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Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977 characterization 81 . In his pursuit of an obsolete religious ideal, Orozco brings to mind Don Quijote, who followed the antiquated ideals of chivalry in the seventeenth century 82 . The madness of Orozco's quijotismo surfaces in his rapidly debilitating mental state, which Augusta constantly hints at, and 49-52. The basis of my comparison is the interplay between reality and illusion within a love triangle, whereby both Orozco and Anselmo emerge as quixotic figures, whereas that of Girard's comparison is the mediation of desire, whereby Pavel Pavlovitch and Anselmo are examples of internally mediated desire, distinguishing them from Quijote, who is an example of externally mediated desire. I should further note that, considered from Girard's perspective, Orozco's desire is externally mediated: upon learning of Augusta's infidelity, he struggles to suppress his natural inclination to feel jealous, because of his own ideal of self-perfection, which contemns ordinary human feelings. 81 Several critics have remarked on some of these parallels. J. Chalmers Herman, Don Quijote and the Novels of Pérez Galdós (Ada, Oklahoma: East Central Oklahoma State College, 1955), briefly discusses Viera's quijotismo (pp. 30-31), and observes that: «The letters that Manuel Infante and Equis write to each other in La incógnita recall at times the verbal exchanges between Don Quijote and his Squire. This is especially true in the very last missive in which Equis calls upon his friend to believe the incredible just as Sancho and Don Quijote invoke the credulity of each other...» (p. 44). Monroe Z. Hafter, «Ironic Reprise in Galdós' Novels», PMLA , 76 (1961), 233-239, describes Viera and Orozco as similar quixotic figures (p. 238). And finally, Gullón, op. cit. , lists Viera as a quixotic character (p. 58). I might add that the characterization of Infante and Equis in the account of the magical self-structuring of Realidad brings to mind Cide Hamete, the fictitious chronicler, who, although he has the magical power to reveal the most hidden thoughts ( Quijote , Part II, Chapter 40), also has the limitation of occasionally being unreliable (Part I, Chapter 9; and Part II, Chapter 3): Infante is a fictitious author and frequently unreliable narrator; Infante, believing Equis to be the author of the manuscript, attributes to him « un poder de adivinación » to « ver la cara interior de los hechos humanos » (p. 786). This account, then, functions as a preamble to the parallels between Realidad and the Quijote . 82 It is interesting to note that Don Quijote's virtuousness is not unambiguous; see the polemical articles of A. A. Parker, «Don Quixote and the Relativity of Truth», The Dublin Review , 44 (1947), 28-37; Helmut A. Hatzfeld, « ¿Don Quijote asceta? », NRFH , 2 (1948), 57-70; and Amado Alonso, « Don Quijote no asceta, pero ejemplar caballero y cristiano », NRFH , 2 (1948), 333-359, rpt. in Materia y forma en poesía , pp. 159-200. 54
Anales galdosianos [Publicaciones periódicas]. Año XII, 1977 which fully emerges in the final scene of the novel. But, unlike Quijote, Orozco remains without self- understanding at the end of Realidad . The parallel is much more explicit in the case of Viera. Viera is an hidalgo who goes mad because of his obsession with an outdated ideal. He follows a Calderonian code of behavior in the bourgeoise society of the nineteenth century. The Sombra of Orozco calls him « el Amadís de la delicadeza y de la dignidad » (p. 886). He is outraged when his sister runs off with the impoverished Santanita, and he plots to avenge this affront to his honor. Infante tries to persuade him that « se han quedado muy atrás los tiempos calderonianos » (p. 816). His « acentuación quijotesca de algunas prendas morales » and his « carecer de otras » (p. 720) result in his life being divided into « dos esferas irreconciliables » (p. 821). The clash of these two «spheres» of his personality, i. e., his love affair with Augusta and his Calderonian code of behavior, is resolved by his adherence to the latter, whereby he becomes both the avenging husband and the punished adulterer, and which he carries out by killing himself. Although the parallel between Viera and Quijote is sustained until his suicide, e. g., Viera suggests to the Sombra, « Nos haremos pastores marchándonos a una región distante y sosegada, donde impere la verdad absoluta » (p. 877), (cf. Quijote, Part II, Chapter 67), Viera, unlike Quijote, dies without self-understanding. The collision between the two halves of Viera's personality is precipitated by his notion of honor. Viera's concept of honor is that of the unredeemed world of the Old Testament, where affronts against honor were avenged by blood. With the coming of Christian times, this idea of honor, which knew no redemption and demanded ancient retributive rites, became outdated and was shown for what it really was, an expression of human pride. Christ came as a healer who shed his blood in a manner which worldly men deemed as dishonorable, in order to cure a universal wound and restore men to honor in the sight of God. The mark of the redeemed order of nature, therefore, is that each man has within himself an honor which was avenged by the blood of Christ once and for all. As a result, man's response to affronts to honor should be forgiveness and reconciliation, not revenge. The reverse is true in the case of Viera. Viera's idea of honor is the motivating force behind his reaction to Clotilde running off with Santanita and his suicide. His practice of charity is also a question of honor as pride: he is charitable to continue a family tradition of more prosperous times. Consequently, Viera's illusion is his mistaken idea of honor, which is a travesty of a vital spiritual reality. It is as far from Galdós' idea of Christian perfection as is Orozco's asceticism, and as much out of place in the nineteenth century as it was in the seventeenth (and well before that too!). And Galdós, as did Calderón in his 55
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