Galdós - Amazon Web Services

Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977
« problemática » of La casa de Bernarda Alba, for instance, is the dearth of opportunities afforded to
women in provincial Spain -there is even a note of protest in the work- but there can be no doubt that
Lorca's drama is fundamentally about sexual and spiritual frustration, about Bernarda's daughters and
their existence vis-à-vis Pepe el Romano. So too in Galdós: Tristana's ambivalent feelings (admiration
and hatred) for Don Lope and her passion for Horacio and subsequent disillusionment with him are
crucial; they cannot be dispensed with. Frustration exists here too, but the situation is sparked with
irony and mellowed with sentimentality. Lorca was to follow Galdós' lead in this type of bittersweet
treatment in his Doña Rosita la soltera . 204
Irony and sentimentality indeed color the theme of Tristana and it is through both of these
perspectives that Galdós would inevitably see the problem of feminism in Spain. It was no accident
that he should resort to the time honored literary formulas of the «deceived husband» and the folletín
; for, each, in turn, offered these ingredients. Furthermore, each was a commentary on the traditional
relationships between men and women as reflected for centuries in popular forms of literature.
He saw this cruelty and mischief as expressions of an authentic folk mentality which is epitomized in
the old Spanish maxim, « mujer casada, pierna quebrada y en casa » 205 . The critics are right: Galdós
arbitrarily, and with malice of forethought, cripples his heroine. But such malfeasance hides a purpose.
By filtering the question of feminism through these popular and literary aphorisms, he seems to be
saying that here is the battle of the sexes; here are the mythic roots of the relationship: the husband
deceived and the woman victimized. (The conflict is indeed immemorial, repeated in literature from
the Hombre que casó con mujer brava of Don Juan Manuel to James Thurber's embattled males
and females.) Galdós also seems to be asking: Can it be otherwise? His answer, implied in the final
outcome, is in the negative.
He had asked the same question three years before in the novel Realidad and reached a similar
conclusion. There Augusta, the erring wife, is given the opportunity to confess her guilt and thereby
meet her husband on a higher plane of morality. The husband, Orozco, would like to encourage her
to the task: « Yo había pensado educarte en estas ideas, iniciarte en un sistema de vida que empieza
204 For an examination of the relationship of Galdós to this work see: Roberto G. Sánchez, « García
Lorca y la literatura del siglo XIX: Apuntes sobre Doña Rosita la soltera », Ínsula , N.º 290.
205 Emilio Miró suggests a relationship of this maxim to the novel but in an entirely different sense.
( Op. cit. , p. 520.)
152