2 ?b90

123
Jos4 Eugenio and Rialta's new role as centre of the family. An important
example of her influence on Cemi is her advice to him after he has been
in danger in the student riots. Rialta's influence is like "un bautizo"
(1. %
186), a word which enhances the idea of Cemi as a chosen one. He
emerges from the depths thanks to his mother, whose face appears in all
things: "todas las figuras remedan el rostro mariano ...
" (1., 187).
Rialta has become identified with the Virgin Mary which, according to
P4rez Firmat, "allows him to avoid guilt-feelings by removing his affec-
tions to a neutral object. "
40
The same critic has devoted some time in his study of Paradiso to
equating Rialta and Beatrice, as guides and mentors to Cemi and Dante re-
spectively. Given the similarity of title that we have noted, it seems
highly plausible that Beatrice is as a mother to Dante, for she is said
to look at him "con quel sembiante che madre fa sovra figlio deliro"
(Paradiso; i, 101-2); and given the ambiguity of sexual roles in Cemi's
dream, we can imagine Rialta as at least a spiritual mother/lover, whose
smile introduces Cemi to "un mundo m6gico" (1,198) and "la lecci6n del
espiritu" (1,148). It seems to me that Rialta's nature as a type of
the Virgin Mary goes far beyond being a method of guilt transference.
M. L. von Franz discusses the presence of a female in male dreams as
follows:
LThe*dreamer] will discover a female [or male] personi-
fication of his unconscious Jung called its male
and female forms "animus" and "anima. " The anima is a
personification of all feminine psychological tendencies,
in a man's psyche, such as vague feelings and moods, pro-
phetic hunches, receptiveness to the irrational, capacity
for personal love, feeliýj for nature ... and his
relation to the unconscious.
As Rialta is Cemi's link with the Unconscious, and provides much of his
poetic inspiration,, which can only come from an exploration of one's own
Unconsciousq the theory of the anima seems particularly appropriate.