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Galdôs' Attitude Towards Spain as Seen in the Characters of Fortunata Y Jacinta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Robert Kirsner
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Extract

Galdós' sympathetic resignation to the shortcomings of Spain, already manifested in El Amigo Manso (1882), is artistically expressed in Fortunata y Jacinta (1886–87). No longer preoccupied with censuring social customs or rationalizing contemporary conditions as he had been in his early novels, published from 1870 to 1882, the author imparts his positive view of Spain through the creation of characters who belong to all strata of society. Spain is not envisaged as a divided nation where classes are pitted against each other, but rather as one which embraces heterogeneous groups and individuals. The lives of the characters are not interwoven as a result of superimposed conditions, but because of their intimate problems. Love is the driving force which causes the juxtaposition of their destinies.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , March 1951 , pp. 124 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1951

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References

1 Péres Galdôs and the Spanish Novel of the Nineteenth Century (New York: Dutton, 1927), p. 167.

2 Benito Pérez Galdôs, Forlunata y Jacinta (Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1942), IV, 71. AU citations in my text refer to this edition.

3 Joaquin Casalduero considers don Manuel a type character: Vida y Obra de Galdôs (Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1943), pp. 87, 90,

4 Walton (see n. 1, above), p. 172.

6 According to Casalduero, p. 89, Fortunata understands nothing of the rules of society.

6 Andrés Gonzâlez-Blanco, Historic, de la Novela en España (Madrid: Saenz de Jubera, 1909), pp. 376, 395.

7 El Licenciado Pero Pérez, “Torquemada en la Cruz por Benito Pérez Galdôs”, in La Espańa Moderna; Revista, año. vi, número lxii, pp. 66–67 (Madrid, Febrero de 1894).