Victoria Bergman—Solace Manuti

Victoria Bergman’s relationship with Solace Manuti grows from uneasy recognition into an imagined bond of kinship. In Bengt Bergman’s household, Victoria sees the younger maid as both a possible rival for her father’s attention and another girl he can exploit; at the pool, she nearly repeats an earlier abandonment before choosing to save her. Her later decision to call the girl Solace and imagine taking her to Sweden gives their brief connection the shape of a shared future, even as Victoria remains trapped in the household that produced their danger.

Identity and Introduction

Solace Manuti enters Victoria Bergman’s life as a little girl employed as a general maid. She is a few years younger than Victoria, slender, and initially frightened when she appears in the doorway. Victoria has liked her from the first day, but affection does not make their position in the household equal: Solace works there, while Victoria is Bengt’s daughter and is herself subject to his abuse. Their closeness begins inside a structure of authority that places both girls under his control in different ways.

Bengt has taken an interest in Solace, courting her with compliments and ingratiating remarks. On the first evening, he moves her from the servants’ quarters into the main house, explaining the change as practical. Victoria sleeps more soundly afterward, and Birgitta Bergman seems pleased with the arrangement. That improvement in Victoria’s rest is sharply at odds with what she later notices: bruises on Solace’s neck, a scratch on her earlobe, and, when Solace changes clothes, larger bruises across her stomach and at the base of her spine. The move into the main house is not simply a domestic convenience; the evidence of injury makes Bengt’s attention to the girl threatening.

The Household’s Unequal Power

Victoria’s response to Solace’s injuries is divided. She feels rage at what Bengt has done and relief that, on this occasion, she was not the one beaten. Shame follows: she is ashamed to be his daughter, but also feels a disturbing reluctance to teach Solace to swim. The girl’s presence therefore awakens not only pity but also competition and fear. Victoria imagines that Bengt prefers Solace because she is younger, appears unspoiled, and may not refuse him as Victoria has begun to do.

That rivalry is rooted in the household’s conditions, not in any action by Solace. Victoria sees Bengt’s good mood as a warning that the day may end badly, and regards his public work associated with human rights as a cover for his conduct at home. Her anger at him coexists with the recognition that she is relieved when his violence falls elsewhere. The relation between the girls is thus initially distorted by the scarcity of safety: attention from Bengt appears capable of transferring danger from one girl to another, even though neither controls his actions.

The Pool and a Reversal

At the pool, Victoria invites Solace to learn to swim. Solace will not enter wearing only her underwear, so Victoria gives her the thin vest she had been wearing. As Solace changes, Victoria sees the bruises on her stomach and lower back. The vest belongs to Victoria and bears the crest of her school; on Solace’s much smaller frame it hangs too large. The exchange of clothing makes their closeness tangible, but it also intensifies Victoria’s unsettled perception of the girl as someone occupying her place.

Victoria tells Solace to lean forward into the water and promises to support her from underneath. When the girl thrashes, swallows water, and sinks, Victoria initially swims away and watches from a short distance. The episode recalls a little boy Victoria loved, who had let her down and later drowned. That memory makes the pool more than a lesson: Solace’s helplessness confronts Victoria with the possibility of repeating a past failure. Twice Solace surfaces coughing and sinks again while trying to reach the edge. Victoria then swims back, pulls her up, and carries her from the water.

Solace cannot stand; she collapses beside the pool and vomits the chlorinated water and the porridge she had eaten for breakfast. Afterward, Victoria rocks her and turns the near-drowning into a reassuring account of Solace’s own effort, telling her that she had kicked Victoria and nearly knocked her out. Solace sobs and eventually gives a silent apology. The rescue does not erase Victoria’s moment of withdrawal, but it changes what follows it: rather than leave the girl to drown, she holds and comforts her.

From Rivalry to Identification

After the pool incident, Victoria no longer sees Solace as a rival. She understands Bengt’s interest differently: in her view, she matters more to him, while Solace is merely a toy, a wooden doll, a trophy. This recognition does not make Victoria’s position safe, nor does it mean that Bengt has ceased to threaten Solace. It does, however, break the imagined contest between the girls. The danger lies in Bengt’s treatment of them, not in Solace taking Victoria’s place.

Victoria’s sense of the girl is also shaped by an ancestral wooden face mask from the Tenme tribe. Running her fingers over its features, she imagines the mask becoming warm and lifelike beneath her touch. The image links Solace to a figure that can be handled and possessed, echoing Victoria’s realization that Bengt treats the girl as an object. Yet the mask also becomes a medium for imagining likeness rather than rivalry. Victoria puts it on, sees herself diminished by its small eyeholes and altered proportions, and calls herself and Solace twins. The declaration is an act of imaginative kinship, not proof that their circumstances are the same.

The Name Solace and an Imagined Future

Solace tells Victoria that her mother died in childbirth and that her father was executed after being found guilty of stealing a chicken. The account includes the ordeal known as trial by red water: her father was made to swallow water mixed with tree bark after eating dry rice, could not vomit, and was beaten to death. Victoria understands that Solace has no one there to care for her and imagines bringing her back to Sweden. She gives the girl the name Solace, meaning comfort, and imagines sharing her sickness with her.

The plan remains imagined. Victoria says that inside the mask she can glimpse another life elsewhere, but knows she cannot have it and is shackled to Bengt. When he returns from work, she immediately removes the mask and runs back into the living room, aware that she is forbidden to touch his belongings. The abrupt concealment sets the tenderness of her naming against the limits imposed on her: she can picture a life in which the girls are twins and Solace is protected, but in this moment she cannot openly claim even the mask as her own. Their encounter matters because Victoria moves from fear and jealousy toward recognition and care, while the future she envisions for Solace remains inseparable from her own captivity.