, they never do).

Answer: Courage

Pepita, an orphan (like Manuel and Esteban), was the beloved protege of Madre Maria, who sent her to be the companion of the Marquesa. Although Pepita sorely misses the prioress, and finds waiting upon the Marquesa to be a trial, she carries out her duties with great dedication. Eventually, however, she becomes so miserable that she writes to Madre Maria, begging to be allowed to return to the convent.

Before this letter could be posted, the Marquesa happened upon it and read its contents. With a shock, she realizes how selfish and how oblivious to Pepita's suffering she has been. At dinnertime, she gently informs the girl that she has seen the letter, and urges her to post it to the prioress. Pepita, who has since thought better of the letter, refuses, saying simply that the letter "...wasn't brave."

Reflecting on Pepita's words, the Marquesa reflects upon her own drunkeness, her superstition, and her all-consuming, but ultimately selfish love for her daughter, and realizes that courage has never informed her actions, either in life or in love. She resolves to begin anew, and composes what will be the last of her famous letters, the Letter LVI, which will become known as her Second Corinthians (after St. Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians, which contains his famous expostulation on the true nature of love). Sadly, before the Marquesa can open this new chapter in her life, she and Pepita are lost in the fall of the bridge.

Answer: Uncle Pio begged La Perichole to let Jaime live with him.

Apart from the Marquesa, Uncle Pio is probably the most fascinating of the five victims (he is not actually anyone's uncle; the nickname derives from his rather avuncular personality). A hugely gifted and learned man, he seems actually to shun both fame and success, pouring all of his energy into developing the talent and persona of the actress La Perichole. He discovers the former Micaela Villegas as an impoverished street singer, and gradually nurtures, bullies, and provokes her into developing her acting and singing abilities until she becomes the most celebrated actress in Peru.

Despite the fact that she owes much of her success to Pio, la Perichole is extremely cavalier about their friendship. When she is stricken with smallpox, which scars her face and damages the beauty on which she places so much importance, she refuses to let him see her, and vents her anger and frustration on him by subjecting him to vicious verbal abuse. Nonetheless, he contrives to enter her room, just as she is desperately attempting to disguise her ravaged face with powder. Infuriated, she drives him away, and bars him from her house.

Despite all this, the indefatigable (and enamored) Uncle Pio lures her into her garden, where he plays upon her emotions, reminding her that she can never repay what she owes him. He begs her to allow Jaime to stay with him, vowing that he will educate the boy and see that he is raised as a gentleman. La Perichole originally refuses, but promises to ask the child's opinion and abide by his decision. We are told that Jaime arrived by himself at Uncle Pio's rooms at the Inn the following morning; presumably he chose to live with Pio (or did the self-absorbed actress realize that he was an encumbrance to her?). Tragically, Pio's plans for the boy (along with his own future) are destined never to be realized.

Answer: Llamas

The Marquesa undertakes this pilgrimage after receiving the news of her daughter's pregnancy. Although she is actually an agnostic, the Marquesa's overweening concern for her daughter's condition brings about a veritable orgy of the most primitive superstitious religiosity. Since this particular shrine was considered holy ground by at least three different religions (Christianity being the most recent), she clings to the hope that there is some merit to these long-held beliefs.

While resting by a fountain after the long journey to the shrine, the Marquesa is approached by a llama, which the author describes as "...a lady with a long neck and sweet shallow eyes, burdened down by a fur cape too heavy for her and picking her way delicately down an interminable staircase." While the Marquesa strokes the llama's nose, she is soon surrounded by a group of the animals (which are native to Peru); the author comments with amusement on the distinctly human way in which these mammals interest themselves in human conversations and problems. He describes them in much the same terms as one would describe a group of solicitous and curious village women.

Answer: Goodness, piety, and usefulness

Brother Juniper is a very learned man who is determined that theology should take its place among the exact sciences. He determines to use the fatal accident to clarify the ways of God to man, regarding it as a sort of scientific laboratory. In the wake of the devastation following the plague, he draws up a diagram of both the victims and the survivors, and tries to tabulate their worth using the criteria of personal goodness, piety (adherance to religious practice and ritual), and usefulness. The results are interesting; some quite pious individuals are found not to possess much in the way of simple goodness and kindness, whereas the one man who excells at both goodness and piety is found to be not of much practical use. Brother Juniper finds that it is extremely difficult to fit human beings, in all their complexity, into finite categories.

When the book is, at last, published, the Church takes an extremely dim view of Juniper' attempt to make explicit the mysteries of the divine will. The book is condemned by the Inquisition and, along with its author, is sentenced to be burned in the public square. Having failed in his attempt to scrutinize God's plan, Juniper feels unworthy to call upon him at the moment of death, and dies calling upon the name of St. Francis, his order's founder.

Answer: La Perichole

La Perichole, the famous actress, is the only character in the novel to have known all five victims: she was the protege of Uncle Pio, Jaime was her son, she knew both Esteban and his brother Manuel, whom she hired to write her letters for her, and she met both Pepita and the Marquesa when she went to the latter's home to apologize after rather viciously lampooning the Marquesa to her face at a theatrical performance.

Although many of the details about her in the novel are fictional, La Perichole was an actual person. She lived in the 18th century and was the most celebrated actress in Peru, and one of the most celebrated in the Spanish-speaking world. She was also the mistress of the Viceroy of Peru (as in the novel); according to my sources, she bore him children, one of whom (like Jaime) died before reaching adulthood.

La Perichole was the subject of a one-act play by Prosper Merimee "Le Carosse du Saint-Sacrament", which Wilder credited as an inspiration ("...in its external action") for his novel. Merimee's play was the basis for the libretto of Jacques Offenbach's opera comique "La Perichole" (Merimee's "Carmen" was also the basis for the opera of that name). The play was also the basis of a 1952 film by the celebrated French director Jean Renoir (son of the great impressionist painter Pierre Auguste Renoir) entitled "Le Carosse d'Or", which starred Anna Magnani as la Perichole.

Answer: Wilder also had a twin brother who died.

Unlike Esteban, Wilder never knew his twin brother, who died at birth. It is reasonable to suppose, however, that the death of his twin was on Wilder's mind during the writing of this novel, which deals with the unanswerable question of why tragedy befalls some people and spares others.

Wilder's own views on the subject were at odds with those of his strictly Calvanst father Amos (Wilder said that the novel was inspired by the numerous "friendly arguments" he had with his father on the subject. Although many read the novel as an attempt to trace the workings of Divine providence in human destiny, such was not Wilder's intention. As he himself put it "Strict Puritans imagine God all too easily as a petty schoolmaster who minutely weights guilt against merit, and they overlook God's Caritas' which is more all- encompassing and powerful. God's love has to transcend his just retribution. But in my novel I have left this question unanswered." Brother Juniper's attempt to make sense of the tragedy is in fact doomed to failure; it is Madre Maria who, at the novel's end, realizes the purpose of the five truncated lives: "But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning."