44 pages • 1 hour read
Benito Perez GaldosMarianela
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1878A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “Between Two Baskets”
After Celipin goes to sleep, Nela shuts herself into her basket. She thinks about what Celipin said about Pablo having no use for her anymore, once he gains his sight. That night, she speaks to the Virgin Mary, asking, “why did not you make me beautiful?” (117). She believes that once Pablo gains his sight, no one will have any need for her anymore. However, she does not want to take away the gift of sight from him. She would much rather take her own life, in the same way as her mother did, before Pablo can look upon her. She fears that once Pablo sees her for the first time, he will be disappointed and abandon her. The thought of such abandonment is too big of a heartache to bear. She falls asleep talking to herself.
Chapter 14 Summary: “How the Virgin Mary Appeared to Nela”
When Nela wakes up the next morning, she believes that the Virgin Mary has visited her in her dreams. In her morning stupor, she believes momentarily that the Virgin Mary has blessed her with a miracle, making her beautiful, as she has desired. When she checks her reflection, she sees that there is no difference. However, the presence of the Virgin Mary stays with her throughout the day, and she believes that something big will happen.
As Nela proceeds towards Aldeacorba, she encounters the beautiful Florentina, whom she mistakes for the Virgin Mary. Florentina appears like a divine being before Nela, but her elevated status is muddied by the fact that she is eating blackberries like a poor person when Nela finds her. Manuel comes across Florentina, chastising her for eating blackberries and acting like a peasant girl. He recognizes Nela as Pablo’s guide and introduces the two girls. Francisco arrives and takes them all home to have chocolate drink. At the house, Florentina expresses her kindness by offering Nela some of the chocolate drink before Pablo has a chance to give it to her. Manuel watches with slight reproach as he believes that a woman of status should not behave with such familiarity with the poor. Francisco suggests that Pablo, Florentina, and Nela go on a walk as it is a beautiful day.
Chapter 15 Summary: “The Three Children”
Pablo, Nela, and Florentina walk through the meadows surrounding Pablo’s house. During the walk, Florentina continues to betray the expected decorum of a lady of her status by picking blackberries and feeding them to Pablo and Nela. Pablo suggests that they walk through the mines to show Florentina the crater of La Terrible. At the crater, they sit and talk of beauty. Florentina says that everyone will have different definitions of beauty and that “it is our imagination that sees, and not our eyes” (131). However, sight is important to identify the different material realities of the rich and the poor. Florentina uses Nela as an example, stating that it is unfair that the young girl wears such tattered clothing when she herself has so many dresses to spare. She sympathizes with the socialists and communists who believe in redistribution of wealth, a political view that her father does not share. Nela is astonished by these views, and further surprised when Florentina declares that she will make it her mission to care for Nela while she is living with Pablo. Florentina promises to educate Nela and give her a more decent living.
When Florentina leaves to pick flowers, Pablo confesses to Nela that he initially did not like his cousin but has a change of heart now that she shares her compassionate views of the world. He believes her to be very pretty based on her generous spirit. Nela says that she is as beautiful as the Virgin Mary, but Pablo is doubtful that Florentina is as beautiful as she says. Pablo shares that his father wants him to marry Florentina, but he will contest the marriage as he desires to wed Nela instead. He insists that Nela will remain the most beautiful person to him, even after he receives his sight.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
The figure of Florentina functions as stand-in for the Virgin Mary and by extension, Florentina personifies the values of Spanish Catholicism in the novel. While Florentina is very much human, Nela imagines her to be the incarnation of the Virgin Mary. In Nela’s imagination, the Virgin Mary has come to answer her predicament from the night before. To Nela, Florentina’s beauty shares the same divine grace that lies in her version of the Virgin Mary, which she associates with all the beautiful things of nature. Whereas Teodoro represents the knowledgeable explorer through his connection to science and other civilizing forces, Florentina represents a different type of spiritual benevolence that comes from charity and compassion. This is evident through her sympathetic political views, which favor the poor. She shares a pragmatic sensibility towards the material realities of wealth distribution but is still invested in the development of a spiritual life. Her benevolence inspires even Pablo to proclaim to her, “Your goodness is as infinite and as enthusiastic as that which has filled the world with martyrs and peopled heaven with saints” (134). In such exaltations of Florentina’s goodness, she grows closer to the image of the Virgin Mary.
The introduction of Florentina in these chapters produces an added obstacle for Nela, who already fears Pablo’s inevitable abandonment once he gains his sight. Nela understands that by comparison she is no match for Florentina’s beauty and benevolence. When Pablo suspects openly that Florentina may be “pretty” (134), Nela feels the end of his affections for her encroaching. Sensing Nela’s sadness over this fear, Pablo insists that what he knows in blindness should translate to formal knowledge upon gaining his sight. He asks rhetorically, “That which we conceive and that which is—are they not one and the same?” (135). The statement suggests that his imagination of Nela’s beauty should remain intact once he sees her with his eyes. However, the statement contradicts his earlier realization of “how different things are seen by different eyes” (131). Pablo’s failure to register subjective truth into his beliefs expresses a naivete that will eventually prove all of Nela’s fears to be true.
