In The House of the Spirits, many characters experience deep love, but they often come to understand that passion alone cannot sustain a relationship. Esteban feels intense passion for his wife Clara, but his affection is possessive: "he wanted far more than her body; he wanted control over that undefined and luminous material that lay within her." His urge to dominate what he loves fuels his anger, leading him to punish those he cares about when they fail to meet his expectations. Similarly, Férula's affection for Clara morphs into a "jealous passion that resembled that of a demanding husband more than it did that of a sister-in-law," ultimately resulting in her being expelled from the house. Unpossessive love is incomplete unless it is tempered with common sense. For instance, Amanda realizes that Nicolás lacks the maturity to be a suitable husband and declines to transform their "free love" relationship into marriage. Blanca hesitates to elope with Pedro Tercero because she fears their "grandiose love" won't withstand the ordinary challenges of daily life. Instead, she "fed [her love] with fantasies, idealized it, savagely defended it, stripped it of prosaic truth, and turned it into the kind of love one found in novels." The novel portrays the most successful loves as unconditional, involving both giving and receiving. Alba and Miguel love each other without limitations, allowing their relationship to endure his periods of hiding and her experiences of torture and imprisonment. This healthy perspective on love is also reflected in parent-child relationships. Nívea del Valle, for example, understands that the best way to support Clara's unique abilities is to "love her unconditionally and accept her as she was." Blanca and Alba discover that the children they teach ceramics to work much better when they feel loved, and that the only way to communicate with them is through affection. This is a lesson Esteban eventually learns when he finally manages to love his granddaughter Alba without the anger that has marred all his other relationships.