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Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977 realidad de las cosas » (p. 55) 65 . Similarly, whatever qualities Juan Bou may possess, the oafishness of his conduct during the visit to the Aransis palace in chapter XXVII (aptly entitled « La caricia del oso ») not only engenders sympathy for the very real sufferings of Isidora, but also makes clear, by highlighting the gulf between their respective sensibilities, the sheer incongruity of Miquis' suggested marriage between these two very disparate beings. Nor does Isidora fit entirely comfortably into the category of simple social archetype. To begin with, it is probably true to say that there is a lack of sufficient points of comparison with Madrid society as a whole -similarities there undoubtedly are, but Isidora is not as wholly identified with her milieu as Rosalía Bringas is with hers. Moreover, if there is a basic resemblance between her imaginative excesses and the quiero y no puedo characteristic of the inhabitants of Madrid as a whole, there is also an important qualitative difference. In a world peopled by the likes of Melchor, Gaitica et al., cheap hucksters and frauds pursuing ignoble and material ends under a transparent veil of hypocrisy- Isidora is marked out as a creature apart, not only by her greater sensibility, but also by the genuineness of her belief in her own nobility. If her ideals are false, they are at least a cut above those of most of her fellows. Moreover, there is a genuine nobility about Isidora -an ability to make others seem small and mean by comparison- which survives every degradation (indeed, it seems to grow greater the lower she falls). Thus the triumph of the «practical» Sánchez Botín is rendered abject by Isidora's aristocratic self-assertion and even in the very act of self-abasement -her attempt to sell herself to Miquis- she triumphs by a kind of paradoxical grandeur over the latter's bourgeois conventionalism (though this scene is perhaps a trifle too theatrical). The very power she has to hold men in thrall -Miquis himself, Bou, Don José- testifies to the existence of something out of the ordinary in her character. Above all, however, Isidora is redeemed by her own ennobling passion for Joaquín Pez, a creature whose very worthlessness only serves to tender her own unwavering and self-sacrificing love seem the greater. 66 65 Significantly, the description of the rope work is presented in terms of its impact on the sensitive Isidora. 66 In this respect, as R. Ricard has pointed out ( Aspects de Galdós , Paris, 1960), Isidora bears a distinct resemblance to Fortunata. 42
Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977 As a result there is, pace Rodgers 67 , a genuine and by no means insignificant vein of tragedy in Galdós' treatment of Isidora's downfall. When Muñoz y Nones administers the coup de grâce to her illusions we do not feel the satisfaction attendant upon a comeuppance long overdue and now duly administered, but rather the sense of tragedy arising from the contemplation of a not ignoble or unsympathetic being the very roots of whose existence have been destroyed. There is even a tragic scale to her reaction -the «all or nothing» attitude which leads her to fling herself into the world of the prostitute. The apparent conflict between this tragic vein and the aforementioned didacticism, and the negative attitude to Isidora which it reflects, is not a question of the novel lacking unity or purpose or of Isidora having succeeded in transcending the limitations of Galdós' original intentions: rather it is a reflection of the Cervantine dualism underlying Galdós' whole approach to the conflict between illusion and reality. As in the case of D. Quixote, Isidora's virtues are one with, and inseparable from, her major failing -her inability to content herself with reality as she finds it. Galdós' Cervantine concept of imagination is the key to his tragic vision: not to possess this quality is to be deprived of one's full humanity, while to those gifted (or afflicted) with it imparts an inherent dissatisfaction with reality, and a craving to transcend its limitations which is almost invariably doomed to frustration precisely because of its unreality. In this context it is important to take into account Galdós' deliberate technique of contrasting characters drawn from opposite ends of the spectrum of illusion and reality. The most obvious example is the polarity of attitudes embodied in Isidora and Mariano. For while Isidora's overheated imagination leads her to shun reality in favour of absurd flights of fancy, Mariano, on the other hand, is just the reverse: his is a wholly materialistic existence confined within the narrow horizons of sensual gratification. Galdós deliberately underlines the contrast: Diríase que la Naturaleza quiso hacer en aquella pareja sin ventura dos ejemplares contrapuestos de moral desvarío; pues si ella vivía en una aspiración insensata a las cosas altas, poniendo, como dice San Agustín, su nido en las estrellas, él se inclinaba por instinto a las cosas groseras y bajas. (p. 279) The same direct contrast is apparent in their mental processes: 67 «Galdós' La desheredada and Naturalism», Bulletin of Hispanic Studies , XLV (1968), 285-98. For Rodgers the tragic potential inherent in Isidora's situation is prevented from developing by Galdós' didacticism. 43
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