Galdós - Amazon Web Services

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977 The appeal is, in every sense, to the most childish of minds. Beyond question, the scene is gross and unworthy of Galdós even at that early stage of his career. In the novelas contemporáneas , however, when he used the elements of the folletín , he was perfectly aware of their nature and artificiality. Yndurain makes note of this evolution. « Bastantes años después, y cuando había ya ahondado en la novela de naturaleza más psicológica y actual, todavía le quedan no pocos resabios de folletín; pero ya es capaz de verlos desde fuera y no sin nota de humor irónico » 200 . True. At one point in Tormento, for example, after Galdós has painted the portrait of the Bringas household happily gathered around the dinner table, he describes Amparo, downcast and alone, climbing the stairs to her miserable flat and adds the following parenthetical comment: « que me digan que esto no es sentimental » (IV, 1481). And yet we must realize that Galdós found life itself often filled with folletinesque situations; that is, with its own protective crust of artificiality. Thus he felt justified in making these allusions. Furthermore, he meant the humor and the sentimentality to have a leavening effect on the somber world of these novels. But it is time that we return to our initially stated purpose and look once again at the declarations of disappointment that the novel elicited since its appearance. We are now in a better position to judge those objections and arrive at some logical explanation. I have already dealt with Berkowitz's speculations regarding the circumstances surrounding the composition of the novel. There is no evidence that would lead one to assume that Tristana received less attention from its author or concerned him less than his other works. The idea that it «might be figuratively termed the unfinished opus of his repertory» is more complicated. It stems from the scholar's belief that «its theme of feminine independence is suggested but not developed». La Pardo Bazán shared this dissatisfaction. She too felt that the central idea had been betrayed; « idea -que en Tristana aparece embrionaria y confusa, al través de una niebla, como si el novelista no se diese cuenta clara de la gran fuerza dramática que puede encerrar... » Her arguments, lucid and forceful as always, deserve attention. She begins a summary of the work with these words: « El asunto de Tristana cabe en un puño, y la trama puede decirse que es nula. » She defends the simplicity of plot in novels, and yet goes on to attack Tristana declaring that, for all that, it abounds precisely in plot complication. She is aware of the contradiction in her argument and explains the need to distinguish between « el asunto interno y externo, entre lo que acontece y lo que permanece, 200 Ibid. , p. 67. 150
Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977 entre lo que se ve y lo que se esconde ». Thus she can say: « Tristana, a pesar de su sencillez de asunto, aún le sobra parte de él: para el asunto interno no hacía falta Horacio, ni la ausencia de Horacio, ni la pierna cortada, porque el asunto interno en Tristana no es realmente ni la seducción de don Lope, ni el enamoramiento de Horacio, ni la ruptura, ni el casamiento final... » 201 Critics that came later would agree with her: Casalduero and Marina Mayoral, who condemned Galdós for arbitrarily crippling his heroine in more ways than one; Emilio Miró who declares: « Galdós ha escrito una novela muy cruel. Parece que se ha burlado sangrientamente de su criatura, que se ha complacido en abatirla, en humillarla » 202 . Along with Berkowitz, they would also agree with la Pardo Bazán's description of the theme, or asunto interno , as: « el despertar del entendimiento y la conciencia de una mujer sublevada contra la sociedad que la condena a perpetua infamia... » and here is the crux of the matter. For, what if that were not the actual theme? What if Galdós meant to convey something else? After all, Doña Emilia found the central idea to be « embrionaria y confusa ». 203 I said before that it is fruitless to speculate about Galdós's attitude toward feminism. I meant that we should not try to see in him either a defender or enemy of women's rights. I would say that what intrigued him most in the matter is the conflict that a feminist is heir to -the conflict in terms of inter- personal relationships and, only in a secondary way, the social and economic implications that might arise from her stance. Again, this does not mean that he discounted the importance of the latter but simply that in him the «artist» took precedence over the «sociologist». To be sure, Galdós was sympathetic to the plight of Spanish women. He seems to acknowledge the injustice in the circumstances that barred Tristana from being a lawyer, doctor or minister, but he is more concerned with her personal quandary (her yearnings and her doubts) and with the way men would take to her and she to them. The world of feminine emotions had always fascinated Galdós and in Tristana's rebellion he heard discordant voices that held his attention. He was no longer the liberal reformer who would protest against injustice explicitly; his message could only come through in an implicit manner; any thesis must now succumb to the drama of his fictional characters. Inherent in the 201 Op. cit. , p. 1120. 202 Op. cit. , p. 521. 203 Clarín disagreed with Doña Emilia: « La señora Pardo Bazán ve no sé qué esbozos de gran novela, que no llega a escribirse, y cuyo asunto sería la esclavitud moral de la mujer. No creo que Tristana represente tal cosa ». ( Op. cit. , p. 252.) 151
Page 2 and 3:
Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervan
Page 4 and 5:
Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones p
Page 6 and 7:
Page 8 and 9:
Estudios Anales galdosianos [Public
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
(p. 64) Anales galdosianos [Publica
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Máximo Manso: The molde and the he
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101: Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones p
Page 174 and 175: Documento Anales galdosianos [Publi
Page 188 and 189: La incógnita : Anales galdosianos
Page 190 and 191: Trafalgar , tr.: R. Pohlebkin, Mosc
show all

Galdós - Amazon Web Services

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?