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Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977
We will try our fortune, then, with the supposition that love relationships (or, to use a more neutral
expression, emotional ties) also constitute the essence of the group mind. Let us remember that the
authorities make no mention of any such relations. What would correspond to them is evidently
concealed behind the shelter, the screen, of suggestion. Our hypothesis finds support in the first
instance from two passing thoughts. First, that a group is clearly held together by a power of some kind:
and to what power could this feat be better be ascribed than to Eros, who holds together everything
in the world? Secondly, that if an individual gives up his distinctiveness in a group and lets its other
members influence him by suggestion, it gives me the impression that he does it because he feels the
need of being in harmony with them rather than in opposition to them -so that perhaps after all he
does it ' ihnen zu Liebe ' 24 , (' ihnen zu Liebe ' is an idiom meaning 'for their sake' but literally
signifies: 'for love of them'.)
Specifically referring to the nature of the ties which are present in groups, Freud adds: «We are
concerned here with love instincts which have been diverted from their original aims, though they do
not operate with less energy on that account» 25 . (Let us recall, at this point, that Lázaro marries Clara
to settle down with her in isolated, provincial Ateca only after he definitely has freed himself from
the attraction of the group-organism and abandons Madrid and his desire to play a part in politics.
In Freudian terms this would represent a reversion of Lázaro's libidinal drive toward a truly sexual
object. Freud might as well have been referring specifically to Clara and Lázaro when he affirmed:
«Two people coming together for the purpose of sexual satisfaction, in so far as they seek for solitude,
are making a demonstration against the herd instinct, the group feeling».) 26
If the above parallel is valid (obviously, it is extremely vulnerable) and the « orador » is
analogous to the part of the personality attracted to procreation, Lázaro's condition on joining the
group-organism, as described further by Galdós, takes on greater significance while the rather exalted
language employed is justified to a greater extent:
Cruzábanle por la mente extrañas y sublimes formas de elocuencia; latíale el corazón con rapidez
desenfrenada; las sienes le quemaban, y sentía en su garganta una vibración sonora que no necesitaba
más que un poco de aire para ser voz elocuente y robusta.
24 Ibid. , p. 40.
25 Ibid. , p. 58.
26 Ibid. , p. 121.
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