Galdós - Amazon Web Services

Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977
tunante. Después le puse en los Católicos de abajo, y se me escapaba a las pedreas... Es un purgatorio
saltando » (p. 999 a-b ). She goes on to complain that she has spent her entire life working, with
nothing to show for it, in part because she has had to bail Isidora's family out of one scrape after
another: « ¡Ya ves qué polla estoy! sesenta y ocho años, chiquilla, sesenta y ocho Miércoles de Ceniza
a la espalda. Toda la vida trabajando como el obispo y sin salir nunca de Cristos a porras » (p. 999b).
A number of these expressions are commonplace, no only in La desheredada but in many other
Galdós novels. They are part of the oral Spanish that Galdós was at such great pains to reproduce. At
the same time, such an accumulation of religious references 37 in such a reduced space is a signpost for
the reader; they are not being used casually. And we see from the manuscript that Galdós deliberately
changed some of the expressions in order to enhance their religious implications. The Sanguijuelera
says that she first placed Mariano in a Protestant school: « Ahí le puse en [la Protestantes , porque
daban] esa de los Herejes , donde dicen la misa por la tarde y el rosario por la mañana. Daban un
panecillo a cada muchacho, y esto ayuda » (ms. p. 76; OC p. 999 a ). By changing one word,
the Sanguijuelera 's character is changed radically from heterodoxy (she is willing to send her great-
nephew to a Protestant school) to strictest orthodoxy (she calls a school heretical because, even though
it is Catholic, it reverses the normal order of morning mass, evening rosary) 38 . And referring to her
own age, she describes herself as having « sesenta y ocho [Carnavales] Miércoles de Ceniza a la
espalda » (ms. p. 77; OC p. 999 b ). Again, by changing a single word (carnaval, traditionally
a time of wild abandon) to another (Ash Wednesday, the solemn first day of Lent), the old woman's
character is changed radically. The life principle of a somewhat pagan woman (not unlike Lorca's
Vieja primera in Yerma , who has always been « una mujer de faldas en el aire ») is channelled
into a more orthodox mold in order to make her more acceptable as a figure of truth to Galdós' readers.
The Biblical and religious references continue. When the two women go to the rope factory where
Mariano works, his great-aunt, who has already described him once in Biblical terms (« Anás »,
37 Religious references in this novel have very little to do with what is usually though of in connection
with religion in Galdós' works (Christian charity in its many forms, Christ figures such as Benina
and Nazarín, etc.). Perhaps it would be more accurate to describe La desheredada 's references as
«Catholic and Bible-related». In this novel the Bible' is equal to absolute truth (we recall that in the
popular language of the time, if something is true, « es el Evangelio »).
38 Later Riquín will be urged by Encarnación to be merciless when he becomes Pope: « ¡Leña a los
herejes, duro, firme! » (p. 1164 b ).
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