Juan Martin El Empecinado notes

Examine the relation of public and private (hi)stories in the novels of Galdós, with particular
reference to Juan Martín el Empecinado and any other episodios nacionales you have read
(e.g. Trafalgar; La corte de Carlos IV).
Personal honor vs. public honor
Private and public betrayal
Personal history vs. public history
The Spanish Historical Novel – 1870-1970
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In Series I and II of the Episodios, the conflict of social forces in history is expressed in terms
of characters whose lives are closely identified with the historical fate of the group they
represent.
In Series I Galdós seems to indicate that the hatreds of a former era are giving way to social
evolution. The rise of Gabriel Araceli, the protagonist of Series I, from absolute poverty to a
position of distinction in the army during the War of Independence is achieved within the
traditional social structure, and he in no way departs from the most conventional respect for
king and church. Galdós gives his full approval to Araceli’s efforts, while viewing the
revolutionary Santorcaz with pity and horror.
Galdós is influenced by public events during the First Republic to call for caution, hence the
conservative tone of Series I
One of the more noticeable stylistic variations in the first series of Episodios is the contrast
between “high” and “low” styles. The high style avoids realistic dialogue. The low style
depends heavily upon humor and the picturesque.
Galdós y la Novela Histórica – Brian J. Dendle
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Los españoles son egoístas e incapaces de percibir la realidad. Así entre la ideología y la
conducta existe un gran trecho.
La solución de los males españoles no debe buscarse ni en el cambio abrupto ni en la
ideología, pues está, según Galdós, siempre encubre una motivación personal
Ninguna verdadera revolución será posible antes de que los españoles aprendan el respeto
mutuo, la perseverancia, la moderación, la diligencia, el autodominio, y la responsabilidad
del individuo.
Un importante componente de la doctrina galdosiana es el llamamiento a la razón y al
pensamiento crítico. Los que no se conducen racionalmente…solamente saben destruir
Gabriel Araceli, con una constante ironía que socava sus propias declaraciones, obliga al
lector a distanciarse, a distinguir entre la verdad y la falsedad de lo que declara.
De forma parecida, el divorcio entre la realidad española y la retórica política nacional, bien
sea absolutista o liberal, compele al lector a adoptar una actitud crítica e independiente.
La libertad del estado liberal, como la madurez del individuo, no se obtiene de manera
automática, sino que debe ser alcanzada por medio de un esfuerzo continuo.
Como Francisco Pérez Gutiérrez ha indicado, la lección moral ofrecida por Galdós es cristiana
en su preocupación por los demás
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Galdós critica la Iglesia española por su falta de espiritualidad y compasión, su apoyo a la
superstición, su espíritu guerrero y disputador, su venalidad, su entrometimiento en la
política, y sus represivas actitudes sexuales que conducen a la manía o a rebeliones estériles.
Una generación anterior de críticos elogió la exactitud histórica y el ‘realismo’ de los
episodios. No obstante, la presentación que Galdós hace de sucesos y personajes históricos
es superficial y parcial.
…en vez de dar una visión comprensiva de la complejidad de los sucesos y problemas
nacionales, nos ofrece una evocación basada en la emoción y imaginación
La presentación galdosiana de la historia es pintoresca, impresionista, ‘episódica’, y
acentuadamente politizada…la visión de una España dividida entre las fuerzas de la locura y
las de razón y del progreso no es ‘realista’ sino más bien dramática y literaria. Además, los
personajes de los episodios habitan un universo más moral que histórico. Por esta razón,
Araceli y Monsalud a menudo nos parecen curiosamente apartados de la España en que
viven.
A diferencia de novelas de divulgación histórica, los episodios deben ser tratados más bien
como obras de imaginación
Ve la historia como un drama, como una serie de momentos ‘claves’…La historia social para
Galdós consiste en alguna que otra descripción de costumbres y pastiches de la literatura
contemporánea….
A menudo, la “historia” consiste en un suceso pintoresco o ejemplo del valor y la
perseverancia de los españoles…
Las contradicciones de la visión inicial de Galdós –el concepto de historia como espectáculo
y ejemplo moral, la crítica de los defectos nacionales y la exaltación simultánea del
patriotismo español – son aparentes en el retrato de Gabriel Araceli
Gabriel, a diferencia de España, no sufre conflicto interior. Se halla sin objetivos (excepto su
confianza en sí mismo), sin pasión política, sin visión de una sociedad reformada
Las memorias de Gabriel son creaciones literarias conscientes. El lector, por consiguiente,
debe situarse, como el narrador Gabriel, a distancia de los sucesos descritos. Abundan los
ejemplos de este alejamiento en la primera serie de episodios. Gabriel discute el proceso de
creación con sus lectores-oyentes…
En Juan Martín el Empecinado Gabriel es un diplomático consumado, que manipula
igualmente a los traicioneros guerrilleros y a los soldados franceses. Profundamente
religioso, preocupado por los demás, astuto, revela tener una gran fuerza de voluntad
cuando pasa en medio del frío por el territorio enemigo, en un esfuerzo por salvar a Inés
Gabriel es una figura sombría y evasiva, en parte porque la narración en primera persona no
le permite una perspectiva omnisciente, en parte porque Gabriel lleva dentro de sí las
contradicciones de los revolucionarios de 1868.
Es resueltamente idealista, pero también es manipulador y egoísta; enseña el altruismo,
pero se ocupa de su propio interés; profesa optimismo, pero es demasiado consciente de los
defectos de sus compatriotas…
An Introduction the Episodios Nacionales of Galdós – Alfred Rodríguez
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The fact that the novels of each Series are linked by common plots and characters provides
an organic basis for the chronological sequence of historical events.
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Spanish between 1872 and 1879 bears little resemblance to that being novelized, precisely
during those years, within the first twenty Episodios. It is clear, therefore, that Galdós had
no intention of drawing examples from History; but sought, instead, to emphasize the
‘becoming’ of the present from the past
Galdós went to the history text for the continuity of events, for factual information as he
needed it, but neither re-evaluated facts as a historian nor altered their casual relationships.
Galdós literary elaboration of the past involves, as we have noted, an intuitive extension
from concrete historical facts
Two concurrent series of developments, the trajectory of a protagonist within the plot and
the evolution of the country in the same period of the time, bring the tenor of a period of
history into sharp focus. The dynamic correspondence between Araceli and the Spain that
fought the war of Independence is perhaps the clearest example
Araceli’s personal development is credible, mainly because Galdós chose the proper time
and place for each stage of growth… He aquires a tolerance for the complexity of human
nature in Cádiz and Juan Martín, el Empecinado. Araceli’s experience of Spanish history, not
just a subject to be narrated passively, is always a factor in his development as a human
being, and it is this intimate relationship that lends the characterization its verisimilitude.
Trijueque – The protagonist’s single-minded interpretation of his destiny, his will to
command, produce an inner tension that is released as hatred for superiors, deemed inept
and envious. Frustration perverts Trijueque’s strength, producing a monster of cruelty and a
guerrilla forgetful of his cause.
The character is a stunning combination of ethnic characteristics: uncompromising
individualism, extraordinary faith in a personal destiny, indomitable pride, and innate genius
for war.
All these might define the Spanish conquistador of another age, but are merely seeds of
pathological frustration in a priest of the nineteenth century.
These exceptionally detailed characterizations hav a special value of their own, of course, as
studies in human nature, but they are not lacking, for this reason, in very specific
representational functions. Both characters analysed, for example, project attitudes that are
dissonant in the general context of the work (egoism and treachery).
…the penetration achieved into the real ‘Empecinado’, as distinguished from the heroic
figure, by reproducing the guerrilla’s colourful language. The factual and the intuited
elements are so fused, so artfully blended, that a historical personage dealt with in this way
often emerges more believable than the legendary image and more fully dimensional than
the silhouette often found in history texts…
Notes
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‘Trijueque dio un resoplido, no menos fuerte que el de un mulo, y se levantó. ¡Dios mío, qué
hombre tan alto! Era un gigante, un coloso, la bestia heroica de la guerra, de fuerte espíritu
y fuertísimo cuerpo, de musculatura cliclópea, de energía salvaje, de brutal entereza, un un
pedazo de barro humano, con el cual Dios podía haber hecho el físico de cuatro almas
delicadas: era el genio de la guerra en su forma abrupta y primitiva….’ (21) epic – history vs.
Fiction
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‘Mi madre se había muerto. Di los tres duros y medio a mi abuela y estuve llorando dos
horas… Después, al volver, para reunirme a la gente, pasé muy cerca de Fuencemillán y vi a
los franceses dentro de Cogolludo, que está a un cuarto de hora de andadura…’ (25) mix of
personal and public
No eran barbudos personajes de teatro, ni fantasmas de héroes históricos evocados por la
noche y la poesía, sino tres estudiantillos de Alcalá, que desde el comienzo de la guerra se
habían afiliado en la partida (29) epic vs. Real
Después, Viriato, arrullando al niño en sus brazos, le adormeció con cantares de cuna, y el
guerrillero de dos años, metiéndose ambos puños en la boca para acallar su violento apetito,
se durmió (33) treatment of child
Los brazos larguísimos y negros de mosén Antón ditando órdenes desde la altura de sus
hombros (34) epic
Ironic that priest is the one suggesting violence and death ‘Es preciso pegar fuego a este
condenado Grajanejos…’ (43)
‘La hermosa mujer, comprendiendo el peligro que la amenazaba si no ponía a disposición de
la Patria los dones que Natura le concediera, tomó al muchacho y lo arrimó a su seno’ (45)
her body becomes part of war
‘Al estallar la guerra se había echado al campo con dos hombres, como Don Quijote con
Sancho Panza’ (49)
‘Los guerrilleros constituyen nuestra esencia nacional. Ellos son nuestro cuerpo y nuestra
alma; son el espíritu, el genio, la Historia de España; ellos son todo, grandeza y miseria, un
conjunto informe de cualidades contrarias, la dignidad dispuesta al heroísmo, la crueldad
inclinada al pillaje’ (52)
‘pero tal era mi afición, que a los dieciséis años me escapé de la casa paterna para alistarme
en el Ejército….estuve en la guerra del Rosellón. Concluida, volví a mi casa y en Fuentecén
me casé’ (59) conflict between private and public
‘Este clerigote es oro como militar; pero como hombre no vale una pieza de cobre’ (79)
‘Gran parte de estos guerrilleros, movidos son de un noble sentimiento de amor a la Patria;
pero muchos están aquí porque les gusta esta vida vagabunda, aventurera, y en la cual
aparece la fortuna detrás del peligro. Son sobrios, se alimentan con poco y no gustan de
trabajar’ (80)
‘La paz, la felicidad de mi hogar, fue turbada por esas hordas de salvajes franceses que en
mal hora vinieron a España, y todo concluyó para mí en julio de 1808, cuando se apoderaron
del pueblo…Aquí tiene usted la explicación de mi ingreso en la partida’ (81)
‘Ha tiempo que estoy viendo en la envidia de ese renegado un peligro para este ejército’
(85) public danger from private
‘Estratégico incomparable en los valles y sierras Trijueque, era completamente inexperto en
la táctica del humano corazón…’ (119)
¿De qué me valen la fama, la buena suerte, el buen nombre, si los amigos me hacen traición
y los que favorecí me venden? (127) private vs. Public success
¡España está deshonrada! Juan Martín está deshonrado! – personal betrayal is betrayal of
Spain
¡Aquí esto, venid aquí!...Vengan traidoes y franceses…’ ‘No podemos hacer nada, ¡rayo! –
exclamó Sardina-;pero aún podemos salvarnos’ ‘!Resistir a todo trance!... Los empecinados
no pueden rendirse’ (133) acts against public interest because of private feelings
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‘A ratos apetecía la libertad con vehemencia terrible; después se abrazaba a la cruz de su
honor anhelando no separarse de ella’ (171) conflicto between private and public
¡Oh!, si yo hubiera estado en Arnay-le-Duc, mi pequeñín no hubiera muerto…cómo es
posible! Tiene la culpa el Emperador…es ambicioso sin corazón’ (174) public is blamed for
private
Juan Martín about mosen ‘Por orgullo se hizo francés’ (228)
CONCEPTS OF THE NATION AND NATIONALISM IN BENITO PEREZ GALDOS’S
EPISODIC)S NACIONALES - Mary A. Kempen
– Juan Martin el Empecinado emphasizes the contrast between the leader of the guerrillas
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and his traitorous band whose members frequently change sides for the opportunity to
inflate their egos.) This emphasis on defeat and foreign victory is odd if one of the goals of
the series is to contrast the national unity found during the War of Independence with the
confusion of the 1870's as Hans Hinterhauser argues (162-63). How could the unity of the
War of Independence be seen more favorably than Galdos’s contemporary disunity if even a
united
national effort brings nothing more than defeat? Also, if victory is ultimately won only with
the dominant assistance of British forces, is the lesson of that war and the Episodios an
invitation to include Great Britain in conceptualizations of Spanish national unity? It appears
that rather than celebrate past Spanish successes, the Episodios foreground foreign roles in
the construction of the nation while their emphasis on defeat attempts to force Spaniards
into some kind of action
As Gabriel’s loss of his father and surname allows him to enter the world of citizenship as an
equal to a nobleman in a liberal version of a nation, Sardina’s loss of his father enables his
entry into the brotherhood of men that is the nation as Gabriel sees it. Before the French kill
his father, Sardina is oblivious to calls to patriotism. He takes up arms “movido por un
sentimiento vivisimo de odio a los invasores de la Patria.”, (Perez Galdos, Juan Martin el
Empecinado 71). only after they have killed his father, well after the invasion had begun, and
he cites their murder of his father as the source of his motivating hatred. However, his newly
found patriotism does not end with a desire for revenge. Now that he has taken up arms,
Sardina has become a patriot concerned with the well-being of his fellow members in the
Spanish nation. He and Juan Martin profess, “solo deseamos la paz, la felicidad de la Patria,
la concordia entre todos los espanoles, para que nos sea licito volver a nuestra labranza y al
trabajo honrado y humilde de los campos, que es la mayor y la unica delicia de la tierra.”
(Perez Galdos Juan Martin el Empecinado 41).
Within the historical context of Juan Martin el Empecinado. the French have eliminated
Spain’s father figures - Carlos IV and Fernando VII - so the fatherless subjects become
patriots. Absent the father/king, their loyalty is displaced onto each other. They then
produce the liberal Constitution of 1812 in Cadiz. Inasmuch as Sardina is a celebrated hero in
the novel, the foundation of the liberal nation over and against the regime of absolute
monarchy is also celebrated. His relationship to his father consequently forms an allegory for
and rallies support on behalf of the development of a liberal nation
Insofar as Santorcaz is a threat to the nation, he serves to indict illiberal customs as the
cause of the dangers. This native son reacts directly against injury done him due to class
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inequality by betraying national interest. His problems stem from the fact that he is the son
of a common farmer who refers to himself as “un hijo del pueblo” while his lover, Amaranta,
is a noblewoman (Perez Galdos, La batalla de los Arapiles 139). He desires to marry her, but
her family forbids it. Then they ruin any chance he had for making a life for himself.
Amaranta’s relatives smear him to cover her dishonor, and they repeatedly try to have him
arrested. They make it impossible for him to join the military and spread such vicious rumors
that his father disowns him (Perez Galdos, Juan Martin el Empecinado 133). Their treatment
of him is unjust and thus represents the injustice of the absolute separation of classes and
the low regard in which the upper class holds the lower ones. As a consequence of this
unfair treatment, Santorcaz has no choice but to flee to France. There he becomes a
dangerous person to the Spanish nation, yet his behavior has a justified air, especially with
the last scene before his death in which he deliriously relives the night when he sacrificed his
reputation, taking on the identity of a thief and intruder instead of a welcomed lover, in
order to save Amaranta’s good name, thereby bringing upon himself the wrath of her family
but becoming a selfless hero worthy of sympathy. By means of this sympathy, he also
secures sympathy for his cause. Once in France, Santorcaz affiliates himself with Spain’s
enemies for the sake of personal revenge which takes on the mantle of national reform. He
becomes a traitor when he enlists in Napoleon’s army. He actively wages war against Spain
by arming counter-guerrilleros who support the French cause, and he is part of the army
that captures Gabriel and attempts to bribe him into serving the French flag. He therefore is
a threat to his nation just as the foreigners are in this instance. However, he imagines the
French forces to be his personal army for exacting his revenge when he returns to Spain with
the invasion. His aim is to harm the nobles, and inasmuch as the nobles constitute the
Spanish nation in the Ancien Regime, he desires to harm Spain. He serves France, his
adopted nation, precisely because France had decapitated the king and the nobles (Perez
Galdos, Juan Martin el Empecinado 136). His rationale for his betrayal suggests that had the
Spanish concept of nation comprised elements other than just the nobles and the monarch,
Spain would have been safer
Juan Martin is a symbolic father of the nation who proves to be just as much a failure as
Carlos IV. As a guerrillero, Juan Martin belongs to a long list of symbolic fathers/mother of
the nation who “a su vez criaron a sus pechos” other warriors who “tambien engendraran su
pequena prole para lo futuro.” (Perez Galdos, Juan Martin el Empecinado 46). The language
used to describe their role in the foundation of the nation indicates that they are gender
confused, which represents confusion on a political level. The guerrilleros never get a clear
idea of how to lead a nation. Furthermore, Juan Martin is portrayed as an impotent
patriarch. He cannot repay Tio Garrapinillos the 34 pesos that the villager’s wife had saved
and that men of Juan Martin’s band stole for their war effort. The leader wishes to return
the money out of his personal funds, but he has only one peseta to give. His shortage of
currency hints that a lack of money will make it impossible for the liberal state (specifically
liberal because Juan Martin is liberal) to quell the violence among various factions jockeying
for limited resources and impossible to impose order. (Garrapinillos threatens to kill Juan
Martin.) His relations with the other guerrilleros further develop this symbolism. He cannot
control his band of fighters; they frequently fail to follow orders, succumb to infighting,
embark upon unauthorized missions, and switch sides. As a leader he is also a somewhat
impotent patriarch.
– The warrior Mosen Anton Trijueque forces a village woman to nurse the toddler at gunpoint
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in service to the Patria and King, and Sardina supports him saying that the boy is the
adopted child of the army, and therefore nursing him is supporting the army (Perez Galdos,
Juan Martin el Empecinado 39). This child, then, participates in a double symbolism in which
he stands for both the entire nation and its armed forces, and the message he imparts is
that both are in need of a stronger father to guide them. Empecinadillo is a terrible brat, a
lawless child who breaks things, gets drunk (he is only about three years old), urinates on
the campfire, and commits other atrocities. Ultimately, he exists to complete the picture of
Juan Martin as a father of the country. The commander’s heart is in the right place inasmuch
as he wishes to provide for his “children”, but he is impotent to do so. Because of his
incapacities, he raises a monster of a child, the guerrillero movement which he cannot
control. On the other hand, Empecinadillo as the symbol for the nation encounters a
different father figure. Plobertin the French soldier will adopt the child and teach the boy to
call him papa (Perez Galdos, Juan Martin el Empecinado 124). This projected relationship
suggests that foreign forces will be necessary to reform the infant nation and restore order.
The liberal father who can successfully raise the child comes from abroad, and this turn of
events is another allusion to Amadeo. Spain is to accept a foreign adoptive father for its own
good.
The Episodios single out contradiction as the indelible mark of the Spanish nation elsewhere
as well, such as in the description of the guerrilleros as Spain’s national essence; “Elios son
nuestro cuerpo y nuestra alma; son el espiritu, el genio, la Historia de Espana; ellos son todo,
grandeza y miseria, un conjunto informe de cualidades contrarias, la dignidad dispuesta al
heroismo, la crueldad inclinada al pillaje” (Perez Galdos, Juan Martin el Empecinado 45).
What the portrait of the guerrillero noticeably omits is the fact that most of the fighters had
conservative leanings. Their image of the nation on whose behalf they fought was more
closely aligned with the absolutist vision than with that of the constitutionalists. Focusing on
their character rather than their politics to locate the essence of the nation allows for the
inclusion of liberalism in the concept of this nation. To that end, Juan Martin, of whom the
narrator notes, “Estaba formado su espiritu con uno de los mas visibles caracteres del genio
castizo espanol, que necesita de la perpetua lucha para apacentar su indomable y discola
inquietud, y ha de vivir disputando de palabra u obra para creer que vive.” (Perez Galdos,
Juan Martin el Empecinado 42), rather a conservative leader is the center of the novel on
the guerrilleros. Juan Martin is still undeniably Spanish, of the national character, even
though he is a liberal. Since his character defines him as Spanish, he does not need the
traditions of absolutism and absolutist nationalism to maintain his national identity. He and
Spain are therefore free to adopt new ideologies.
Some Observations on Galdós' Juan Martín el Empecinado - Gabriel H. Lovett
– Few indeed will deny that Napoleon's failure in the Peninsula was caused first and foremost
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by Spanish guerrilla warfare. Year after year the Spanish guerrillas sapped the Emperor's
armies' strength in Spain and prevented him from achieving complete vic- tor
For several reasons Galdós chose El Empecinado over such well-known guerrilla leaders as
Espoz y Mina, Merino, or Julian Sanchez, who were as skilled in guerrilla warfare as Juan
Martin. First, El Empecinado was the most ubiquitous of all guerrilleros. His greatest
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victories were achieved in the heart of Spain, both in Old and New Castile, especially in the
province of Guadala- jara, but he had previously operated in the area of Salamanca and
Ciudad Rodrigo, and he also harried the French in Aragon. Espoz y Mina's activities were
limited mostly to Navarre, and Merino fought mainly in the province of Burgos and Julian
Sanchez in the province of Salamanca. Second, El Empecinado was a paladin of liberalism,4
and his tragic death in 1825, after two years of barbarous treatment at the hands of his
absolutist jailers, could not fail to arouse the greatest sympathy in Gald6s' heart.
Furthermore, El Empecinado, even according to his French adversaries, was an unusual
guerrilla chieftain, for more often than not he spared the lives of enemy prisoners. To friend
and foe alike his generosity and nobility of character were practically legendary throughout
the war. Finally, these moral qualities of Juan Martin allowed Galdós, who was far from
being an enthusiastic admirer of the Spanish propensity to irregular warfare, to look at the
guerrilla war with a less jaundiced eye than if he had had to deal with less noble figures.
Finally in Chapter V we meet El Empecinado. First we learn much about him through the
narrator's description of his person. The terms chosen by the author clearly underline his
intention to make a towering epic protagonist out of Juan Martin. Gald6s speaks of him as
the " famoso Empecinado, cuyo nombre, lo mismo que el de Mina, resonaba en aquellos
tiempos con estruendo glorioso en toda la Peninsula, y a quien los mas se representaban
como un hdroe de los tiempos antiguos, resucitado en los nuestros como una prueba de la
protecci6n del Cielo en la cruel guerra que sos- teniamos." (975). His physical description of
the man also fits into his epic purpose:
Era don Juan Martin un Hercules de estatura poco mas que mediana, organizaci6n hecha
para la guerra, persona de con- siderable fuerza muscular, cuerpo de bronce, que encerraba
la energia, la actividad, la resistencia, la contumacia, el arrojo frendtico del Mediodia junto
con la paciencia de la raza del Norte (975)
Metaphor is used to good effect to give us an insight into his character: "Sus mismas
virtudes y su benevolencia y generosidad eran isperas como plantas silvestres que contienen
zumos salutiferos, pero cuyas hokas están llenas de pinchos’ (975)
This description of El Empecinado is accompanied by what is probably the best definition of
guerrilla warfare ever given. The device of animating topographic features and the use of
anaphora maintain the narrative on the epic level:
‘Figuraos que el suelo se arma para defenderse de la invasi6n; que los cerros, los arroyos, las
penias, los desfiladeros, las grutas, son maquinas mortiferas que salen al encuentro de las
tropas regladas, y suben, bajan, ruedan, caen, aplastan, separan y des- trozan. Esas
montafias que se dejaron alla y ahora aparecen aqui; estos barrancos que multiplican sus
vueltas; esas cimas inaccesibles que despiden balas; esos mil riachuelos, cuya orilla derecha
se ha dominado, y luego se tuerce presentando por la izquierda innumerable gente; esas
alturas, en cuyo costado se destroz6 a los guerrilleros, y que luego ofrecen otro costado
donde los guerrilleros destrozan al ejercito en marcha: eso, y nada mis que eso, es la lucha
de partidas; es decir, el pais en armas, el territorio, la geografía misma batiéndose’ (976)
But within this heroic framework, techniques proper to the modern novel greatly alter the
epic form. Juan Martin must occa- sionally descend from the plane of epic celebration.
Individualiza- tion must have its day, and in Chapter VI Gald6s presents us with a comic
dialogue, which brings out the difficulties the hero experi- ences with the task of dictating a
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military communique to his secretary. The fact that Juan Martin is a Castilian peasant with
little education is not glossed over:
‘Hombres con h? Me parece que se pone sin h . . . No estoy seguro. En el Infierno debe de
estar el que invent6 la otografia, que no sirve mas sino para que los estudiantes y los
gramiticos se rian de un general . . . Adelante: Pues como iba diciendo a Vuecencia…’ (978)
Trijueque. Both Albuin and Trijueque are among the bravest of all guerrilleros, but they both
present a danger to the unity of El Empecinado's little army and to the cause of national
resistance. Albuin does not hesitate to strip villages retaken from the French of money and
victuals, for he does not see why his ill-clad and oft- starving guerrilleros cannot, at least
from time to time, fill their empty pockets with money and food taken from " liberated"
areas.8 Trijueque, an Aragonese priest with an extraordinary flair for guerrilla tactics, is not
interested in material gain, but is bent on exterminating the enemy and all those he suspects
of collaborating with him. He is also devoured by ambition and is convinced that he could be
a much better general than Juan Martin.
Mosen Antón Trijueque is next to El Empecinado the most important figure in the Episodio.
The antagonism between these two men, which is also an antagonism between two ways of
waging guerrilla warfare, runs through the whole work. But the conflict goes deeper, though
this is more implied than expressed. In Trijueque, though pride and especially envy are vital
driving motives, we also sense the future disruptive forces of absolutist Spain threatening
the order and unity brought the country by liberalism. It is no coincidence that Trijueque is a
priest who has taken up arms. Here is Gald6s' bete noire, the traditionalist-minded Spanish
Church, incarnated in the cura guerrillero, whose final defeat symbolizes the defeat of
reaction at the hands of liberalism’
presented as a religious fanatic. Gald6s takes pains to empha- size the cura's love of war, his
cruelty toward French prisoners of war, his thirst for personal glory, and his colossal envy of
El Empecinado’
In his description of Trijueque Gald6s frequently uses his technique, reminiscent of
Quevedo, of dehumanizing a personage by suggesting his resemblance to an animal:
Caballo y jinete se asemejaban en lo deforme y anguloso, y ambos parece que se
identificaban el uno con el otro, formando una especie de monstruo apocaliptico (969)
Mosdn Ant6n se ech6 de barriga en el suelo. Parecia una in- mensa cigarra negra en el
momento en que, contrayendo las angulosas zancas y plegando las alas, se dispone a dar el
salto (970).
In Chapter XI El Empecinado overcomes the challenge of one of his opponents, Saturnino
Albuin, who had stolen money from the inhabitants of a village freed from the French.
Grimly resisting his chief's order to return the money, Albuin is physically subdued by Juan
Martín after a savage confrontation
‘De rodillas-vocifer6 el General, sacudiendo con su membrudo brazo aquel cuerpo de acero
que se cimbreaba como una hoja toledana-IDe rodillas delante del Empecinadol Don
Saturnino, una vez presa la mano derecha, era hombre perdido, una espada sin punta, una
culebra sin veneno. Su muii6n hizo esfuerzos formidables; pero no pudo defenderle. Al fin,
despuds de repetidos arqueos y dobleces, las agudas rodillas del htroe, cayendo con
violencia, hicieron estremecer el suelo. Se oia un resoplido de animal vencido (997).’
– it. The cura had disobeyed his general's orders and had failed to give support to one of El
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Empecinado's detachments. Instead he had acted on his own, de- feating a French force and
sacking the above-mentioned Spanish village in the process. The usual shooting of French
prisoners and suspected collaborators had taken place, and now, in the ayun- tamiento of
the devastated town the two men face each other:
-He fusilado unos cuantos pillos afrancesados-replic6 Mosdn Ant6n-. Tambidn hice mal, no
es verdad? Si este clhrigo no puede hacer nada bueno. Juan Martin, fusilame por haber
ganado una batalla sin tu consentimiento ... Es mucha desobediencia la mia . . . Soy un
picaro ... Pon un oficio a Cadiz diciendo que Mosen Ant6n esta bueno para furriel y nada
mas. -ISilenciol-exclam6 de sfibito con exaltado coraje el Empeci- nado, sin fuerzas ya para
conservar la serenidad ante la insolencia de su subalterno.
Here again, however, the tech- nique of the novel alters the epic form. In spite of his treason
Trijueque is not completely evil. He is a complex character, and this complexity, absent in
traditional epic, comes to the fore especially during Araceli’s captivity in French hands.
The death at the hands of his former comrades-in-arms that Trijueque vociferously demands
is not granted by El Empecinado, who decides to spare the traitor's life and send him back to
his pueblo. Trijueque, unable to accept such an inglorious end to his military career, hangs
himself from a tree, and the book ends on this tragic, and, in relation to what we have
pointed out earlier, symbolic, note.
into the background and we are completely in the realm of the novel. The unnecessarily
melodramatic effect of the scenes in his prison cell is offset, however, by two positive
elements: The interesting story, now heard for the first time, of the life of Santorcaz, the
afrancesado father of Ines, who has been seen earlier in this series of the Episodios and who
now pays Araceli a visit, and Araceli's ingeniously contrived escape thanks to the mascot of
El Empecinado's guerrilla's army, the two-year old orphan El Empecinad
The story of Santorcaz offers some interest as a study of the motives of an afrancesado in
collaborating with the enemy of his country, but it must be admitted that it sounds
somewhat like a Romantic novel. A son of a " familia de labradores honrados con puntas de
hidalguia," he had been persecuted by an aristocratic family whose daughter had born him a
child. He had fled to France where he had taken an active part in the French Revolution in
the company of the abate Marchena. The latter (1768-1821), an odd figure, poet, translator
of Montesquieu's Lettres persanes and of a number of Moliere's plays, pamphleteer, and
literary critic, was one of the few truly radical Spaniards who went to France and became
actively involved in the French Revolution. Returning to Spain in 1808 with the French army,
he collaborated with the Napoleonic regime and emigrated to France following the rout of
Joseph Bonaparte's armies. There can be little doubt that a good deal of the background of
Santorcaz was derived by Galdós from the historical Marchena. Thus, though Santorcaz is
not the typical afrancesado, his background, with all its Romantic overtones, is within the
realm of the possible
Galdós, Europe and the regeneration of Spain - Eamonn Rodgers
– In 1846, the Polish poet, Juliusz Slowacki, wrote to his fellow-countrymen in exile, ‘España
no tiene ni idea ni ideal’.1 Slowacki was writing not long after the enactment of the
Constitution of 1845, which had established the lineaments of a conservative, oligarchic
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political system in Spain, which, despite some variations in its outward forms, was to endure
in its essentials, with only brief interruptions, until 1923. In this statement, Slowacki was
articulating the disappointment of many European intellectuals at the spectacle of Spain
regressing to its old authoritarian ways, and turning its back on the liberal values which it
had displayed in the past, especially in the period 1820–23. Spain had been a subject of
great interest and concern to the rest of Europe since at least 1808, when the resistance to
Napoleon, culminating in the expulsion of the French from the Peninsula in 1813, had
created the image of a fiercely independent people, heroically defending their land and their
liberty against a tyrant. The fact that the guerrilla campaign was inspired as much by rural
religious conservatism, in opposition to what was perceived as a godless regime, was
conveniently overlooked, in the interests of creating what one might describe as the
‘romantic-revolutionary’ myth of Spain.2 This image was reinforced during the trienio
liberal, when Spain appeared as a beacon of freedom in a Europe dominated by the
absolutist monarchies of the Holy Alliance.
Steps towards modernization were welcomed by European liberals, but at the same time
were always qualified by the recognition that the country at large was still bogged down in
ignorance and excessive reverence for the authority of Church and Crown.
Indeed, precisely because of the perceived backwardness of Spain, European liberals of the
1820s tended to exaggerate the significance of relatively modest signs of hope. The
Constitution of Cádiz of 1812, which had placed severe restrictions on the exercise of
monarchical power, seemed to many to locate Spain decisively in the vanguard of
progressive thinking, when it was imposed on Ferdinand VII in 1820, after the military
insurrection led by Rafael de Riego. But the Constitution had been the work of a small and
unrepresentative élite, and its underlying assumptions were at odds with the reactionary
temper of the majority of the populace. Furthermore, the deliberations of the Cortes de
Cádiz had been carried out under the shadow of events in France twenty years previously,
during the Terror of 1793–94, described by one participant in the debate as ‘lo que sucedió
en Francia en tiempo de sus infames demagogos’.3 Consequently, while asserting the
principle that ‘la soberanía reside esencialmente en la Nación’, and committing itself to the
defence of ‘la libertad civil’,4 the authors of the Constitution shrank from creating a
democratic, secular state. Religious uniformity was maintained, and though the Inquisition
was abolished in 1813, legislation was enacted providing for censorship, heresy trials by
ecclesiastical courts, and punishment by the secular authorities of those convicted.5
Furthermore, national sovereignty emphatically did not mean popular sovereignty, as
participation in the political process was by indirect elections, and involved restrictive
property and other qualifications.
Galdós’ arrival in Madrid in the autumn of 1862 therefore coincided with a period of
increasing turbulence. Within less than six months, O’Donnell’s Liberal Union administration
had fallen, and by the beginning of Galdós’ second year as a student, the Progressive liberals
had boycotted the monarchy of Isabella II, and were embarking on the military conspiracies
which were to lead to her overthrow five years later. In 1865, student demonstrations
against the sacking of Emilo Castelar from his chair in the Central University were repressed
with considerable violence in the episode known as the Noche de San Daniel. Strict
censorship was imposed, one of the victims being Galdós himself: the progressive daily La
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Nación, for which he wrote weekly articles, was suppressed between June 1866 and January
1868.
In the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Galdós welcomed the Revolution of 1868.
There is little explicit reference in his writings to his precise reasons for doing so, but his
articles in La Nación in the years immediately prior to the Revolution leave no room for
doubt that the regime of Isabella was, in his view, corrupt and tyrannical. The members of
the ruling oligarchy are ‘recuerdos que viven de la tradición; razones trasnochadas que
apelan al incontestable criterio de lo histórico’.8 Apart from these generalized comments,
however, there is little evidence at this stage of Galdós’ career of a developed political
theory as to the future government of the country. His main complaint about the Isabelline
monarchy centres on the latitude which it accorded the intolerant religious views of the
neo-Catholic party, ‘la plaga nea’, as he called it. Once a relative measure of religious
freedom was achieved under the Constitution of 1869, his interest in politics took second
place to the desire to consolidate his literary career. Indeed, if we are to believe what he
affirmed towards the end of his life, literature was, for him, a refuge from the violence
which was never far below the surface of social and political life. After the defeat of the
artillery sergeants’ mutiny in 1866, Galdós, having witnessed the condemned men being
taken to execution, went home, ‘tratando de buscar alivio a mi pena en mis amados libros y
en los dramas imaginarios, que nos embelesan más que los reales’.
Despite the failure of the Revolution to effect a radical redistribution of political power in
the long term, it initially seemed to open up prospects of real revitalization of cultural,
intellectual and economic life, and in this revitalization Galdós felt called to play a part
through his writing. It was in this spirit that he penned his ‘Observaciones sobre la novela
contemporánea en España’ in the Revista de España in 1870. The time was propitious for the
regeneration of the novel in Spain because the energies of the entrepreneurial middle class
had been liberated from the dominance of the aristocratic and upper bourgeois oligarchy:
In the summer of 1867, Galdós had made his first visit to Paris, and had been dazzled by the
cultural brilliance of that city, which was undergoing rapid development under the guidance
of Baron Haussmann. It was here that he first read avidly the novels of Balzac, to which he
soon added an acquaintance with Dickens, whose Pickwick Papers he translated for La
Nación in 1868. Yet in the ‘Observaciones’ he sedulously avoids mentioning Balzac, and
mentions Dickens only in passing, and that in connection with Cervantes, who, together with
Velázquez, exemplifies what he regards as the innate talent of Spaniards for acute
observation of human behaviour. There is a strong current of cultural nationalism in this
essay, for not only does Galdós appeal almost exclusively to models of artistic
representation from within Spanish culture, but he ascribes the present ‘abatimiento de las
letras’ to ‘las condiciones externas con que nos vemos afectados, […] el modo de ser de esta
sociedad, tal vez […] el decaimiento del espíritu nacional’ (Ensayos, 117). So advanced is this
decline in ‘the national spirit’ that Galdós’ contemporaries fail to give even Cervantes the
honour which is his due: ‘[…] es señal evidente de postración intelectual este descuido con
que se mira la memoria de los grandes hombres’.11
Galdós’ attitude in the ‘Observaciones’ is, in fact, deeply ambivalent. On the one hand, he
sees the need for Spain to modernize, culturally and socially as well as politically, and
welcomes the fact that the aristocracy is ‘una clase perfectamente reconciliada con el
espíritu moderno’, which ‘ayuda a impulsar […] el movimiento de la civilización’ (Ensayos,
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120). On the other, he sees the regeneration of Spain partly in terms of a return to
traditional virtues which have been eclipsed by foreign, especially French influences.
The literary scene is dominated by the popular sentimental and melodramatic novel, ‘peste
nacida en Francia’ (Ensayos, 118), which he advocates combating by an approach derived
from ‘la cualidad de la observación en nuestros escritores’, especially Cervantes, building on
an aptitude for realism which ‘existe en nuestra raza’ (Ensayos, 116–17). In the sphere of
social behaviour, he deplores ‘el afrancesamiento de nuestra alta sociedad, que ha perdido
todos sus rasgos característicos’ (Ensayos, 119), especially ‘la primitiva caballerosidad
castellana’ (Ensayos, 120).
The criticism of false appearances, in the moral, social and political domains, is such a
prominent theme in Galdós’ writing that it would be all too easy to conclude that his vision
of humanity is overwhelmingly negative. But his ironic detachment and lightness of touch
prevent his portrayal of human behaviour in its contemporary social context from becoming
excessively one-sided.
Galdós rarely defends positive values as explicitly as did more crudely didactic writers such
as Trueba or Alarcón, but they are there by implication: the underlying message is that
things ought to be different from what they are.
Nor does the fact that some of the exponents of these values are flawed in some way
diminish the importance of the virtues they represent.
Máximo’s moral sobriety (El amigo Manso) and his self-effacing generosity in ceding the
woman he loves to someone else are not cancelled out by his academic pedantry and
naivety about human relations.
It is certainly true that Galdós, in common with other serious nineteenthcentury novelists,
rarely extols particular values explicitly or emphatically. But to fail to detect their presence
within the network of juxtapositions and implications in the text is to project twentiethcentury relativism backwards onto a period to which it is not applicable. The tradition of
didactic literature was still very much alive in the nineteenth century, and the twin Horatian
principles of prodesse et delectare were still regarded as having equal weight. Besides, as I
have argued above, Galdós saw himself as building on a tradition of social and moral
criticism derived from much older Spanish sources.
For Galdós, if Spain is to achieve self-confidence and the respect of other nations, political
and technological progress will have to be accompanied by the reinstatement of qualities
which he sees as embodied in aspects of national history.
The loss of these qualities, and the consequent ‘presunción’ and ‘afeminación’ of Spanish
society in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, were to be the targets of Galdós’ social
and moral criticism in his novels, and the main focus of the regeneration of the national
character which the novela de costumbres would, he hoped, bring about. Strong as his
liberal convictions were, and however acutely aware he was that the so-called ‘Golden Age’
had been a period of religious intolerance and political absolutism, there were moments
when he felt that there was value in certain aspects of the aristocratic ethos. This emerges,
for example, in his presentation of the Marquesa de Aransis in La desheredada. The
Marquesa’s intransigent character is shown in her reaction to her daughter’s clandestine
love-affair, which has caused the latter’s death: ‘estaba forjada en el yunque calderoniano
con el martillo de la dignidad social, por las manos duras de la religión’. But immediately he
adds: ‘no cabían en ella las viles condescendencias que son el fruto amargo de una de las
maneras de la civilización’.31 The easy-going tolerance which currently exists among
members of the main political parties is preferable to the feuding of the past, but
nevertheless there are moments when he feels that ‘este progreso ha desvirtuado un poco
los caracteres, relajando la moral política’ (Inéd., I, 214).
Galdós y los Episodios nacionales: una historia del liberalismo español Clara E. Lida
– Cuando Galdós empieza a escribir los Episodios nacionales, España acaba de ser
sacudida por el impacto renovador de la Revolución del 68. «La Gloriosa» no sólo dio
impulso a los sentimientos constitucionalistas de la clase media sino que marcó un
período de desarrollo técnico y auge económico cuyo mayor beneficiario fue la
burguesía española.
– Hijo espiritual de esta revolución y miembro de esta clase que ocupa ya un lugar
importante en la vida pública del país, Galdós comparte plenamente sus ideales:
liberalismo político y económico, fe en la educación y en el progreso material,
antimilitarismo y anticlericalismo tradicionales.
– Su misión no es sólo la de «heraldo literario de la burguesía»,55 sino también la de
ser su historiador y cronista. En 1873 comienza una empresa literaria que es, a su
modo, una historia del liberalismo español y una crónica de la clase media.
– Los primeros Episodios muestran la formación de una burguesía incipiente que
adquiere valores políticos en su lucha contra el invasor y que se va plasmando como
poderosa clase social y económica en pugna con las corrientes absolutistas y
hegemónicas del primero y segundo estados
– Galdós ya está lejos del entusiasmo del 68 cuando comienza los Episodios. Las
esperanzas de «La Gloriosa» de acabar con los excesos del antiguo régimen fueron
pasajeras. Ni el breve gobierno de Prim ni la monarquía constitucional resolvieron
los graves problemas que amenazaban al país en 1868. Los cambios logrados no
favorecieron más que a la burguesía de hacendados e inversionistas, dejando
insatisfecha a la pequeña burguesía urbana, y en la miseria de siempre a las grandes
masas campesinas y a los obreros
– En 1873 «España con honra» es un manoseado hazmerreír de escépticos y
corruptos, sólo recordada con nostalgia por los liberales que la defendieron. Galdós
siente en estas circunstancias la necesidad de reavivar el sentimiento patriótico que
alguna vez unió a los españoles.60 El fracaso de la monarquía constitucional de
Amadeo que anuncia otra crisis política y la amenaza carlista de otra guerra civil le
incitan a predicar con el ejemplo histórico ante un pueblo que él siente
peligrosamente a la deriva.
– En los Episodios nacionales la historia se proyecta hacia adelante y más que escarbar
el pasado pretende señalar los errores presentes e indicar nuevos y fértiles caminos
futuros. Esto lleva al novelista a componer una obra didáctica ansiosa de
ejemplaridad patriótica: en sus manos la historia se convierte en la clásica magistra
vitae
– La nueva historia de España comienza con un desastre que anuncia ya la triste
historia de un desastre continuo. Lo que en 1805 era premonición en 1873 ya es un
hecho. Trafalgar no es más que el comienzo de lo que veremos a través de los
46 Episodios: de Trafalgar a Cánovas tenemos la transformación de una esperanza
en paulatino desengaño. Al final de toda la obra habremos llegado a la antítesis: el
optimismo patriótico de Trafalgar se verá reducido a la aplastante mediocridad de la
Restauración borbónica. En 1912 Galdós puede mirar hacia atrás con amargura,
desengañado de su fe en el patriotismo, consciente del fracaso de sus ideas liberales
– ‘En esta tierra tuya, donde hasta el respirar es todavía un escabroso problema, en
este solar desgraciado en que aún no habéis podido llevar a las leyes ni siquiera la
libertad del pensar y del creer, [...] los tiempos bobos que te anuncié has de verlos
desarrollarse en años y lustros de atonía, de lenta parálisis que os llevará a la
consunción y a la muerte’
– Aunque al comenzar los Episodios nacionales Galdós está lejos del pesimismo de las
últimas series, ya parece prever con intuición precisa los futuros dislates y torpezas
de la política española
– Esta epopeya de patriotismo colectivo fue convertida en un mito de enorme
trascendencia nacional por los mismos contemporáneos que la celebraron
poéticamente y que vieron el combate, no como una derrota, sino como la heroica
lucha por salvaguardar el honor patrio frente a un enemigo más fuerte y
preparado. Dentro de esta tradición, Galdós se remonta a Trafalgar por ser allí
donde surge por primera vez con todo vigor el ardor patriótico que se prolongará
durante las Guerras de Independencia y que él mismo tratará de reavivar casi
setenta años más tarde.
– Para Galdós, ese pueblo ideal es el que está formado por personas de ambos sexos y
de todas las clases,
espontáneamente reunidas por uno de esos llamamientos
morales, íntimos, misteriosos, informulados, que no parten de
ninguna voz oficial, y resuenan de improviso en los oídos de un
pueblo entero, hablándole el balbuciente lenguaje de la
inspiración.
– Al atacar a las figuras más progresistas del año 12 y del 20, lo hace con antipatía
hacia su exaltación y radicalismo. Ajeno a la compleja situación política y a las
corrientes históricas de esa época, Galdós se adhiere a la moderación y condena a
los hombres más populares y reformistas del momento
– Su desconfianza por los movimientos radicales de origen popular no hace más que
corroborar el temor tradicional de la burguesía: la moderación es el arma que
esgrime la clase media en los momentos de crisis para tratar de salvaguardar sus
propias conquistas. Las metas ideológicas de los liberales moderados fueron la
exaltación del statu quo y la defensa del orden establecido; al rechazar los principios
tradicionalistas presentan la alternativa ideal de reconciliar los opuestos
irreconciliables: orden y libertad, progreso y tradición
– Él no se propone exaltar las dramáticas luchas de los liberales contra el absolutismo
sino señalar los caminos que él cree más acertados para realizar una verdadera
actividad patriótica. Su visión de lo que debe ser la historia política de España es
pacifista, moderada: sus simpatías están contra los pronunciamientos militares o
contra las sublevaciones populares.
– Esta actitud se manifiesta no sólo en sus ataques a los liberales radicales y en los
elogios de los grandes hombres del viejo liberalismo tradicional, sino que muchos de
sus tipos literarios son los pequeños héroes cotidianos nacidos de la clase media
española.
– Los personajes de los Episodios nacionales no son únicamente figuras individuales y
aisladas sino que forman una «casta de tipos contemporáneos», arquetipos de una
especie. El cronista de la primera serie, Gabriel Araceli, es el cronista de las Guerras
de Independencia durante las cuales se realiza el ascenso social y económico de la
burguesía que él ejemplifica:
– ‘[...] desde mi alejamiento del servicio empecé a ascender de tal modo que aquello
era una bendición. [...] Con esto y un trabajo incesante y el orden admirable que mi
mujer estableció en mi casa adquirí lo que llamaban los antiguos aurea mediocritas;
viví y vivo con holgura; casi fui y soy rico; tuve y tengo un ejército brillante de
descendientes entre hijos, nietos y bisnietos’ «La batalla de los Arapiles», T. I, p. 985.
– La aurea mediocritas se define de acuerdo a las bendiciones de la burguesía: trabajo,
orden, bienestar y satisfacción familiar. Gabriel, como la burguesía que él
representa, puede decir satisfecho «que nació sin nada y lo tuvo todo».
– Durante los primeros años de la Restauración Galdós expresó una y otra vez sus
simpatías hacia el nuevo régimen que, según él, junto con la Revolución del 68, fueron
los acontecimientos «más graves quizás de nuestra historia en el presente siglo
después de la guerra de independencia».88 En un artículo del 22 de mayo de 1886,
dice del gobierno: «Desde la Restauración acá no ha existido un período en que los
derechos políticos hayan estado más firmemente garantizados. [...] La Prensa goza de
franquicias que no han tenido jamás entre nosotros, ni aun en los tiempos de
anarquía».89 Y unas páginas más adelante continúa:
No creo, pues, en revoluciones próximas. Toda revolución
necesita una bandera y un grito. ¿Cuál será éste? ¿La libertad? De
ningún modo, porque ahora la tenemos, y en un grado tal que la
misma República no nos daría más franquicias que las que hoy
disfrutamos. [...] Pero la revolución meramente política es un
delirio, porque los derechos políticos se conquistaron de un
modo definitivo en la revolución de 1868, hecha no por el
ejército, sino por el país con el instrumento del Ejército
– ‘Un rey postumo’
– Cuando en abril de 1898 inicia la tercera serie, aquella tranquilidad de la
Restauración se está desmoronando. La guerra de secesión de Cuba, el asesinato de
Cánovas, las sucesivas crisis económicas y sociales anuncian ya los desastres del 98 y
reflejan la intranquilidad general del país.99 Pocos meses antes
del ultimatum norteamericano, Galdós siente todo el peso de la crisis española. Esta
situación se proyecta en la trágica visión que estos Episodios nos dan de la guerra
civil: a los horrores más atroces se mezcla el desgarramiento de ver a España
destruida por los odios y fanatismos de las guerras fratricidas. Testigo de estas
masacres, don Beltrán de Urdaneta hace un llamado a la paz, a la justicia, a la
moderación y exhorta a la reflexión
1st week of university
4th week
5th week