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Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977
mis ojos » (XVI, 100); and he recognizes how easy it is to portray an individual's unchanging traits
variably as defects or perfections. Moreover, he is confused by the tension between his powers of
observation and artistic dictates. After Irene's attack of hysteria and fever, he asks: « ¿La debilidad
y la pena aumentan su belleza o la destruyen casi por completo? ¿Está interesantísima, tal como el
convencionalismo plástico exige, o completamente despoetizada? » (XL, 252) 139 . Galdós, Manso,
art, nature, society: whose is the guiding hand here? Manolo's (mis)use of his education to join the
ranks of the petty bourgeoisie is an act of independence or of rebellion, depending on the vantage
point; in any event, a destruction of the mold in which he had been cast. As for Irene, her revelation to
Manso of her true character is her profession of autonomy. There is no rebellion in her case: « ¡Error
de los errores! » (XLII, 266): Manso's ideal Irene simply crumbles as she assumes a form at variance
with the one he had imagined for her.
Here is a man who lives by order and by reason's absolute law, who boasts of method in his every
act and defines life as a solemn plan, yet cannot control his creations. Small wonder, then, that he
is given to self-doubt. When, contrary to all his habits and at Manolo's insistence, he finds himself
confronting some churros and brandy in a « buñolería », he muses: « ¿Quién se llamará dueño
de sí ? » (XX, 119). It would appear that the individual has so little sway over his order (whether it
is social, ontological, or fictional) that the order imposes itself on him even though he has created it.
Several times in the novel's pages Manso confesses himself to be his creations' creation and inferior
to them 140 . So formed by his pupil is he that for a moment he rebels against analysis and knowledge
and exalts the man of action over his own ways. Of Irene he says: « La que fue maestra de niños
después lo había sido mía en ciertas cosas », and he imagines her echoing: « Las maestras de escuela
139 Manso reveals, as omniscient creator, that he knows how the story of Manolo and Irene is to
end; but then he feels sorry for himself because his role in its denouement is not clear to him: « ¿Me
correspondía intervenir en ella, o, por el contrario, debería yo evadirme lindamente dejando que los
criminales se arreglaran como pudieran?... ¡Pobre Manso! » (XLI, 258). Whether he is pawn of the
action or its guiding force or simply withdraws (dies) depends on whether he plays character and
participant or creator or narrator.
140 In an intelligent article that does not touch on the question of Manso's fictionality («Galdós' El
amigo Manso : An Experiment in Didactic Method», Bulletin of Hispanic Studies , 39 [1962], 16-30),
G.R. Davies singles out the « buñolería » scene as an example of Manso's distanced state from the
political and social realities of life and his inferiority, in this respect, to his own pupil.
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