Consider the way Camila Perichole is introduced—i.e., as a marginal figure in the Marquesa de Montemayor’s story—as compared to her eventual role in the novel. How does this approach to characterization support the novel’s themes?

Compare the various parent-child relationships in the novel—the marquesa and Clara, Uncle Pio and Camila Perichole, the abbess and Pepita and the twins, etc. Why does this kind of love feature so prominently in the novel, and how do these various relationships illuminate different aspects of it?

Two of the victims of the bridge collapse, Pepita and Jaime, are discussed in the context of others’ lives rather than being the subject of their own chapter. What is the effect of this? How does it contribute to the novel’s overall meaning?

Consider the narrative voice. What is the narrator’s relationship to the text? Is it the same as Thornton Wilder’s? What function does the narrator’s mediation of the story serve?

The novel contains several allusions to other texts; for instance, the description of Brother Juniper’s project as an effort to “justify the ways of God to man” refers to John Milton’s Paradise Lost (5), while the narrator’s remark about God “brush[ing] away” the feather of a sparrow recalls Matthew 10:29. How and why does Wilder engage with the Bible and the literature based on it?

Both the marquesa and Camila Perichole are dedicated artists, one a writer and the other an actress. Compare their relationships to their respective art forms. Does art ultimately emerge as an isolating or connective force?

Consider the novel from a postcolonial perspective. Many of the characters (e.g., the marquesa) belong to the Spanish colonizing class; what presence do those of other classes and ethnicities find in the work?

Analyze Esteban’s tragic trajectory after Manuel’s death as an exploration of how grief and solitude shape identity.