101
Galdós' irony here is double-edged in that he created a distance-proximity and fatherson situation: Pepe sums up all his scathingly negative views in letters to his father who, as we remember, had given Pepe the most anachronistic and hence idealized and false picture of Orbajosa. It is the father who reads his son's grotesque version of idyllic rural life. Galdós cleverly imposes on the reader contrasts between the idyllic view with its opposite (XXVIII) of stupid acts, wrongdoers, detractors, unworthy, fury, intrigues, terrible, unjust, wicked, deception, hostility, antiquated ideas, religious fanaticism, etc. What is important here is that Pepe, except for Rosario («ángel»), spares no one and uses what might be called generalized caricatures, i. e., «Aquí tienen...» «les impulsa», «resolverían ...» «degollando a todo el que no piense como ellos» (ital mine, XXVIII, 288). (N. del A.)
102
Interestingly, Pepe seems to be somewhat aware of his confusions when he writes to his father: «No extrañe usted la incoherencia de lo que escribo. Diversos sentimientos me inflaman» (XXVIII, 286). (N. del A.)
103
I am not being overly convinced by Cardona's articulate arguments concerning Pepe's «tragic flaw» (op. cit.) because the hero's so-called bad behavior (as he confesses it) at the end has to do only with his means to an end as are conditioned almost entirely not by his flaw but by Perfecta's (and Orbajosa's) intrigue and resistance. Pepe in fact, being a nice liberal, overdoes the mea culpa act which, as he admits («don't believe what you hear of me» he cautions), are paltry compared to the acts of his enemies. Moreover, the tragic victim in a classic tragedy, as with Antigone, causes the way to destruction. This is not the case with Pepe: he is not defending a principle but simply wants to be with Rosario. Pepe's confession in the letters, examined carefully, are part of melodrama and not tragic grandeur while, significantly, neither Perfecta nor the chorus-like Cayetano admit wrong. (N. del A.)
104
My colleague Antonio Ramos has correctly pointed out that what is working here is obviously an interaction between infra and superstructure. I wish here to acknowledge his counsel during the preparation of this article. (N. del A.)
105
See ft 47 for references. (N. del A.)
106
Symbolically: take away the best that the countryside can offer by turning them against the authority of those who control the area, that is, undermine the traditional authority of the rural aristocracy. (N. del A.)
107
Her selected labels (madman, sacrilege, demon), her warnings, scare tactics, traditional ways, moral and religious principles etc. were typical of the terms used and the ways with which conservatives attacked progressives. Textual proof of the importance of Perfecta's peroration is that Galdós creates a very theatrical moment by suspending everything for one moment in order to dramatize Remedio's reaction to her mistress's words: «La sobrina de don Inocencio estaba atónita ante tanta grandeza. Abrió la boca para decir algo en consecuencia con tan maravilloso pensamiento, pero sólo exhaló un suspiro» (XXV, 259). The entire scene is a representation of social relations of personal dependency as the foundation of a rural, feudal-like society like Orbajosa. The landowner is aware of the distinction: «Yo imagino un recurso más digno de personas nobles y bien nacidas» (ital. mine). That is, Remedios, clearly, is neither. This is a classic scene of an inferior, dependent peasant awed by the «nobility» or «haughtiness» of the powerful landlord. (N. del A.)
108
This lucid aspect of Perfecta at the threshold of the conflict's outcome has not been considered sufficiently in Doña Perfecta studies. Yet, apart from the fact that, in contrast to Pepe, Perfecta talks of death, the wording of her decisiveness here anticipates, in a way, modern slogans such as those beginning with «better dead than...». (N. del A.)
109
Vicens Vives' (op. cit., p. 166) interpretation of the times is typical: «La Restauración fue, esencialmente, un acto de fe en la convivencia hispánica. Aun hoy cabe admirar el tacto con que se procedió a la redacción de la Constitucional de 1876, la imparcialidad que presidió la redacción de los grandes códigos legales: el Código civil, la Ley Hipotecaria, las leyes de Enjuiciamiento civil y criminal. Cánovas quiso hacer un Estado legal, no arbitrista, respaldado por las fuerzas vivas del país...» (N. del A.)
110
To paraphrase pertinent comments by K. Burke (op. cit., p. 285): Galdosian critics who stress form as against content usually feel that they are concerned with judgments of excellence as against judgment of the merely representative. Yet, just as a content category such as liberalism includes both good and bad examples of its ideology, so does a form category, such as melodrama or tragedy, include both good and bad examples of its kind. This is what I mean by the need to be neutral and objective, as critics, towards melodrama or thesis novels. (N. del A.)