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Illusion, Reality and Realidad
Joseph F. Chorpenning
Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977
Professor Frank Durand has recently demonstrated how Galdós used his interest in the interplay
between reality and illusion in La desheredada , the first in the series of las novelas españolas
contemporáneas , «to capture the whole of reality rather than limit himself to the description of
the exterior world» and to provide a proper ironic framework for «a serious commentary on the
values of society as well as a presentation of the country's politics or its historical situation» 73 . He
concludes his study by asserting that, in this first novel of the series, Galdós «no more than begins
his examination» (p. 201) of the relationship between reality and illusion, which he develops more
and more in succeeding novels of this series.
One way Galdós uses this interplay in later novels is to bring out another one of, his interests, namely,
that in the exploration of an inner reality of conscience and morality. It is a critical commonplace that
this interest first surfaces in the epistolary novel La incógnita and in the dialogue novel Realidad ,
and evolves into a « proceso de espiritualización » in subsequent novels such as Nazarín , Halma
and Misericordia 74 . In fact, La incógnita and Realidad are themselves representative of Galdós'
interest in playing with reality and illusion: the former describes the « cara exterior », i. e., the
illusion which Manolo Infante imagines to be the truth of the « caso » which forms the plot of
both novels, the death of Federico Viera, whereas the latter offers the « descripción interior » and
the « verdad profunda » of the « caso » 75 . But, although Realidad is the truth of the matter,
that is not to say that its characters do not have illusions. On the contrary, the principal characters
of Realidad Augusta Cisneros, Tomás Orozco and Federico Viera, have a great deal of difficulty
73 «The Reality of Illusion: La desheredada », MLN, 89 (1974), 191-201, at pp. 201 and 198
respectively.
74 See H. Chonon Berkowitz, Pérez Galdós : Spanish Liberal Crusader (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin
Press, 1948), p. 224; Ángel del Río, Estudios galdosianos (Zaragoza, 1953), pp. 15-16; and Gustavo
Correa, Realidad, ficción y símbolo en las novelas de Pérez Galdós: ensayo de estética realista
( Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo , 1967), pp. 163-191.
75 Benito Pérez Galdós Obras completas , ed. Federico Carlos Sáinz de Robles, 2nd ed., 6 vols.
(Madrid: Aguilar, 1950), V, 786. Both La incógnita and Realidad are included in vol. 5 of this edition.
Further references are given after quotations in the text.
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