An entire study could be written about Galdós' preoccupation with shoes and boots. Dozens of examples come to mind. Galdós' use here of the tight-fitting shoe image to represent the constraints of society suggests his later use of the same image in Fortunata y Jacinta. When Maxi and Fortunata walk out to Las Micaelas just before the latter enters it for her «moral education», her fear of the regimentation of the Sisters is demonstrated physically through her painfully tight shoes (Fortunata y Jacinta, pp. 659-60). Bernard Rudofsky notes that in ancient times «covered feet [among women] symbolized chastity...». Women's feet have become so sexualized in popular thought, he writes, that in some societies «the classical gift of the bridegroom [to the bride] has been and occasionally still is a pair of shoes. When the bride accepts them and puts them on, symbolical union takes place» (The Unfashionable Human Body [New York: Doubleday, 1971], pp. 50-51). (N. del A.)

Her poor attire is an important aspect of her characterization and certainly one of her attractions in the eyes of Agustín. The ideal nineteenth-century heroine is pretty -but not overly pretty- and her delicate beauty is often framed by less than perfect dress. Another example from Galdós' gallery of men who are excited by poorly attired women is Joaquín Pez, for whom the sight of Isidora Rufete's badly worn, boots is erotic (La desheredada, p. 1059.) (N. del A.)

Sade/Fourier/Loyola, trans. Richard Miller (New York: Hill and Wang, 1976), p. 169. This correlation between sewing and repairing in the context of Tormento and Amparo's lost honor is reminiscent of La Celestina and her profession of sewing (restoring) lost maidenheads. (N. del A.)

Amparo warns Refugio: «Mejor sería que cosieras y estuvieras en casa. ¡Ay, hermana, tú acabarás mal...!» (p. 40). Later, Refugio angrily denounces the social plight of a single woman in contemporary society who is expected to be virtuous while unable to support herself as a seamstress: «¿De qué son mis dedos? Se han vuelto de palo de tanto coser. ¿Y qué he ganado? Miseria y más miseria... La costura, ¿para qué sirve? Para matarse» (p. 45). Refugio is later mentioned in Fortunata y Jacinta as the mistress of Juan Pablo Rubín, Maxi's brother. (N. del A.)

The relationship of Rosalía and Amparo as mistress and servant and the ironies of those roles are explored in William H. Shoemaker, «Galdós' Classical Scene in La de Bringas», Hispanic Review, 27 (1959), 423-34. (N. del A.)

That she does so is highly ironic, since it is one of Galdós' frequent reversals. Covering one's hands («veiled hands») in the presence of Christ (and, presumably, his servants) is a mark of respect in some ancient traditions. Here Amparo must protect herself against a so-called holy man. See James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art (New York: Harper and Row, 1979), p. 144. (N. del A.)

See E. Cobham Brewer, The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (New York: Avenel Books, 1978), p. 1211. The handkerchief that in Tormento represents Amparo's «stain» reminds the reader of Esther Summerson's handkerchief in Dickens' Bleak House, which symbolizes her mother's «stain»; it also recalls Desdemona's handkerchief in Othello, the «sacred object» that leads to the heroine's death and to Othello's undoing. (N. del A.)

Amparo's hand is a metonymic representation of her entire body, which Polo wishes to unclothe and possess. In its covered form, Amparo's hand is an erotic object to Caballero, who daydreams of the manner in which she folds her cloak across her breasts and holds it there with her right hand -«la mano forrada que tan bien conservara en la memoria...» (p. 70). (N. del A.)

Black was a common color for wedding dresses during the middle nineteenth century. It was a tradition borrowed from Queen Victoria's habit of wearing black mourning dresses after the death of Prince Albert in 1861. See John Morley, Death, Heaven, and the Victorians (London: Studio Vista, 1971), pp. 62-79, 182. (N. del A.)

Orlando (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1928), p. 188. (N. del A.)