Visor de obras.

  —96→     —97→  

In Misericordia of 1897, Benina triumphs in the face of adversity.¹⁶² Abandoned by those she has served faithfully, she alone is serene and energetic at the novel's end. Most critical studies have centered upon her victorious but humble will and her sublime acts of charity.¹⁶³ Sherman Eoff saw hers as an integration of personality.¹⁶⁴ Professors Bleznick and Ruiz, as an integration of philosophy and faith.¹⁶⁵ This study will focus on Benito Pérez Galdós' somber picture of Spain, described by Sainz de Robles as: «Quizás, la novela más sombría y dura de Galdós».¹⁶⁶ The social structure and the personal lives of the individuals within that structure are based on fictions.¹⁶⁷ The institutions around which a cohesive social life should revolve are decadent and dysfunctional.¹⁶⁸ Benina finds a personal solution for these ills: she rejects and escapes from modern society to lead her life more simply.

The decay and disintegration of Spanish social structures depicted in Misericordia present a dismal outlook despite the personal victory of Benina. Galdós' pessimistic portrayal of his country is summarized in the often quoted words of the priest don Romualdo:

-Podríamos creer -añadió- que es nuestro país inmensa gusanera de pobres, y que debemos hacer de la nación un asilo sin fin, donde quepamos todos, pronto seremos el más grande hospicio de Europa.

(775)

On all levels of social interaction there is a breakdown. The Church, the State, and the Family fail to provide a functional system for human coexistence. In this void certain other solutions for the problems of poverty, unemployment, and lack of leadership are grasped at by the characters in the novel: begging, petty dictatorships, the lottery, and la sisa. Benina herself lives inextricably involved in all of these ad hoc institutions. Her victory comes only when she abandons all of the established and improvised structures of her society. However, her personal triumph can do nothing to change that society.¹⁶⁹

The imagery of decadence, disintegration, and doom in the novel creates a sense of imminent disaster. That the pestilence of the poor was a symptom of a dying Spain can be seen in the words of don Romualdo who called Spain a «gusanera de pobres». The blind beggar Almudena, who has been seen as a symbol of Spain's fate by Robert Ricard,¹⁷⁰ wastes from leprosy. The instability of the social milieu can be observed in the edifices which Galdós often uses symbolically.¹⁷¹ The Church of San Sebastián, a principal locale in the novel, is described as an architectural disaster with conflicting styles. As Robert Russell has stated, oxymoronic terms such as «lindo mamarracho» and   —98→   «fealdad risueña» (685) describe the edifice.¹⁷² Rust eats away at as iron fences. Doña Paca's home also shows structural weakness: «un patio grande, por galería de emplomados cristales, de suelo desigual, a causa de los hundimientos y desniveles de la vieja fábrica» (698). The darkness and squalor of the impoverished is described as follows: «y dentro vivían, sin aire ni luz, las pacíficas nodrizas de tísicos, encanijados y catarrosos» (723). Darkness fills the homes of even the rich: don Carlos's home is shrouded in black toile.

Doom casts its pall upon almost all of the characters. Ponte Delgado, who diminishes in the course of the novel, just as his name suggests, is described as a walking corpse: «su cuerpo se momificaba» (727). The impending disaster of Paca's family is described in the beginning:

Tantas desdichas, parecía mentira, no eran más que el preámbulo del infortunio grande, aterrador, en que el infeliz linaje de los Juárez y Zapatas había de caer, la boca del abismo en que sumergido le hallamos al referir su historia.

(703)

Doña Paca has always had nightmares about falling which Galdós humorously attributes to her birthplace:

Nacida en Ronda, su vista se acostumbró desde la niñez a las vertiginosas depresiones del terreno; y cuando tenía pesadillas, soñaba que se caía a la profundísima hondura de aquella grieta que llaman Tajo. Los nacidos en Ronda deben de tener la cabeza muy firme y no padecer de vértigos ni cosa tal, hechos a contemplar abismos espantosos.

(707)

Obdulia Zapata and her husband Luquitas live in the attic of his father's funeral parlor among dusty unused caskets. Even the gay flowers she brings to her mother's house when their financial situation improves «embalm» (785) the place. In the end Frasquito Ponte dies and Paca Juárez is a gloomy shadow of her former self. The robust Juliana, Paca's daughter-in-law, suffers from depression and nightmares. Only Benina remains healthy in mind and body.

Just as the Cathedral in Doña Perfecta loomed over Orbajosa -its shadow symbolic of its ominous influence- so the Church of San Sebastián, present from the opening passage of Misericordia, represents the decay and disintegration of the Catholic Church in Spain. The Church cannot provide sustenance for its followers. While a few people pray inside San Sebastián, hordes of beggars make the vestibules their outpost. They crowd the portals, creating a barrier for those entering comparable to the «paso de Termópilas» (685). The beggars are likened to parasites. This «nube de langosta» and «terrible plaga» (736) plays out its battle for survival on the church ground. The slow demise of the beggars is described as a process of infestation: «no hemos de encontrar charcos de sangre ni militares despojos, sino pulgas y otras feroces alimañas» (686). The Church-funded asylum, ironically called La Misericordia, can only help a small fraction of the destitute, aged, and infirm. The director don Romualdo laments that he must dodge the endless summons for aid because of insufficient space:

Añadió el señor Cedrón que, no por sus merecimientos, sino por la confianza con que le distinguían los fundadores del asilo de ancianos y ancianas de la Misericordia, era patrono y mayordomo del mismo; y como a él se dirigían las solicitudes de ingreso, no daba un paso por   —99→   la calle sin que le acometieran mendigos importunos, y se veía continuamente asediado de recomendaciones y tarjetazos pidiendo la admisión.

(775)

The government does little better at ameliorating social ills.¹⁷³ Rather than attempt to eradicate poverty or search for solutions for the unemployed and unemployable, the government resorts to makeshift measures. It outlaws begging in certain areas, but it provides insufficient space to contain and no funds to feed those arrested for begging. Almudena and Benina are finally detained and locked up in an intolerable place. Their condition as they leave the Latina reveal its inadequacies:

En lastimoso estado iban los dos:... revelando en sus demacrados rostros el hambre que habían padecido, la opresión y tristeza del forzado encierro en lo que más parece mazmorra que hospicio.

(p. 787)

The hospitals are little better. Benina refuses to allow Frasquito Ponte Delgado to be sent to one out of fear: «en el hospital se moriría sin remedio» (741). The effects of an unstable government are felt by all. Benina's comrades frequently repeat the rumors that a revolution is near:

que iba a subir el pan y que había bajado mucho la bolsa, señal lo primero de que no llovía, y lo segundo de que estaba al caer una revolución gorda, todo porque los artistas pedían las ocho horas y los amos no querían darlas. Anunció el burrero con profética gravedad que pronto se quitaría todo el dinero metálico y no quedaría más que el papel, hasta para las pesetas, y que echarían nuevas contribuciones, inclusive por rascarse y por darse de quién a quién los buenos días.

(723)

In a society in which a cohesive structure for living is provided by neither the government nor the religious institutions, one might expect the family unit to fill the void. In Misericordia the family fails to provide sustenance on both the spiritual and physical levels. The ties of the extended family have been weakened. The nuclear family has no nucleus for strength. The poor are not allowed the luxury of the semblance of a family.

The sense of roots derived from the permanence of the family in one place over many generations has begun to disappear in the Spain of Misericordia, The Andalusian cousins Frasquito Ponte Delgado and Paca de Zapata have both come to their economic ruin in Madrid. Distance, both geographic and spiritual, has eradicated the possibility of financial aid from wealthy cousins in Ronda. Only when their relatives die, do they receive help in the form of a pension, and then only because there are no closer relatives to inherit the wealth. Even don Carlos, Paca's brother-in-law, a resident of Madrid, maintains a distance. He ignores Paca's poverty, at best, and takes advantage of her situation, at worst.

The Zapatas exemplify a disintegrating family unit. While doña Paca's husband was alive, the family's fortune dwindled because of Paca's spendthrift ways and Sr. Zapata's inability to control her. After his death, the family economic ruin was total. Rather than draw upon one another in a time of need, the family splinters. The children, Antonio and Obdulia, exacerbate the problem:

  —100→  

Está visto que Dios quería probar a la dama rondeña, porque a las calamidades del orden económico añadió la grande amargura de que sus hijos, en vez de consolarla, despuntando por buenos y sumisos, agobiaran su espíritu con mayores mortificaciones y clavaran en su corazón espinas muy punzantes.

(703)

Antonio steals household items - the tablecloth, napkins, even the missals - to buy the things he fancies. The daughter Obdulia loses herself in romantic dreams and runs off with the son of a funeral director. In the end economic good fortune brings all the family members back together under one roof; however, doña Paca's unhappiness is symptomatic of a still ailing family:

No se consolaba doña Paca de la ausencia de Nina, ni aun viéndose rodeada de sus hijos, que fueron a participar de su ventura y a darle parte principal de la que ellos saboreaban con la herencia.

(782)

Finally, Antonio's seemingly stable marriage shows signs of disintegration. His wife Juliana begins to suffer insomnia and to have nightmares about future illnesses and the death of her two sons.

Obdulia's marriage presents yet another example of a failing family unit. After she and Luquitas renege on their suicide pact and marry, her life becomes a living death played out in the attic of her in-laws' funeral home. Her husband's family begrudgingly provides her with their leftovers but only «un día sí y otro no» (723). Obdulia suffers every humiliation with Luquitas:

[...] el matrimonio de los funerarios, Luquitas y Obdulia iba mal, porque el esposo se distraía de sus obligaciones domésticas y de su trabajo; frecuentaba demasiado el café, y quizás lugares menos honestos, por lo cual se le privó de la cobranza de facturas de servicios mortuorios.

(707)

For those of the lower classes four walls, clothing, and fairly regular meals are unattainable luxuries. The family unit has been torn asunder. There are numerous abandoned orphans in the novel. A most pitiful circumstance is that of the father who cannot afford to care for his children after the death of his wife:

La hija de tal, madre de la criatura, y de otra que enferma quedara en casa de una vecina, se había muerto dos días antes de miseria, señora, de cansancio, de tanto padecer echando los gofes en busca de un medio panecillo.

(758)

Searching for some sense of stability, the characters in the novel submit to arbitrarily imposed domination. The elderly, fortunate enough to be accepted, retire to the Misericordia asylum. The beggars obey their own hierarchy which excludes newcomers and assures that those in control (and who least need money) get the biggest share of the alms. The beggar Casiana dictates in her social sphere: «siempre hay uno que pretende imponer su voluntad a los demás, y, en efecto, la impone» (688). Similarly, doña Paca submits easily to the benevolent dictatorship of her servant Benina:

La criada, quitándole en momentos tan críticos las riendas del gobierno, decidió la mudanza, y desde la calle de Claudio Coello saltaron a la del Olmo. Por cierto que hubo no pocas dificultades para evitar un desahucio vergonzoso: todo se arregló con la generosa ayuda de Benina, que sacó del Monte sus economías importantes tres mil y pico de reales, y las entregó a la señora, estableciéndose desde entonces comunidad de intereses en la adversa como la próspera fortuna.

(p. 702)

  —101→  

When Benina is carted off to the poorhouse, Juliana, Paca's daughter-in-law, quickly assumes control:

En la ínsula de doña Francisca estableció con mano firme la normalidad al mes de haber empuñado las riendas, y todos allí andaban derechos, y nadie se rebullía ni osaba poner en tela de juicio sus irrevocables mandatos. Verdad que para obtener este resultado precioso empleaba el absolutismo puro, el régimen de terror; su genio no admitía ni aun observaciones tímidas: su ley era su santísima voluntad; su lógica el palo.

(796)

Frasquito Ponte Delgado, the impoverished aristocrat, submits to a different but equally tyrannical hierarchy - the ideal of chivalry and elegance which he personifies in the figure of the Empress and her «exact likeness» Obdulia Zapata.

In lieu of sound economic programs, begging, an ancient and typically Spanish custom, serves to provide an unreliable and meager source of income for many.¹⁷⁴ Benina, a reasonably resourceful and energetic worker, turns to mendicancy after her mistress pilfers away their combined funds. While she is begging for Paca on the sly, she also is begging at Paca's behest. Doña Paca asks Benina to face the onslaught of creditors and plea for mercy. Hordes of Spaniards have no other means of support than the miserable alms doled out by such as the miserly don Carlos Trujillo.

An equally insidious Spanish institution is the lottery and its resultant mentality. The lottery allows people to leave the solution of their problems to a miracle of fate. Doña Paca sits idly and dreams of a miracle which would transform her life:

-Dime Nina, entre tantas cosas raras, incomprensibles, que hay en el mundo, ¿no habría un medio, una forma... no sé cómo decirlo, un sortilegio por el cual nosotras pudiéramos pasar de la escasez a la abundancia; por el cual todo eso que en el mundo está de más en tantas manos avarientas, viniese a las nuestras, que nada poseen?

(735)

She, her daughter, and Ponte Delgado spend hour after hour discussing their daydream of inheriting their distant cousin's land and income. Benina, like many other characters, buys lottery tickets whenever she can scrape together a bit of money. To hedge her bet, Benina also contemplates performing strange rituals to reap fabulous treasures from Almudena's god Adonai. Benina sells her word marriage -«empeñaba su palabra de casorio» (749)- for payment to Almudena should such a miracle occur.

Benina is also an expert practitioner of the final pseudo-solution dear to the servant class in Spain, la sisa. She amassed quite a nice savings account by shaving pesetas from household expense funds while the Zapatas had money. She uses the system of la sisa to have the family she could never have on her own. She usurps the affection of the Zapata children and considers them her own:

Yo no sé qué tiene la señora: yo no sé qué tiene esta casa, y estos niños, y estas paredes, y todas las cosas que aquí hay: yo no sé más sino que no me hallo en ninguna parte. En casa rica estoy, con buenos amos, que no reparan en dos reales más o menos; seis duros de salario. Pues no me hallo, señora, y paso la noche y el día acordándome de esta familia, y pensando si estarán bien o no estarán bien. Me ven suspirar y creen que tengo hijos. Yo no tengo a nadie en el mundo más que a la señora, y sus hijos son mis hijos, pues como a tales les quiero.

(702)

  —102→  

These ad hoc systems are like straws grasped by desperate and helpless individuals. Rather than provide solutions for their shaky existence, they promote the status quo -instability and poverty. The petty dictatorships create unstable relations between those who lead and those who follow. The powerless resent those in authority and reject them in moments of crisis or weakness. Paca easily turns her back on Benina. The beggars at San Sebastián Church bicker in their leader Casiana's absence. Similarly, the power of the charitable over the humble beggars is as fleeting as the economic gain attained by those beggars. The same mendicants who humbly praise don Carlos Trujillo, criticize his morals behind his back. The street urchins who call Benina an angel when she provides bread for them, ultimately stone her for being stingy and presumptuous. Begging promotes acceptance of poverty and lack of independence. Benina calls Almudena one of the most self-sufficient people she knows; yet, ironically, he stands alone because of his indifference to his condition and his surroundings. Likewise, the sisa and the lottery promote idleness, submissiveness, and wastefulness. The narrator discredits such a senseless attempt at financial betterment as the lottery: «con lo que los burreros llevaban gastado en quince años de jugadas, habrían podido triplicar el ganado asnal que poseían» (745). When doña Paca and Frasquito Ponte Delgado do win their lottery, the inheritance, they immediately return to their idle, spendthrift ways. Finally, la sisa can never be an efficient means of financial betterment because it undermines the stability of one's source of support: the employer.

Benina upholds the Spanish social order throughout most of the novel. Her role in her relationship as Paca's servant reflects in miniature the traditional hierarchical society in which she lives. Her labors, which become more involved with economic speculation, manipulation, and credit, rather than the creation of a product or active service, parallel the direction of Spain's economy.¹⁷⁵ She first appears in the novel at the portals of the Church of San Sebastián in the heart of Old Madrid: she could not be closer to the center of traditional Spanish life. As the novel progresses, however, her rejection of social artifice becomes increasingly evident. She roundly criticizes Ponte Delgado's aristocratic airs. She proclaims a more spontaneous and simple view of life. She scorns Paca's repugnance at simple foods and extolls the virtues of nature's assurance of continuity -el hambre:

Venga todo antes que la muerte, y padezcamos con tal que no falte un pedazo de pan y pueda uno comérselo con dos salsas muy buenas: el hambre y la esperanza.

(700)

Benina decries social class distinctions in her reproach to Juliana, who refuses Almudena shelter:

[...] Si hubo misericordia con el otro, ¿por qué no ha de haberla con éste? ¿O es que la caridad es una para el caballero de levita y otra para el pobre desnudo? Yo no lo entiendo así, yo no distingo...

(789)

Finally, she not only rejects her society, but she achieves a heightened awareness of the sad existence of those around her. Out of her rejection by Paca,   —103→   Benina attains a vantage point from which to view the Zapatas in perspective. Benina chooses to observe them from afar:

Ansiaba verla, aunque fuese de lejos, y llevada de esta querencia se llegó a la calle de la Lechuga para atisbar a distancia discreta si la familia estaba en vías de mudanza o se había mudado ya... Desde su atalaya reconoció Benina los muebles decrépitos, derrengados, y no pudo reprimir su emoción al verlos.

(794)

Her moral superiority over and distance from the family is stressed by Galdós' choice of the word atalaya, «lookout tower», to describe the spot from which she watches and by the narrator's judgment in the penultimate chapter:

Rechazada por la familia que había sustentado en días tristísimos de miseria y dolores sin cuento, no tardó en rehacerse de la profunda turbación que ingratitud tan notoria le produjo; su conciencia le dio inefables consuelos: miró la vida desde la altura en que su desprecio de la humana vanidad la ponía; vio en ridícula pequeñez a los seres que la rodeaban, y su espíritu se hizo fuerte y grande. Había alcanzado glorioso triunfo; sentíase victoriosa, después de haber perdido la batalla en el terreno material.

(793)

Just as El abuelo, also written in 1897, ends with a retreat from the ills of modern Spanish society -the journey to the remote and symbolically, named Rocamor- so Nina's final actions and words demonstrate a rejection of and an escape from a decadent nation. Her resolution to her problems and her triumph over them evolves out of an ever simpler approach to life. Benina extricates herself from the network of social structures. She separates herself from her adopted family. She refuses to enter the Church-supported shelter for the aged, la Misericordia. She removes herself from the city of Madrid, symbol of Spanish government, to live on the Toledo highway. She moves in this novel from the gates of San Sebastián in the heart of Madrid to a simple hut -one of man's earliest forms of shelter. She chooses to live with a total outsider, someone repugnant to such a proper bourgeois as Juliana. Her choice of a companion also forces her to live at the level of day-to-day subsistence. (Although this was also her lot with Paca, there was always hope of a more proper bourgeois life-style for the Zapatas.) Almudena and Benina's projected trip to Jerusalem serves to underscore the idea of a return to the simplicity of early Christianity or to a Messianic Age of brotherhood.¹⁷⁶ In conclusion, Misericordia offers no ultimate solutions to the social disintegration it exposes other than compassion on an individual basis and escape from a decadent order.

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