Galdós - Amazon Web Services

Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977
« Caifás », « Pecado », « Demonio », « purgatorio ») adds: « Tiene más malicias que un
Iscariote » (p. 1002 a ). And when he is finally allowed to leave for lunch, she examines his clothing
for rips and upon finding one exclaims: « Ya me has roto los calzones... [Tunante, ya verás, ya verás]
Ya verás, Holofernes, ya verás » (ms. p. 98; OC p. 1002b). And in the final scene of Chapter III
between Isidora and Encarnación the references multiply. The Sanguijuelera opines that it would
have been far better for all concerned had Isidora and Mariano never been born: « Nada habría
perdido el mundo con que os hubierais quedado por allá... en el Limbo » (P. 10003 b ). When Isidora
denies that Rufete and Francisca Guillén were her parents, Encarnación retorts: « Justo, justo, mi
Francisca, mi ángel os parió por obra del Espíritu Santo o del Demonio » (p. 1004a). The old woman
sarcastically invites her great-niece to continue the melodramatic version of her birth and Mariano's:
« Pero acábame el cuento. Salimos con que [eres hija] sois hijos [de mi sobrina Paca] del nuncio...
» (ms. p. 105; OC p. 1004 a ). And when Isidora insists on believing the Canónigo's absurd account
of her birth, to the Sanguijuelera 's contemptuous astonishment', the old woman exclaims: « No sé
sino que te caes de boba. Eres más sosa que la capilla protestante » (p. 1004 a ).
Certainly these religious references are proper to the character of a hardworking lower-class woman,
which is perhaps why they pass almost unnoticed at first. But these Biblical and otherwise religious
references are not local color; they are too carefully inserted to be coincidental. Encarnación uses
them because she is a prophetess, and at the end of Chapter III she will make a prophecy to Isidora and
the Spain she represents. The narrator summarizes the Sanguijuelera 's character a moment before
the prophecy: « Honradez y crueldad, un gran sentido para apreciar la realidad de las cosas, y un rigor
extremado y brutal para castigar las faltas de los pequeños sin dejar por eso de quererles, componían,
con la verbosidad infinita, el carácter de Encarnación la Sanguijuelera » (pp. 1004b-1005a). With
the groundwork thus laid and Isidora cowering at her great-aunt's feet, the Sanguijuelera predicts the
course of Isidora's life and the natural outcome of her pretension to a position in the Aransis family:
« ¡Toma, toma, toma, duquesa, marquesas, puños, cachas!... Cabeza llena de viento... Vivirás en las
mentiras como el pez en el agua y siempre serás una pisahormigas... Malditos Rufetes, maldita ralea
de chiflados... » (p. 1005 a ).
It is too soon, however, for Galdós to announce his intention openly and give the ending away, so
he retreats, using a religious reference ironically in order to undo the effect of all the serious religious
references that have gone before. The narrator comments at the end of Encarnación's harangue: « Y
cada palabra era un golpe y cada golpe un cardenal leve (es decir, subdiácono)... » (p. 1005 a ).
Suddenly an uncertainty exists: are we witnessing the vision of a prophetess or the temper tantrum of
31