131
Amparo, as the daughter of a deceased pharmacist, is a petite bourgeoise on the road to the lower classes until she «marries» Agustín.
132
The relation between this hypocritical façade and the vacuous reality behind it is reinforced by many other aspects of Tormento and La de Bringas, e.g. the ironic comparison between Bringas and Thiers, the Bringas' meager diet vs. their public ostentation, Pez's rhetorical political and amorous pronouncements.
133
This difference is demonstrated clearly at the end of Tormento. Agustín resolves to break with convention and leave Madrid while Rosalía remains the adamant defender of accepted values: «¡Conque no puede hacerla su mujer porque es una... y la hace su querida...! Estoy volada... Ignominia tan grande en nuestra familia, en esta familia honrada y ejemplar como pocas, me saca de quicio...» (1568). Of course, Rosalía's conduct in La de Bringas demonstrates that family honor is just another deceptive appearance. But when she uses sex as a means of social advancement, there are no repercussions for she operates always within the bounds of convention.
134
Nevertheless, in this duality, the moral differentiation establishes the major polarity. For example, it allows Marcelina Polo to be grouped with Rosalía even though she shares her brother's economic situation. It is their dedication to sincerity that lead Agustín and Polo to abandon Madrid. And it is society's slavish dedication to appearances that keeps it from benefiting from the potential regeneration offered by characters like Agustín and Polo. When they leave, Rosalía's conduct reveals how appearances can become in all-consuming passion.
135
«Art and Objective Truth», included in Writer and Critic, ed. Arthur D. Kahn (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1970), p. 40.
136
Engels points to the relative autonomy of the superstructural regions of politics, law, and ideology. With respect to ideology, he comments: «The people who deal with [ideology] belong in their turn to special spheres in the division of labor and appear to themselves to be working in an independent field. And in so far as they form an independent group within the social division of labor, in so far do their productions, including their errors react back as an influence upon the whole development of society, even on its economic development. But all the same they themselves remain under the dominating influence of economic development» (letter to Conrad Schmidt, October 27, 1890, included in Marx and Engels on literature and Art [New York: International, 1947], pp. 3-8).
137
Goldmann (op. cit. chapter «Nouveau roman et réalité») has indicated how this is true of even the most «unrealistic» fiction, such as the work of Alain Robbe-Grillet and Nathalie Sarraute.
138
Even if one is writing against a particular tradition, for example Cortázar in Rayuela.
139
See Pierre Macherey, «Lénine, critique de Tolstoi», and «L'image dans le miroir», in Pour une théory de la production littéraire (Paris: Maspero, 1974).
140
Vicens Vives (Manual de historia económica de España [(Barcelona: Vicens Vives, 1969)] comments: