The problem of ambiguity in Galds' Doa Perfecta129

Arnold M. Penuel

In the present study I propose to analyze the roles which ambiguity, or the lack thereof,
plays in Galds' Doa Perfecta (1876).130 Modifying Empson's definition somewhat to make
it more applicable to narrative fiction, I propose to use the word ambiguity to refer to any
passage, or group of passages forming patterns, susceptible to alternative
reactions.131 Admittedly a definition of ambiguity to be applied to the study of a novel must
be so broad as to be of limited value. A passage which appears to one reader to have an
alternative meaning may appear to another to have a single clear-cut meaning. While
ambiguity involves the possibility of alternative reactions, the content of these reactions can
fall anywhere within the spectrum of human experience. Thus within the framework of the
larger definition each ambiguity must be carefully defined in its own terms.
The question may arise as to why anyone would choose to study ambiguity in Doa
Perfecta, a novel which may seem to be the least ambiguous of Galds' works. In some
respects, the ideological for example, it is relatively unambiguous; in others it is more
ambiguous. Critics have often made ambivalent judgments as to the artistic worth of Doa
Perfecta and its place in Galds' novelistic creation. Also, they have often differed among
themselves with respect to the artistic value of the novel. Some have regarded it as thinly
disguised propaganda, while others have affirmed its artistic value. Csar Barja's criticism is
typical of those who view the novel as more propaganda than art.: Hay demasiada
vehemencia pasional en la obra, demasiado espritu de ataque y de propaganda. Fue escrita
para la Prensa, y eso es: una serie de artculos de Prensa anticlerical y anticatlica. Qu
novela puede ser la obra en que bien y mal se reparten en cantidades absolutas? Pepe Rey
est ms que idealizado. Doa Perfecta y compaeros, en cambio, ms que pintados estn
caricaturizados.132
In a recent article Richard A. Cardwell, basing his arguments on a close textual analysis,
has protested against the tendency to read Doa Perfecta as mere propaganda.133 Although
Cardwell tends to disregard the critics who -often without sufficient documentation- have
affirmed the humanity of the characters, his insistence on Doa Perfecta's human and
aesthetic values advances our understanding of the novel.134 Cardwell's comment on Galds'
presentation of Pepe Rey reveals the thrust of his efforts: The point of this ambigous
presentation of the hero would seem to indicate that Galds is not offering a 'point of view'
but attempting, however clumsily, to convey something of the complex nature of a human
being placed in a situation of considerable 72 stress.135 Cardwell feels that his
analysis shows that the two pocas theory of Galds' novelistic art needs serious revision.136
While I agree with Cardwell with respect to Galds' efforts to humanize his characters
in Doa Perfecta, I differ with him in my judgment of the success of those efforts. Despite
evidence here and there in the novel that Galds has made some efforts to create round
characters, there are elements in the novel -or perhaps missing therefrom- which cause the
reader to recollect its events and characters in strong Gestalts which tend to become
abstractions. It is a novel whose meaning seems to be easy to abstract; the role which any
given character plays in the entire scheme of events appears to be readly discernible. The
novel encourages quick closure. This naturally brings up the questions of what precedes the
closure and the nature of the Gestalt produced by the closure. To what extent is the closure
preceded by an aesthetic experience? Is the closure simultaneous with the reading of the
work? Immediate closure is more characteristic of discursive writing rather than creative
literature. The writer of a scientific treatise, for example, leads his reader step by step in a
logical fashion from one proposition to another, and at any given point in his exposition the
reader should understand everything up to that point. This is palpably not the case in the
reading of a literary work. The parts are fully appreciated only after having perceived the
whole. The reasons for this are many, of course, but this is not the place to deal with them
systematically. However, one of the most important differences in literary and discursive
writing is the omnipresence of ambiguity in the former. It may be a conscious technique. But
it is more than just a technique; it is present because reality, as captured by man's mind, is
pervasively ambiguous: and a novelist, for example, who aspires to depict reality
convincingly will take this fact into account in the presentation of his characters. The vision
of reality is reflected in the techniques used by the writer.
Being a nineteenth-century literary realist, Galds developed what Peter B. Goldman
has aptly termed an aesthetic of ambiguity.137 One of my assumptions here is that this
aesthetic of ambiguity, though present from the time Galds wrote his first novel,
is comparatively immature in theNovelas de la primera poca, attaining its fullest
development when the novelist reaches the height of his novelistic powers well into the
writing of the Novelas espaolas contemporneas. Many of the problems presented by Doa
Perfecta are the result of the immaturity of this aesthetic of ambiguity. The immaturity of
the aesthetic presupposes imperfections in the vision of reality as well as in the techniques
used to depict that reality.
The generalization which Wilhelm Worringer makes about the development of art in a
culture seems to be roughly analogous to Galds' novelistic development: The tendency to
abstraction is thus dominant in the initial stage of all art, and remains so with certain peoples
at higher levels of culture, while, for example, among the Greeks and other Occidentals it
gradually expires to make way for the tendency to empathy.138 What often shows through
in Doa Perfecta is a tendency to view life in terms of black and white. Galds' mentality,
like that of the student radicals of the 1960's, seems to preclude the possibility of compromise.
While there may be several 73 explications of Galds' polarized view of human
affairs evident in Doa Perfecta, I suspect that the most important one is the novelist's youth
and inexperience. The tendency to think in rigid categories and selective perception, so
characteristic of immaturity, was at work in the creation of Doa Perfecta. Galds handled
these characters with relatively less sensitivity than he did the characters in his later novels
because they were the product of imagination and ideological concerns rather than
observation and experience.
The tendency to abstraction, which so often has given rise to ambivalent judgments
about Doa Perfecta, is related to the principle of psychical distance139 or aesthetic
distance, as it is often termed. The elements in the novel designed to create psychical
distance in the reader are sometimes used skill-fully, sometimes not. The temptation of the
reader to view the events of the novel in conceptual terms at the expense of the aesthetic
experience is in large measure a function of excessive distance. A variety of factors combine
to increase aesthetic distance in the novel. Paradoxically Galds' being underdistanced from
his subject in Doa Perfecta results in the reader's being overdistanced. Galds had not yet
mastered the interplay between empathy, at one polar extreme of distance, and complete
detachment at the other end. The following comment by Bullough is relevant to this problem
in Doa Perfecta:
 The difference between idealistic and realistic Art is
not a clear-cut dividing line between the art practices described
by these terms, but is a difference of degree in the Distance-limit
which they presuppose on the part of both the artist and of the
public. A similar reconciliation seems to me possible between the
opposites sensual and spiritual, individual and
typical... It is Distance which on one side prevents the
emptying of Art of its concreteness and the development of the
typical into abstractness; which on the other, suppresses the
directly personal element of its individualism; thus reducing the
antithesis to the peaceful interplay of these two factors. It is just
this interplay which constitutes the antinomy of Distance.140

Although sensual, individual, and concrete elements, productive of positive and negative
empathy, indispensable for the aesthetic experience, are present in Doa Perfecta, they are
overshadowed by their opposites which tend to overdistance the reader from the novel.
The opening pages of the novel are clearly designed to elicit our sympathy for Pepe Rey
and dispose us against Orbajosa. This is done with varying degrees of subtlety. In the first
place Pepe's arrival at the deserted station in Villahorrenda in the cold, dark, early hours of
the morning where he is treated dryly by an ill-tempered station employee, and where he
learns that he must continue his trip by horseback because there are no hotels in the town,
causes us to identify with him instinctively. Galds' choice of this hour for Pepe's arrival is
well done; several goals are achieved: the reader identifies with the young engineer; the pre-
dawn arrival ensures that Rey's vitality will be at its lowest ebb, a condition which would
naturally augment in his eyes the ugliness of the countryside between Villahorrenda and
Orbajosa; and subsequently it becomes apparent that the darkness in which he arrives is
symbolic as well as literal.
The description which the narrator gives of Rey is designed to strengthen the reader's
initial identification with the young man:
74
 Frisaba la edad de este excelente joven en los treinta y cuatro
aos. Era de complexin fuerte y un tanto herclea, con rara
perfeccin formado, y tan arrogante, que si llevara uniforme
militar ofrecera el ms guerrero aspecto y talle que puede
imaginarse. Rubios el cabello y la barba, no tena en su rostro la
flemtica imperturbabilidad de los sajones, sino por el contrario,
una viveza tal que sus ojos parecan negros sin serlo. Su persona
bien poda pasar por un hermoso y acabado smbolo, y si fuera
estatua, el escultor habra grabado en el pedestal estas
palabras: inteligencia, fuerza. Si no en caracteres visibles,
llevbalas l expresadas vagamente en la luz de su mirar, en el
poderoso atractivo que eran don propio de su persona y en las
simpatas a que su trato cariosamente convidaba.

(416)141

A few lines later the narrator speaks of Rey's profundo sentido moral. Clearly there is little
distance between the implicit author and Rey in three important human qualities: physical
attractiveness, intellectual ability, and moral probity. The reader knows immediately that the
author intends for his sympathies to lie with the engineer. The description of the experience
of empathy given by Theodore Lipps is applicable to what the reader probably feels about
Rey here:
A certain person is beautiful. That means that the life
which resides in sensuous appearance, enters into me, is taken by
me sympathetically. It is experienced as the fulfillment of a
unique vital drive or vital yearning. Or again, the sensuous
appearance of some person is ugly. That means the life which
resides in it is taken up by me but contradicts my own inner drive
to live, feel, and act. I experience it as a negation of this drive.142
Lipps goes on to distinguish between empathizing and knowing, an important distinction for
a literary work: Epathizing is experiencing. It is not just simply knowing that somewhere in
the outer world there is something mental or inward, some joy, sorrow, woe, or despair, nor
is it merely imagining such things.143
Galds causes the reader to identify with Rey from the beginning in order to predispose
him to be generally sympathetic with the engineer's values and reject those of the Orbajosa.
The reader feels that Rey's perceptions are trustworthy. When he is disheartened by the
ugliness of the region, appalled by the application of la ley de fuga, and irritated by
Caballuco's arrogance, so is the reader. The engineer's negative first impressions of Orbajosa
and the surrounding area become fixed in the reader's mind. Logically the reader expects a
continuation of the qualities present at the beginning of the novel, including the irony and the
denial of vitality. While the reader expects little good from a land so ungenerous to the senses,
it is only in retrospect that he realizes that the almost uniform irony of the place names and
the unmitigated ugliness of the region presage and parallel the Orbajosa almost uniform
hypocrisy and moral deficiencies.
The reader is also led to expect to be able to continue sympathizing with Rey because of
the engineer's excellent qualities. However, subsequently there are aspects of his portrayal
which are inconsistent and result in an ambiguous characterization (or a feeling of
ambivalence toward him on the reader's part which, by the way, reflect the same feelings of
the narrator. Despite his supposed intelligence, articulateness, and frankness, Rey allows to
go unchallenged Inocencio's repeatedly gratuitous assumptions that he is an atheist.
75 In his first encounter with Inocencio, the priest makes the following aggressive
statement implying that Rey is an atheist: Cuando estuve en Madrid y me llevaron al Ateneo
confieso que qued absorto al ver el asombroso ingenio que Dios ha dado a los ateos y
protestantes (423-424). The engineer fails to contradict the priest's imputation of guilt of
atheism by association. Instead, Perfecta replies indicating by what she says her acceptance
of Inocencio's characterization of her nephew and her hope that Rey will desire nothing more
than that the priest le saque del infierno de sus falsas doctrinas (424). When Pepe finally
does respond, incredibly his response reinforces the priest and his aunt's erroneous
assumption: Justamente, no deseo otra cosa sino que el seor penitenciario me saque...
(424). Galds is not unaware that the reader might think it improbable that Rey would not
counter such a serious and false charge, and he attempts -ineffectually in my opinion- to
justify the engineer's silence with the following statement: Rey crey prudente poner punto
en tan peligroso tratado, y con este fin dirigi una pregunta al seor don Cayetano... (424).
Both his frankness and intelligence seem to have abandoned him when he needed them most.
Is it probable that a highly intelligent man, thirty-four years old, cannot sense the danger of
allowing his prospective mother-in- law in nineteenth-century provincial Spain to persit in
the false belief that he is an atheist?
There can be little doubt that the inability of Rey to communicate effectively with
Inocencio and Perfecta is the consequence, at least partially, of sharply divergent frames of
reference which eventually lead to a complete polarization of viewpoints. Eventually the
polarization exacerbates the conflict to the point of no return. Rey's inner reaction to a series
of unflattering gratuitous assumptions made by Inocencio and Perfecta illustrates this point:
Pepe Rey se hallaba en esa situacin de nimo en que el hombre ms prudente siente dentro
de s violentos ardores y una fuerza ciega y brutal que tiende a estrangular, abofetear, romper
crneos y machacar huesos (449). Although enraged on this occasion, Rey decides to refrain
from expressing his anger fully. Instead, he decides to wait until he will definitively leave his
aunt's house (450). Is such prudence in character with his alleged frankness and viveza and
consonant with his feeling of rage at the moment?
The conflict which occurs in Orbajosa, at least initially, within the bosom of the family,
suggests what happens in the nation as a whole when positions become polarized. Conflict
feeds upon conflict, hatred upon hatred, until the will to understand and communicate ceases
to exist and mutual hostility makes open warfare inevitable. The title of the chapter in which
Rey contains his rage leads the reader to perceive the conflict on the national level: Sigue
creciendo. Hasta que se declara la guerra (450).
The fact that Galds proceeds from the specific to the general here is a well-conceived
artistic technique. The process of polarization which begins in individuals, spreads to a
region, and finally involves a whole nation symbolically, if not literally, is good psychology
and good art. The flaw is in tendering Rey's characterization improbable and inconsistent in
order to make his point on the psychological causes of war.
 If Galds had eliminated the hyperbolic: praise of Rey's intelligence at the beginning of
the novel, he would still have gained the reader's sympathy 76 for his hero without
giving rise to undesirable ambiguity in his characterization. The reader's identification with
Rey from the first lines of the novel, the engineer's generally attractive personality, and his
victimization at the hands of the intolerant and fanatical Orbajosans, suffice to make the
reader sympathize with him and his values and become immunized against adopting their
values.
Rodolfo Cardona has convincingly argued that Rey is a tragic hero whose tragic flaw is
his pride (hubris) in his integrity, in his complete sincerity, which manifests itself in the lack
of sensibility that he displays when he tells the truth.144 Rey's moment of recognition comes
in chapter twenty-eight when he confesses in a letter to his father that he has the weakness to
let himself be dragged down to the level of his opponents.145
Against the perspective of the tragic structure of the novel, Cardona then raises the issue
of the conflict between plot -in which Pepe emerges as the obvious hero- and
characterization -in which doa Perfecta and her associates emerge as heroes.146 Although
Rey is the first actor in the novel and the one whose fortunes engage the sympathies of the
reader, Perfecta is the titular protagonist of the novel and is much more vividly drawn than
the tragic hero. Despite the conflict between plot and characterization and the ambiguity with
regard to who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist -given the tragic structure of the
novel- it is by no means clear that this formal deviation constitutes a weakness in the novel,
especially when measured against what Galds achieves thereby.
Rey's characterization is blurred not only by the inconsistencies and contradictions
pointed out above, but also -as Cardona has indicated- because the reader finds it hard to
determine exactly what are his true beliefs and ideas.147 Rey always seems to be reacting to
what Orbajosans wish to think he believes. But a distinction must be made between the
blurring resulting from unintentional inconsistencies and a blurring which contributes
substantially to the novel's meaning. If the reader himself, who is privy to many more of
Rey's thoughts and acts than are Perfecta and her allies -and sympathizes with him- cannot
be sure of the engineer's beliefs and ideas, then the question arises of how they can condemn
him and take his life without giving him the opportunity of a real hearing. 148 The obvious
answer is that in this instance Rey's weak characterization is a function of the characterization
of the Orbajosans which, on the face of the matter, seems to compound the formal problem.
Yet, if we put aside Galds' violation of what is largely an external formal consideration, we
will begin to see that the creation of this ambiguity corresponds to a legitimate -perhaps not
altogether successful- attempt to create a more flexible formal framework within which to
depict a reality not entirely suitable for presentation within the classical tragic mold.
Casalduero affirms that Galds was not aware of the imbalance in his presentation of
Perfecta and Rey: La figura de Doa Perfecta es colosal, con una monumentalidad
conseguida por un procedimiento muy de poca: el agrandamiento de las lneas. Pepe Rey es
de un canon completamente humano. Esta diversidad de proporciones produce un efecto
extrao. Galds, posedo como estaba por el tema y la figura de Doa Perfecta, no se dio
cuenta 77 de este desequilibrio, en el cual Pepe Rey pierde todo relieve.149 What
Perfecta represents in human, as well as in abstract terms, must inevitably -and desirably so-
leave a strong imprint on the reader's mind. On the human level, Rey's tactlessness is venial
while Perfecta's will to dominante at any cost is cardinal and symptomatic of a fundamental
character flaw. A character so confident of being right, so vehement, and of such rock-like
intransigence is bound to make an indelible impression on the reader. Moreover, Perfecta is
basically a static character, if we consider her presentation strictly within the framework of
the action-time of the novel. Unlike Rey, who develops new behavioral traits in his
vengefulness and willingness to resort to violence -traits of which he soon repents- Perfecta
does not develop in a new direction but rather undergoes a process of intensification of the
traits she already possesses. Her character is formed, hard as a rock, from the beginning; but
its hardness is only revealed to us -and to Rey- gradually. Once revealed, its nature is clear
and unmistakable, enabling the reader to form a strong Gestalt. A moving figure is usually
harder to capture as a single Gestalt than is a motionless one. The dynamism Rey exhibits is
not sufficient to impress the reader because the changes which occur in his personality are
reactive and his acts ineffectual.
More important, however, is what Perfecta represents on the abstract level, because this
level of meaning is so thinly disguised in the novel. Perfecta embodies the monolithic force
of reactionary Spain, beside which the progressive, scientific force represented by Rey pales
into insignificance. Liberalism has never obtained a strong foothold in Spain, has never
presented a strong unified image, and has never been effectual for any significant length of
time. In contrast Spanish reactionaries have nearly always presented a strong clear-cut image
the principal ingredient of which has been the ideal of maintaining the status quo, as a
minimal goal, and re-establishing the values of the past at the maximum. What liberalism
threatened, in conservative eyes -which have always been in the vast majority in Spain- was
the destruction of those cherished values of the past. Faced with a threat to their values -
which often had evolved to protect their interests- reactionary forces paid scant heed to the
positive aspects of liberalism. Instead, they united their forces -as do the Orbajosans- and
dealt with the threat.
This enormous disproportion in numbers, strength, and unity between conservative and
liberal forces in Spain is the chief justification for the disproportion between the
characterization of Perfecta and that of Rey. Galds is depicting reality here as it is, not as he
would like it to be, notwithstanding his obvious sympathy for what Rey basically represents.
Galds might have characterized Rey in such a way as to leave the reader with a strong
impression with regard to the engineer's idea and beliefs, but in so doing he would have
sacrificed the accuracy of the larger reality which he wished to present on the abstract level
of the novel. In making Perfecta the protagonist, by title and strength of characterization, and
Rey the protagonist of the plot, Galds, notwithstanding his deviation from classical tragic
structure, is able to depict that larger reality with accuracy and vividness at the same time
that he engages the reader's sympathies -albeit with some serious lapses- in the precursor of
a superior reality.
78
The subtlety with which Galds uses ambiguity here to strengthen his presentation of
what is primarily, but not altogether, the secondary level of meaning in the novel is worthy
of his best efforts in this respect in his later novels. However, other aspects of the novel
indicate that don Benito still has a way to go at this stage of his career before achieving the
almost uniform mastery of the techniques of ambiguity evident in his later novels.
The reader of Doa Perfecta is constantly reminded that the characters and events of the
novel fit into a larger pattern which serves to illuminate the clash of opposing forces in
Spain.150 The desire to create multiple levels of meaning is a legitimate artistic goal and the
realization of this goal has always been a characteristic of great novels. For a variety of
reasons, which will be made clear as the analysis progresses, the reader is often made aware
of the abstract meaning of the novel on the first level of consciousness. So pervasive are the
details contributing to the abstract meaning of the novel that the reader scarcely lingers on
the literal events, but passes on rather too quickly to fit these events into the larger abstract
patterns. Galds is more obtrusive here than in his later novels where the clues to secondary
meanings are presented naturally, but more ambiguously. The tendency of the characters to
be perceived as embodiments of abstractions has probably contributed more than any other
factor to the ambivalence on the part of many readers with regard to whether the novel is
art or argument.
The abstract tendency of the novel is present from the beginning, where Galds entitles
the first chapter Villahorrenda... Cinco minutos!, suggesting that place names are
symbolic rather than realistic; and Chapter II bears the title Un viaje por el corazn de
Espaa, implying that the events taking place in Orbajosa may be regarded as representative
in some sense of events in Spain as a whole. Chapters V-XV bears titles which suggest a
growing discord between nations which finally erupts into war. Chapter XV bears the title
Sigue creciendo. Hasta que se declara la guerra. Chapter XVIII is entitled Tropa, and
Chapter XIX, Combate terrible. Estrategia. Thus the chapter titles alone encourage the
reader to interpret the events in national rather than merely individual or local terms.151
It is important to distinguish between the false abstractions in the form of stereotypes
and caricatures which the Orbajosans create in order to justify, protect, and enhance their
interests and maintain their narrow view of the world and the abstract elements in the novel
resulting from conscious techniques used by the novelist to create multiple levels of meaning.
This is difficult and the source of no little ambiguity. For example, Rey does possess many
of the ideas associated with scientists and liberals; and real conflicts do exist between
Orbajosa and Madrid. Yet Rey, though a scientist and a liberal, is far from being the
caricature into which the Orbajosans' pathological imagination has transformed him. It is
ironic that Orbajosans view Madrid as the center of vice and corruption in Spain when they
themselves engage in the most nefarious activities, including murder.
79
That the Orbajosans see the conflict in terms of Christians versus Moors (474, 481-482,
492-493) serves to characterize them as religious fanatics.152 Through the action of the novel
the reader is made to realize dramatically that the same Reconquest mentality still exists in
Spain in a virulent form which leads to internal strife. By associating the Orbajosans with the
Reconquest Galds provides us with a time machine which takes us into the past and allows
us to view present events with the perspective of distance.
The conflict between individuals possessing a liberal, scientific frame of reference and
those with a reactionary point of view is real in Doa Perfecta. Madrid represents the
enlightened, progressive viewpoint, while Orbajosa exemplifies the reactionary forces of the
nation, notwithstanding the fact that the reactionary position masks the machination, of self-
interest. Galds intends that the reader's experience parallel that of Rey who, before coming
to Orbajosa, scoffed at the possibility of civil war. After experiencing the Orbajosans'
intolerance, the engineer makes the following statement: Es preciso engolfarse en estos
pases encantadores, ver de cerca esta gente y orle dos palabras, para saber de qu pie cojean
(461).
The characterization of the minor characters is an aspect of the novel which further
contributes to the reader's constant temptation to focus his attention on the abstract level of
meaning rather than on the literal level. Rey's mistakenly calling Pedro Lucas Soln instead
of by his true nickname Licurgo may very well be, as Cardwell has indicated, an illustration
of the engineer's tactlessness,153 but another important function is to remind the reader, lest
he overlook the significance of the name, that the original Licurgo, unlike the present
opportunistic bearer of the name, was a distinguished legislator (408). Galds continued
references to Lucas as Licurgo, el legislador espartano, or el legislador lacedemonio
prepare the reader for what proves later to be the irony of the name.
The images such as rostro astuto, sagaces ojos, and ojuelos sagaces, which are
used to describe Lucas, make the reader aware of the primitive level of his consciousness and
behavior. Lucas sees life as struggle in which only the fittest survive. The presentation of
Lucas reveals obliquely what his social superiors in Orbajosa are really like underneath the
veneer of civilized forms. By virtue of his frequent use of proverbs and traditional sayings,
and his accompanying Pepe at the beginning of the novel, Lucas is associated with Sancho
Panza and the Spanish peasant tradition. It is an ironic association, however; for while Lucas
shares Sancho's materialism, he possesses none of the squire's saving graces.
Another case in which abstraction extends to the periphery of our focus is the
characterization of Cristbal Ramos. Ramos, a local tough and henchman of doa Perfecta,
bears the nickname Caballuco and is often referred to by the narrator as el Centauro,
because of his equestrian abilities. Ramos represents a tradition; his factious way of life
represents an obtrusion of the past into the present. He descends from a long line of factious
forbears, as Lucas explains to Rey:
No s cmo no le ha odo usted nombrar en Madrid, porque
es hijo de un famoso Caballuco que estuvo en la faccin, el
cual Caballuco padre era hijo de otro Caballuco abuelo,
80 que tambin estuvo en faccin de ms all... Y como ahora
andan diciendo que vuelve a haber faccin, porque todo est
torcido y revuelto, tememos que Caballuco se nos vaya tambin
a ella poniendo fin de esta manera a las hazaas de su padre y
abuelo, que por gloria nuestra nacieron en esta ciudad.

(412)

Through Ramos the rebellious word is made deed: suspicious of and hostile to the central
government, Ramos is a willing tool of more subtle reactionaries such as Perfecta and
Inocencio.
The characterization of Cayetano also contributes to the novel's abstract level of
meaning. Although in some respects Cayetano is more tolerant than other Orbajosans, e. g.,
his tolerance of Pepe's visit to the Troya sister's house (452), his antiquarian interests are
consistent with and contribute to the Orbajosans' habit of inflating the importance of their
past and present acts. His activities provide the respectability of a certain intellectual and
historical foundation -however shaky it may be- which encourages the self-aggrandizement
of his fellow citizens and ultimately justifies, in their eyes, rebellion. Galds does not lead
the reader to feel hostility toward Cayetano as he does with Perfecta and Inocencio. What the
reader may feel is annoyance or amusement at the antiquarian's efforts to drag his petty
projects into the conversation at every opportunity.
 Jacinto is a pedant whose pedantry is the result of taking too seriously a doctorate
received at a tender age and being spoiled by having his sophomoric pronouncements
received with imprudentes aplausos (429). The young lawyer is presented as such a
ridiculous figure that he seldom causes any emotion stronger than momentary irritation.
Having been spoiled all of his life, Jacinto continues to be spoiled by his mother and uncle.
The attempt to secure for him what he cannot secure through his own efforts and merit is the
original source of the principal action of the novel. The habit of self-aggrandizement which
Jacinto exhibits as an individual is typical of a tendency which Orbajosans exhibit in general,
that is, the habit of thinking and acting on the basis of inflated self-importance. The ultimate
consequences of acting on this unrealistic view of themselves are tragic for Rey and the
nation.
An immediate effect of the elements in Doa Perfecta which lead the reader to perceive
the characters and events of the novel in abstract terms is to increase aesthetic distance. The
numerous aspects of the portrayal of the characters which cause the reader to view the
characters as abstractions diminish the reader's perception of them as individuals and thereby
lessen his identification with them on the human level. The reader's intellect becomes more
heavily involved than his emotions; clarity as to the nature and causes of the central conflict
are given priority over emotional involvement with the characters. My point is, of course,
that the reduction of emotional involvement brought about by the obviousness of what the
characters and events represent gives free rein to the intellect to the detriment of the aesthetic
experience. Art appears to have become discourse.
Galds unnecessarily misleads the reader with respect to several characters with
numerous resultant ambiguities. These ambiguities result from clumsy characterization,
overdistancing, and the point of view assumed by the narrator.
81
The reader cannot be sure at what point Perfecta begins to act to discourage Rey from
persisting in his goal to marry Rosario. Although Perfecta admits in Chapter XIX to having
resorted to using underhandedly a series of stratagems to incite her nephew to leave Orbajosa,
not until Chapter XXXI does the narrator offer us an extended inside view of Perfecta's
personality and acts. From the beginning of the novel, and until Chapter XXXI, the narrator
assumes the point of view of appearances. The reputation for goodness which she has, not
only among the Orbajosans, but even among outsiders such as Lieutenant Pinzn, is
reinforced by the narrator's description of her. Phrases such as la seora se sonrea con
bondad maternal (427); aquella risuea expresin de bondad que emanaba de su alma
(430); su bondadosa ta (431); sonri con dulzura (440); and su sonrisa bondadosa
(447), seem to confirm that she deserves her reputation. When the narrator speaks of aquella
expresin de bondad que emanaba de su alma he is telling us that he is describing the soul
as well as the surface of his character. Once he has admitted knowing the reality as well as
the appearances, the continued deceptive presentation of appearances is unnatural and
inconsistent. The fact that the reader is forewarned in the opening pages to expect irony is
not sufficient to apprise him fully of the irony of the comments on Perfecta's goodness, except
in retrospect. Supposedly Galds conceals Perfecta's true nature so long in order that the
reader, like the other characters, will be taken in by her apparent goodness. The irony makes
the illumination of her real character more dramatic. The flaw is in unnecessarily falsifying
her characterization to achieve these effects.
Although there is less ambiguity in the characterization of Inocencio, certain phrases
referring to the priest, such as santo varn (417), venerable cannigo (419), and
venerable penitenciario (431), which are used frequently are the result of the narrator
assuming the point of view of appearances. At the same time, Galds gives the reader more
clues about Inocencio's true feelings than is the case with Perfecta when he speaks of the
priest afectando humildad (425) upon learning of Rey's supposed lack of decorum in the
cathedral.
Even after the reader is fully aware of Inocencio's role in the events of the novel, Galds
refers to him as the buen clrigo (486) when Mara Remedios so insistently argues that
Rey should be given a beating. The use of the phrase buen clrigo in these circumstances
is warranted however, since momentarily the reader sympathizes with the priest, seeing him
as comparatively reasonable and a victim of Remedios' inordinate ambition. His weakness
elicits our sympathy: [...] el penitenciario temblaba y sudaba. Pobre pollo en las garras del
buitre! (488).
The same pattern of misleading by adopting the perspective of appearances is present in
the characterization of secondary characters. Before we are aware of Licurgo's true nature,
the narrator speaks of Rey being delivered a los amorosos brazos del to Licurgo
(416). Licurgo later states that he disliked Rey from the time he met him (471). Similarly,
the description of Cayetano before the reader really knows him is misleading: Respecto de
su vasto saber, qu puede decirse sino que era un verdadero prodigio? (421).
82
The presentation of the relationship of Perfecta with Mara Remedios is ambiguous
because what we are told about the relationship contradicts what we are shown. After
informing us that Remedios had been a charwoman at one time in Perfecta's house, the
narrator explains that this does not affect their present relationship: Y no crea por esto que
doa Perfecta la miraba con altanera; nada de eso. Tratbala sin orgullo; hacia ella senta
cario fraternal (484). Yet a few moments before, when Remedios had suggested to her
friend that a beating would have an edifying effect on Rey, Perfecta had replied in this
insulting manner: [...] t no eres capaz de una idea elevada, de una resolucin grande y
salvadora. Eso que me aconsejas es una indignidad cobarde (480-481). Then Perfecta adds
this insult to injury: T no tienes dos dedos de frente, Remedios; cuando quieres resolver
un problema grave, sales con tales patochadas. Yo imagino un recurso ms digno de personas
nobles y bien nacidas. Apalear! Qu estupidez! (481). There is heavy irony in Perfecta's
self-attributed nobility, and we can see how she earned her reputation for goodness, but this
is not sufficient to draw our attention away from the inconsistent presentation of the
relationship
What appears to be maternal love in Remedios' attitude toward Jacinto is really nothing
so natural, but rather an effort to overcome her sense of insignificance and insecurity. She
seems convinced that the real motive of her burning ambition to have her son marry Rosario
is maternal love: Ah! Slo el corazn de una madre siente estas cosas... Slo las madres
son capaces de sufrir tantas penas por el bienestar de un hijo (487). The following comment
made by the narrator reveals the feelings of insecurity which Remedios is compensating for
with her maternal love: Conviene indicar que Mara Remedios se deseoraba bastante -
pase la palabra- junto a doa Perfecta, y esto le era desagradable, porque tambin en aquel
espritu suspirn haba, como en todo lo que vive, un poco de orgullo... Verle a su hijo
casado con Rosarito; verle rico y poderoso; verle emparentado con doa Perfecta, con la
seora!... Ay!, esto era para Mara Remedios la tierra y el cielo, esta vida y la otra, el presente
y el ms all, la totalidad suprema de la existencia (485).
 The attitude of Rey's father toward Orbajosa is another example of the reader being
thrown off the track. After extolling Juan Rey's virtues and leading us to trust his judgment,
the narrator presents us the letter in which don Juan makes the idyllic description of Orbajosa
which begins as follows: All todo es bondad, honradez... (415). The passage is well known
and needs no repeating, Don Juan's description of Orbajosa is later paralleled by an equally
idylic one by Cayetano: La caridad se practica aqu como en los tiempos evanglicos...
(453). The almost identical content of the two passages leads the reader to associate them.
Since by the time he reads the second one he is fully aware of its ironic significance, he also
recognizes in retrospect the irony of the first. Galds is inconsistent in making don Juan, who
otherwise seems to be an admirable, intelligent, and mature man, naively utopian. The
characterization of don Juan is falsified in order to throw the reader off the track temporarily
with regard to the Orbajosans' real nature and to create an ironic effect. Both don Juan's and
Cayetano's comments contribute to the important theme of appearances versus reality, but
they 83 also make another contribution to the meaning of the novel. After observing
the irony of the place names between Villahorrenda and Orbajosa, Rey makes the following
observation: Qu demonio! La gente de este pas vive con la imaginacin (409). Don
Juan, Cayetano, the Orbajosans, and, by symbolic extension, Spaniards in general perceive
reality too exclusively through the imagination, too subjectively.
One of the principal effects of the presence in the novel of inconsistencies in
characterization is to focus the reader's attention on novelistic techniques. The result is an
unintentional and undesirable increase in the reader's cognitive awareness at the expense of
aesthetic experience. The process of intellectual analysis, once begun, easily becomes a habit,
making the meaning of the novel difficult to perceive except in conceptual terms. This
partially explains the numerous abstract interpretations of the novel and the inclination of
some critics to see the novel as argument rather than art.
One of the novel's most meaningfully ambiguous aspects has to do with the motivation
of Inocencio and Perfecta. Understanding the roles which character, ideological
considerations, and interest play in determining their conduct is no easy task. Because of the
ideological content of Inocencio's verbal attacks on Rey, it is natural at first glance to assume
that the cleric's antagonism is based on ideological differences. Yet there are hints which
suggest early that the priest may be attempting to manipulate his listeners. When Inocencio
observes that Perfecta is appalled at Rey's speech on the advances made by science, a little
smile of triumph plays on his lips (423). And when Perfecta scolds her nephew for his lack
of decorum in the cathedral, Inocencio maintains el semblante afectadamente serio e
inmutable (431). The smile and the necessity to affect a reproachful attitude indicate a
certain emotional detachment which suggests in turn a certain disingenuousness and the
possibility of a concealed motive.
Concealing until the final pages of the novel that the motive of interest underlies the
apparent ideological antagonism is designed to reinforce dramatically the reader's
condemnation of the priest's conduct. While a certain detachment discernible in Inocencio's
manipulation of Rey and Perfecta suggests the presence of a motive deeper than ideological
hostility, it does not necessarily mean that Inocencio disbelieves his insinuations about Rey.
The priest seems convinced of Rey's atheism when he explains his conduct to Mara
Remedios: Desemascar sus vicios; descubr su atesmo; puse a la vista de todo el mundo
la podredumbre de aquel corazn materializado... (486). The prime and deepest motive of
Inocencio's behavior is the desire that Jacinto marry Rosario; the priest's xenophobia and
religious intolerance permit him to assume Rey's atheism a priori. Once Rey is assumed to
be an atheist the cleric sincerely feels justified in using any means, however unfair, to expose
that supposed atheism.
The narrator is never explicit as to how Perfecta's character was formed.154
In Chapter XXXI he makes the following statement about her character and her religious
fanaticism:
Tal es el resultado producido en un carcter duro y sin
bondad nativa por la exaltacin religiosa, cuando sta, en vez de
nutrirse de la conciencia y de la verdad revelada en principios
84 tan sencillos como hermosos, busca su savia en frmulas
estrechas que slo obedecen a intereses eclesisticos. Para que la
mojigatera sea inofensiva, es preciso que exista en corazones
muy puros.

(496)
 Thus it is Perfecta's character which causes her to seek to justify her acts on the basis of
ill-conceived religious principles. Conceivably, if such religious formulas had not been in the
air, it would have been more difficult for her to justify her acts, but she would have sought
some other spurious justification for them. Here, Galds is critical of religious ideas and
prejudices which make such convenient and destructive tools for those who, for a variety of
reasons, are unable to love.
At the same time he is attacking a national pathological character trait which is
exemplified in its individual form in doa Perfecta's character. What really enrages Perfecta
more than anything else is a direct challenge to her will and authority. When Rey tells
Perfecta that her opposition to his marrying Rosario will not deter him, she reacts with fury:
Doa Perfecta se levant indignada, majestuosa, terrible. Su
actitud era la del anatema hecho mujer.
Eres un loco. Casarte t con mi hija, casarte t con ella no
queriendo yo...!
Los labios trmulos de la seora articularon estas palabras
con verdadero acento trgico.
Y mi autoridad, y mi voluntad, yo... Yo no soy nada?

(464)

Later when Remedios suggests that Perfecta may lose her daughter, she reacts angrily: Mi
hija!... Perder a mi hija! -exclam la seora con sbito arrebato de ira- Slo orlo me vuelve
loca. No, no me la quitarn. Si Rosario no aborrece a ese perdido, como yo deseo, le
aborrecer. De algo sirve la autoridad de una madre... Le arrancaremos su pasin...; mejor
dicho, su capricho... (481).
 It is evident here that what infuriates Perfecta is not a threat to her daughter's welfare,
whom she considers a possession, but rather the threat to her authority. Perfecta's indifference
to any concern other than that of having her way is manifest when she leaves Rosario
unconscious in her room and gives Ramos the order to kill the man who challenged her
authority.
What Perfecta embodies as an individual is typical of Orbajosans as a group. Her self-
complacency (and theirs) leads her (and them) to a xenophobic fear of Madrid and the central
government, hostility toward liberals and the scientific attitude, and an insistence on having
her (their) way regardless of the consequences. When the psychology of Perfecta and her
associates is extended to the national level the most suitable term for it is chauvinism.
Orbajosa is a microcosm of Spanish chauvinism. Cayetano's myopic concern with the minute
details of what he considers to be Orbajosa's heroic past also fits into this pattern. The most
explicit indication of Orbajosan self-aggrandizement is the description of the Casino:
El resumen de todos los debates era siempre la supremaca
de Orbajosa y de sus habitantes sobre los dems pueblos y gentes
de la tierra.
85
Lo que principalmente distingua a los orbajosenses del
Casino era un sentimiento de viva hostilidad hacia todo lo que de
fuera viniese.

(438)

The most dramatic examples of Orbajosan xenophobia occur when Perfecta and
Inocencio incite Ramos to rebellion and the good woman gives the order to kill her nephew.
Since we are led to extend the meaning of what transpires in Orbajosa to the national level
there is bitter irony from the standpoint of the implicit author in Cayetano's eulogy of his
city: Aqu ver usted el carcter nacional en toda su pureza, recto, hidalgo, incorruptible,
puro, sencillo, patriarcal, hospitalario, generoso... (453).
 Several ambiguities are present in the portrayal of Rosario. Like a romantic heroine,
Rosario is rarely observed in a state of equilibrium. In her first appearance in the novel (414)
-and repeatedly thereafter- she is described as blushing. Also, like her romantic forbears, she
tends to faint when excited (427, 457). The frequent blushing, the fainting, her purity and
goodness, her constant state of agitation (see Chapters VIII, XVII, XXIV, and XXXI), the
impossibility of her love, and finally, her retreat from the world, all contribute to make
Rosario's characterization conform more to a romantic than a realistic mold.
The romanticism is attenuated, however, by Galds' care for the psychological details.
The following passage demonstrates how don Benito combined romanticism and
psychological realism in his depiction of Rosario:
Era Rosario una muchacha de apariencia delicada y dbil,
que anunciaba inclinaciones a lo que los portugueses
llaman saudades. En su rostro, fino y puro, se observaba la
pastosidad nacarada que la mayor parte de los poetas atribuyen a
sus heronas, y sin cuyo barniz sentimental parece que ninguna
Enriqueta y ninguna Julia pueden ser interesantes. [...] Pero all
faltaba materia para que la persona fuese completa: faltaba cauce,
faltaban orillas. El vasto caudal de su espritu se desbordaba,
amenazando devorar las estrechas riberas. Al ser saludada por su
primo se puso como la grana, y slo pronunci algunas palabras
torpes.

(417)

It is not difficult to understand why Rosario is not fully formed. Perfecta has been too
dominating a mother -for reasons explained above- to permit the independence and self-
reliance in her daughter which foster the growth of self-confidence and a firm identity.
Galds does not define with any precision the respective roles played by heredity and
environment in bringing on Rosario's insanity, but rather leaves the reader himself to
determine from events the dynamics of her psychosis. Her instability, Cayetano's references
to the many victims of insanity in the family, and the severe environmental stress to which
Rosario is subjected prepare the reader for her insanity at the end of the novel.
Notwithstanding the history of insanity in the family, there can be little doubt that the
environment has played a key role in precipitating Rosario's psychosis. Rey, in reaction to
Cayetano's observation that the air of Orbajosa has preserved him from falling heir to the
family illness, makes the following comment, which suggests the most important reason for
Rosario's subsequent insanity: Celebro que los aires de Orbajosa le hayan preservado a usted
-dijo Rey, no pudiendo reprimir un sentimiento de burla que por ley extraa naci en
86 medio de su tristeza-. A m me han probado tan mal, que creo he de ser manitico
dentro de poco tiempo si sigo aqu (453).
The romantic elements -and these are generally more vivid in my opinion- in the
portrayal of Rosario prevent the modern reader from identifying very closely with her, while
other factors, including a certain psychological realism, decrease the distance. The reader
knows that his sympathies should lie with Rosario; however, the resultant involvement is
more along the dimension of intellectual understanding than emotional identification.
The ambiguous presentation of Rey's enemies through Rosario's dream (478-479) has
been commented on frequently, and I agree with Cardwell that the dream goes beyond
appearances and presents the reality of the nature of the characters involved.155
Despite the presence of many ambiguities in Doa Perfecta, these are relatively few and
less complex in comparison with the ambiguities of the best Novelas espaolas
contemporneas. Moreover, several of the ambiguities in Doa Perfecta, as has been pointed
out above, are due to immature novelistic techniques and are confusing rather than
meaningful. Thus, a relative lack of meaningful ambiguity is more characteristic of Doa
Perfecta, than of Galds' mature novels. Although the novel's multiple levels of meaning
may properly fall under the rubric of meaningful ambiguities, in the sense that a given event
may evoke alternative reactions, the frequent obviousness of the alternative meanings reveals
that the ambiguities are of a relatively simple nature. The role played by Galds' immature
vision of human affairs and the consequences of this immaturity with respect to his novelistic:
techniques in producing this lack of ambiguity have been discussed above at length. Galds'
tendency to make his characters embody facile abstractions, to overdistance them, and the
general lack of gradations all contribute to the lack of ambiguity in the novel and damage it
artistically.
Galds' aesthetic of ambiguity is present in Doa Perfecta and occasionally is notably
comparable -as in the case of the apparent conflict between plot and character- to his best
efforts in his later novels, but often it is revealed in an immature form. His aesthetic of
ambiguity develops and becomes more complex and omnipresent as his vision of man
deepens and increases in complexity. The aesthetic is a function of the nature of the reality
to be depicted. Complex ambiguities such as the question of the nature of Manso's existence
in El amigo Manso, the question of Villaamil's responsibility in Miau156, the matter of
Orozco's virtue in La incgnita and Realidad,157 the paradox of self-realization through self-
sacrifice exemplified by Victoria in La loca de la casa158 and by Benina in Misericordia -to
mention a few- are all products of Galds' novelistic maturity. Doa Perfecta is art, of course.
It is art of an uneven and often immature quality, but nevertheless art. It is art which for
reasons pointed out in the analysis above too often involves the reader's conceptual powers.
For while involvement of the reader's intellect is one of many effects which a novelist may
legitimately seek to achieve, such involvement should not be so absorbing as to diminish
seriously the achievement of other effects indispensable to the aesthetic experience.
Centenary College