—48→ —49→
Doña Perfecta is a novel which has to be read and understood on various levels if we are fully to appreciate the significance of the story and the theme it illustrates. Galdós does, of course, provide various aids in the course of the novel in the form of his own specific comments on action and characters but it is often through the images and dramatic irony in the book that we are led to a real understanding of it. A significant number of these images and references are concerned with life and death, an antithesis which is basic to the story and is given particular emphasis by Galdós. We meet it first in the description of the appearance of decay presented by the ancient town of Orbajosa. Despite «cierta apariencia vital» provided by the coming and going of a few people the general effect is «más bien de ruina y muerte que de prosperidad y vida.» (413)48 The houses, crouching at the foot of the town walls, «alzaban sus miserables frontispicios de adobes, semejantes a caras anémicas y hambrientas que pedían una limosna al pasajero» (413). The town is, in fact, a «sepulcro, donde una ciudad estaba, no sólo enterrada, sino también podrida», although the sound of church bells clanging unharmoniously indicates, rather paradoxically, that «aquella momia tenía todavia un alma» (413). It is noteworthy that at this early stage of the story Galdós links «ruina y muerte» setting them against «prosperidad y vida», giving us a suggestion here of the different levels we are to find in the story. Moreover, little hope is held out for Orbajosa, for the buried corpse is «podrida». Resurrection seems impossible.
The flashback in Chapter III explains the reasons for Pepe's visit to Orbajosa and in so doing presents his father's idyllic views on provincial life, as typified for him by Orbajosa. His comments apply to abstract qualities rather than to the actual appearance of the place but the emphasis is on life and vitality, so different from the dead, mummified Orbajosa we have just seen: «allí despierta la dormida fe, y se siente vivo impulso indefinible dentro del pecho... que en el fondo de nuestra alma grita: 'Quiero vivir.'» (416) Moreover, in view of the tragic dénouement of the story the words «Quiero vivir» come to have an ironic connotation, as does Pepe's enthusiastic comment: «me gustaría vivir y morir aquí» (430). Which, of course, he does. The symbolic nature of Pepe's arrival in the dead town of Orbajosa has been pointed out by Gustavo Correa: «En este fondo sepulcral penetra Pepe Rey, quien simbólicamente entra en el ámbito de su propia destrucción y muerte.»49
The feeling of peace which Pepe at first claims will be his in Orbajosa is shortlived. We are not really surprised, particularly since immediately after Pepe's assertion «Está convidando a la paz» (418) old Licurgo intruded with his threatening references to «un asuntillo» and «la justicia» (418). The deliberate juxtaposition of the two comments aroused our suspicions. Indeed, the idyllic Orbajosa which his father had described so effusively soon becomes a nightmare town for Pepe: «Representábase en su imaginación a la doble ciudad... como una horrible bestia que en él clavaba sus feroces uñas y le bebía la sangre» (439). The violence of the image expresses all Pepe's horror and growing anger but more important is that it is a prophetic image -that —50→ of death. It suggests a slow, yet violent, death and indeed Pepe is submitted to a slow torture before he is actually killed. The picture of his blood being drained from his body recalls the «caras anémicas y hambrientas» in the initial description of the town. Orbajosa is dead and now wishes to pull down others into its grave. Pepe thinks of flight, but his love for Rosario will keep him in Orbajosa «atándole a la peña de su martirio con lazos muy fuertes» (439). He will, in fact, remain to die. When Pepe is confronted by numerous townsfolk with their importunate demands -or crucified as he puts it- his feeling of victimisation is described thus:
| (442) | ||
Pepe, then, seems doomed to die yet Rosario associates him with life claiming: «Sin ti vivo en el Limbo» (456) and «Tú sólo posees el extraño poder de devolverme la vida. 0yéndote, resucito.» (457) The human tragedy of the novel is that his life ends in death; hers in the «limbo» of the asylum. The implication from the point of view of the theme is equally tragic.
The «silencio de sepulcro» of Orbajosa which is normally disturbed only by the lively voices of the three Troyas (443) is shattered when the long-expected soldiers finally arrive:
| (459) | ||
The funereal description and particularly the mummy analogy recall yet again the first portrayal of the town. It seems, then, that the impossible has actually come to pass, that though to all appearances irreparably «podrida» Orbajosa has been resuscitated. However, in Galdós' image the word «parecía» is all-important; it is not actual revival but only an illusion created by the vitality of the troops. The impossibility of such a change taking place in Orbajosa is underlined by Pepe's words: «mientras esta gente no perezca y vuelva a nacer; mientras hasta las piedras no muden de forma, no habrá paz en Orbajosa.» (461) Pepe made his comments to his soldier friend Pinzón who agreed to help him in his bold plans with the pledge: «Hasta morir» (462), but the death will be that of Pepe, not of Pinzón.
A confrontation with his aunt eventually takes place and Pepe confesses that her open opposition to his marriage is preferable to her underhand methods: «Después de ser acuchillado en las tinieblas, ese bofetón a la luz del día me complace mucho.» (465) Once again an image of death is used to express Pepe's thoughts although here he ironically seems to feel that death has been averted. Yet ultimately he is killed in «las tinieblas».
We have seen that Orbajosa is associated with death; the soldiers from Madrid with life. Yet Caballuco in a burst of enthusiasm exclaims: «¡Viva Orbajosa! ¡Muera Madrid!» (477). He wants the existing state of affairs in Orbajosa to be perpetuated; he wants its death to live on. He does, of course, represent the attitude of the majority of the people in Orbajosa: for them death is life and they wish death and destruction on those who represent life and progress. Because the life/death antithesis is such an —51→ integral part of the theme an apparently commonplace exclamation takes on added meaning. Doña Perfecta is at this stage more concerned with the domestic crisis in her own house and finds only one solution to it: «Muramos..., no hay más remedio que morir.» (478) Superficially this seems in direct contrast to Caballuco's cry but when both are considered in the overall life/death context their implications can be seen to be extremely similar.
Thus the story moves towards its inevitable conclusion in death. This inevitability is emphasised when Don Inocencio becomes a nineteenth-century Pilate as he washes his hands of all responsibility, for this act not only throws light on the priest's rôle in the story but sets the seal on Pepe's death because of the Biblical parallel: when Pilate washed his hands Christ died. (We recall Pepe's previous comment that he is being crucified and his repetition of Christ's words on the Cross.) That it is too late for Don Inocencio to wash his hands is suggested by an earlier description in which he is presented as a criminal before his executioner, in this instance an enraged Maria Remedios (489). Doña Perfecta cried «Muramos» but soon changes it to «¡mátale!» (499). Pepe dies; she remains alive. Yet «Muramos» is appropriate since through Pepe's death Doña Perfecta has hammered yet another nail into Orbajosa's coffin. The story swings continually between literal and metaphorical interpretations of life and death so that apparent contradictions at times occur, through which we come to a heightened awareness of the theme. The presentation of life and death is frequently reinforced by the introduction of other images and allusions, the most important group being that which refers to darkness and light. We have already seen an instance of this in Pepe's comparison between «tinieblas» and «luz del día». Other examples will now be considered.
The novel begins with a cold, grey dawn, though as Pepe travels cross-country with Licurgo the sky brightens with «alegre irrupción» and «esplendorosa claridad» (410). However, the countryside beneath the sky remains dull and desolate like a ragged beggar sunning himself. The country round Orbajosa, then, seems to derive but little benefit from the brightness of the morning sky. It is again dawn when the army arrives to arouse Orbajosa from its sleep (458). Pepe, who like the army arrived at dawn, is killed at midnight, in the darkness.
The natural phenomena of dark and light are not the only ones to be described. The entry of Don Inocencio is depicted in these terms: «los cristales de la puerta... se oscurecieron por la superposición de una larga opacidad negra.» (419) The priest whose rôle in life should be to create light produces exactly the opposite effect, appropriately enough, we feel, when we learn later that his family name is Tinieblas. The only glimmer of light is that which glances off his spectacles-light which does not come from him at all. Similarly, his cathedral creates gloom as we discover when Pepe gazes down at a street «sombreada toda por la pavorosa Catedral, que al extremo alzaba su negro, muro carcomido.» (443) Chapter XVII, entitled significantly Luz a oscuras, presents the conversation between Rosario and Pepe, alone in the chapel. She is unable to see him but «una luz inefable sale de ti y me inunda el alma.» (456) He is associated with light which pierces darkness; Doña Perfecta with shadow or at best «claridad siniestra» for
| (462) | ||
—52→
And, more threatening: «parecía que en el semblante de la señora se ennegrecían más las sombrías nubes del temor.» (469)
Maria Remedios, revealing that Don Inocencio's family name is Tinieblas, exclaims: «tenemos un tenebrario en nuestra cesta, y nunca saldremos de la oscuridad» (489).50 'After Pepe's death she and Jacinto do attempt to leave the darkness by going to Madrid, thus escaping from the «nube negra» which, according to Don Cayetano, now hangs over Doña Perfecta's house (502). Darkness is death; light is life. Once again we have to consider both the literal and the metaphorical levels. The «tinieblas» envelop all. Correa sums it up neatly in his comment on Pepe's arrival in sepulchral Orbajosa: «Su mensaje luminoso queda sofocado en este antro de oscuridad.»51
Pepe's dawn arrival is by train and this is clearly presented by Galdós as symbolic. The train steams away from Villahorrenda, hooting as it enters the tunnel which
clamoreaba como una trompeta: al oír su enorme voz, despertaban aldeas, villas, ciudades, provincias. Aquí cantaba un gallo, más allá otro. Principiaba a amanecer. |
| (408) | ||
The train is progress; Orbajosa has been by-passed. The arrival and departure of the train are recalled by the early-morning intrusion of the array heralded by a sound which Rosario and Pepe think may be a cock crowing or a cornet until Pepe realises «No es trompeta, sino clarín.» (458) He tells Rosario to hurry back to her room pointing out that «Orbajosa va a despertar» (458) and we do indeed see the sleepy citizens dragging themselves out of bed. The noise of the army, like that of the train, produces a reaction, awakening those who sleep. But the train did not go to Orbajosa and most of those who are aroused by the soldiers do so to protest and resist, for Orbajosa «no gustaba que la molestasen en su sosegada existencia.» (459)
Several images in the book are drawn from the world of nature, particularly the realm of birds. Rosario, graciously permitted by her mother to take Pepe into the garden, «se lanzó como un pájaro puesto en libertad hacia la vidriera» (427), not only revealing her speed and grace but also hinting already at her mother's repression. Pepe follows this bird-like girl into the garden where
| (429) | ||
The birds mirror the human attitudes and behaviour which will be found in the book. Rosario later tells Pepe of the melancholy effect news of his departure had on her: «Yo caía, caía como pájaro herido cuando vuela, que va cayendo y muriéndose, todo al mismo tiempo.» (457) It is Pepe, and not Rosario, who dies but she suffers an equally tragic fate, being confined in an asylum, a prison more permanent and dreary than that of the Troyas who «vivían en la miseria, como los pájaros en la prisión, sin dejar de cantar tras los hierros.» (444) The association of Rosario with a bird makes her situation more pathetic by suggesting to us her helplessness.
Don Inocencio, too, is described by means of bird imagery: his nose is like a beak and he flaps his wings: «Era una presumida avecilla que quería volar y no podía... Erizábansele las plumas con síntomas de furor, y después... escondía la pelada cabeza bajo el ala.» (480) And later, powerless before the wrath of Maria Remedios, he is presented as «¡Pobre pollo en las garras del buitre» (489). The picture of the «presumida —53→ avecilla» which has become a victim prepares us for the end of the story where the once witty, sarcastic, eloquent Don Inocencio has become «tan acongojado, tan melancólico, tan taciturno, que no se le conoce.» (501) Nor is Doña Perfecta completely exempt from animal imagery. She is like a snail, hiding herself within a hard shell (497); she peers towards Pepe in the garden with «la singular videncia de la raza felina» (499) She and María Remedios are described as «dos culebras» (499) when they glide stealthily down to the garden and we remember Rosario's anguished cry «Dentro de mí, una gran culebra me muerde y me envenena el corazón.» (479) Again a prophetic image.
The story of Doña Perfecta with all its exaggerations and unlikely situations is a mechanism by which much of the theme is conveyed to us. The conflict between Madrid and the provinces, between enlightened progressive thought and reactionary obscurantism is presented in terms of a struggle between life and death, light and darkness. Pepe is killed, a dark cloud descends. Incidents and comments must often be interpreted figuratively, the significance of the images and their frequent interdependence need to be analysed, the dramatic irony to be understood. When this has been done, although story and theme are still far from having the artistically satisfying integration which we find in Galdós' later works, the impact which they make on us and our reaction to them are considerably strengthened.
University of Edinburgh