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.
Character Analysis
Nela (María Manuela Tellez)
Nela is a sixteen-year-old orphan who resides under the care of the Centeno family, who work in the mines of Socrates. Her parents were unmarried and had a contentious relationship. After her father accidentally dropped Nela as an infant while at work as a lamp lighter and cleaner, Nela’s mother refused to entrust the child in his care. He died alone in the hospital while Nela’s mother killed herself by jumping into the abyss in La Trascava. This tragic family history haunts young Nela as she develops a strange fondness for the caverns of La Terrible, and spends her time communing with voices from the abyss in La Trascava. Often, she hears her mother’s voice beckoning Nela to join her.
Nela is described as a tiny woman with birdlike features and a thin mouth. While such features may be considered unsightly, Teodoro notes that her goodness imbues her qualities with a subtle lightness. He cites Polo de Medina who writes, “A mouth is sweet that asks for nothing” (21). Nela embodies this humility to a fault, which can be attributed to her low sense of self-worth. She often proclaims, “I am of no use at all” (21). This sentiment is bolstered by her treatment of her surroundings. Despite providing her shelter, the Centeno family do not show Nela any love beyond offering her the bare means of survival. They also treat her as if she is a nuisance to them or neglects her altogether.
As she is constantly reminded of her lack of value, she places her entire sense of worth in the hands of Pablo Penáguilas. By acting as a guide to the blind boy, she feels she has a definitive purpose in the world. She expresses to him that she is his Lazarillo, a character from a Spanish tale who develops skill and cunning through assistance of a blind beggar, and “that my eyes would be of no use at all, if it were not to guide you and tell you how beautiful the world is” (59). However, while Pablo initially shares Nela’s rendering of the world, his father is critical of these wildly imaginative views that Nela cultivates. Nela understands the notion of God but prefers the Virgin Mary. Her version of the Virgin Mary is a contorted one that befits her views of the natural world as she believes that the Virgin lies within beauty. Nela also rejects the principles of science, refusing to believe that the earth rotates around the sun. Her views are informed by her proximity to nature, the sum of which many others in the novel attempt to rectify.
Pablo Penáguilas
A twenty-year-old blind man, Pablo has never known sight until the arrival of the eye doctor, Teodoro Golfín. His mother passed away at an early age, leaving him in the care of his wealthy father, Francisco Penáguilas. To compensate for Pablo’s mother’s early passing and for the boy’s lack of sight, Francisco strived to give his son the best care his means can provide. In lacking sight, however, Pablo has a wild imagination of the world, which can be attributed to the influence of his companion, Nela. Francisco desires to rectify this influence by teaching his son about science and other rational subjects.
Given Pablo’s disability, he has developed specific preferences for what he desires to know of the world around him. He has little interest for many of the subjects that his father reads to him in books, but is obsessed with the idea of beauty, which is a confounding concept to him. His early impression of beauty is naïve and rooted in an elementary understanding of the earthly world. For instance, Pablo attempts to explain the beauty of crystals to Teodoro, breaking a piece of rock to say, “… now do you mean that these crystals… are not a very beautiful thing?” (16). The act conjures Teodoro’s beauty as Pablo does not realize that what he holds in his hand is not a beautiful crystal but a plain rock and that he is committed to its imagined beauty nonetheless.
When Pablo gains his sight, he is overwhelmed and finds that what he thought he knew before to be false. While he once proclaimed his love for Nela, blind or with sight, he quickly realizes that Florentina represents the more traditional beauty. He learns the lesson of subjective truth through his sight despite the devastating outcomes of his newfound gaze.
Teodoro Golfín
Teodoro is a highly-respected eye doctor whose practice is renowned throughout Spain and the Americas. At the beginning of the novel, he arrives in the town of Villamojada in search of the mines of Socrates, where his brother, Cárlos, and his sister-in-law, Sofía, await him. His presence at Socrates is requested by Francisco Penáguilas, an affluent man who resides in the nearby town of Aldeacorba where many of the wealthy live. Francisco wishes for Teodoro to cure his son Pablo’s blindness. At first, Teodoro is skeptical about the outcome of the surgery but is then able to perform it successfully.
Teodoro is described as tall and broad with a quick demeanor. His dignified presentation is bolstered by his kindness, which he shows to everyone he meets. He is especially compassionate towards Nela when few treat her with any humanity. He does not hesitate to challenge others, particularly Sofía, when they disparage the young orphan. He even recovers Nela before she attempts to end her life at La Trascava.
The eye doctor’s kindness is informed by his previous life of poverty. As youths, Teodoro and Cárlos wander through Madrid in search of work. As the older brother, Teodoro ensures that he and his brother are always employed. Through every adversity, Teodoro pushes himself to excel in his studies and encourages his brother to do so as well. Teodoro’s memories of his early struggles give him a persisting appreciation for hard work and education, values that he hopes to pass on to the poor.
Florentina de Penáguilas
Florentina arrives in Aldeacorba as part of an arranged marriage to her cousin, Pablo. After a family member passes away, leaving behind an inheritance, Pablo’s father, Francisco, and Florentina’s father, Manuel, hope to collect interest on the sum by marrying their children. While the elders seem concerned with material wealth, Florentina does not share their interest in money. She expresses sympathy for socialist and communist political views that favor wealth distribution and advocacy for the poor. Her compassionate views towards the poor are supported by her expressed kindness towards Nela and her persistent desire to care for the young orphan.
When Nela first encounters Florentina, she mistakes her for the Virgin Mary, as she possesses a divine beauty. Nela spies Florentina in the meadows and thinks, “There, in a frame of greenery, stood the Immaculate Virgin herself—the face, the eyes, which in their gaze seemed to have all the calm beauty of the sky” (122). Much like the Virgin Mary, Florentina’s beauty is bolstered by the graciousness of her charity. Thus, even when Nela envies Florentina for her marriage to her beloved Pablo, she finds it difficult to fully hate her due to the maiden’s divine sense of goodness.
Celipin Centeno
The youngest child of the Centeno family, Celipin does not share his parents’ limited vision of the world. Whereas the Centeno family represents “the greed of the peasant” (34), Celipin has higher aspirations. Celipin’s parents count their money every night, carving out a meager living. They do not wish to advance their social positions or seek other types of betterment. Life in the mines has made Celipin bitter towards his parents for their view, so he sets out to advance himself against their wishes. He does this in secret, through Nela’s support, as she hands him what little money she makes at the end of each day. He desires to learn to read, become proficient in a science field, and become as successful as Teodoro. However, given his youth, his views are still idealistic and possess little knowledge of the hardships ahead.
