Table Of ContentThis thesis, having been approved by the
special Faculty Committee, is accepted by
the Graduate School of the
University of Wyoming,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of ter _Gf Ar_ts_______
____
Dean of the Graduate School.
Date June 5, I9$0__
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THE INFLUENCE 0? THE PICARESQUE
EVIDENCED IF SELECTED NOVELS OF
BENITO PgRSZ GALDfls
by
Elsie Eleanor Tuttle
A Thesis
Submitted to the Department
of Modern and Classical Languages
and the Graduate School
of the University of Wyoming in P artial
Fulfillm ent of Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Arts
University of Wyoming
Laramie, Wyoming
June, 1950
LIBRARY
of THE
UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING
LARAMIE
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UMI Number: EP24271
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
I . INTRODUCTION...............................................................
II. CHARACTERISTICS OF PICARESQUE LITERATURE
III. THE BODY OF PICARESQUE LITERATURE IN SPA!
IV. TRANSITION FRCH PICARISE TO IDDER REAL IS:
v THE LIFE AND HORNS OF OALDtDS . .
1. Sketch of Life and Interests
2. C lassification of Hovels
VI. EL DOCTOR CENTENO....................
VII. MISERICORDIA .............................
VITT . OTHER T7CEK3 OF OALDOS. . .
1. La Desheredada . . .
2. The Torquemada Series
3. La Fontana de Pro . .
IX. JCHCLUSICN
BIBLIOGRAPHY,
APPENDIX A ,
APPENDIX B ,
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The contributions of permanent value which Spain has
made to European lite ra tu re have often been in the realm
of the novel. Certainly Spain has played an important
part in the development of the novel as a literacy form.
In fact, i t is lihely that EurooeTs greatest novel was
w ritten by a Spaniard. The connection between the Greek
development of the novel and the early stages of develop
ment of the novel in modern European countries was very
slight; the ta le , or short story of adventure, love, or
supernatural incidents, flourished in the Kiddle Ages, but
the novel had not taken definite share as a lite ra ry form.
Therefore, when the novel beran to develor in Europe in
the fifteen th and sixteenth centuries, i t was not r e s tric t
ed b3r any previous lim itations of form, or subject. The
novels of chivalry evolved from the rambling tales of the
Kiddle Ages, and. th is extravagant romantic genre enjoyed
great popularit3'-, waning only at the end of the sixteenth
century. A type of fictio n which may be called the dra
matic novel originated with La Celestina (1499), w ritten
completely in dialogue and touched with a new realism in
subject matter and style. Also, in sixteenth century Brain
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2
there appeared the pastoral novel, with shepherd heroes
involved in comrlicated love plots that were developed in
classic style and set in a beautiful, imaginary region. A
fourth class of novel originated in the sane period: the
picaresaue novel, unified by a narration of the adventures
of one chief character (no longer a noble hero, but an
anti-hero, a rogue), made re a lis tic in the authors1 obser
vations of lower strata of societ3r, and characterized h?/ a
satire on society as a whole. Of the four d istin ct lines
of development taken by the novel in its early stages, it
appears probable that the re a lis tic novel of today owes
its greatest debt to the most peculiarly Spanish of these
four developments, that of the picaresaue novel. Thus, it
appears inevitable that Benito Perez Galdos, considered by
many the originator of the modern Spanish novel, although
never a follower nor an im itator, should show the influ
ences of th is particular development of the early novel.
In what manner and to what degree evidences of the
picaresaue are to be found in certain of the novels of
P£rez Galdtfs it is the object of th is paper to explore. It
is to be hoped that as a result of th is investigation we
may come to understand more completely the real and perma
nent value of the body of picaresque literatu re as it ex ist
ed prior to the nineteenth century in Spain and to gain a
b etter knowledge of the factors contributing to the great
ness of P£rez Galdos through a study of some elements
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3
which live in the ages of lite ra tu re and which make l i t e r
ature real, lasting, and universal.
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CHAPTER II
CHARACTERISTICS OF PICARESQUE LITERATURE
The lite ra tu re of roguery, or of the oSTcaro, holds a
unique place in lite ra ry trad itio n , because it is deter
mined by form rather than by content of subject matter,
and because it is built around an anti-hero and portrays
low life rather than heroic. It is characteristically
prose rather than poetry, narrative, not dramatic, thus
forming a suitable mold for the beginnings of the novel."*"
The nfcaro must be distinguished from the criminal mainly
because he is not vicious. He is a rascal either for the
sake of humor or as a result of his social environment,
usually both. Chandler” classes him as either an occa
sional or an habitual crim inal, a victim of circumstance
who, under favorable conditions lives a normal life , but
under the stress of d iffic u ltie s breaks the law. For exam
ple, Gil Bias is an occasional criminal who, after becom
ing skilled in his crimes, turns honest. Similarly, Laza-
r illo de Torn.es becomes a njTcaro because he must cheat his
■^Rogues or "anti-heroes” have, however, often been
celebrated in poetry and in drama, but the?/ appear to be
best suited to and most often cultivated in prose narrative.
Frank Tl. Chandler, The L iterature of Roguery (Boston
and New York: Houghton, Tdifflin and Co., 190?), vol. I, pp.
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masters or die of starvation, but when he is dealt some
good fortune, he turns to the honest, although ignoble,
occupation of town c rie r. The lite ra tu re of the plcaro
can include man}/- t^rpes of individuals, ranging from the
humorous practical jokester T ill Eulenspiegel to the shal
low anti-heroine Becky Sharp in Vanity F a ir. However, the
specific genre as conceived in Spain is more restricted
than these. The picaresque novel is, as its name indi
cates, a novel whose central figure is the nlfcaro. The
origin of the word has been a question of some discussion,
but nlcaro, usuall3r rendered by modern dictionaries as a
knave, a rogue, or a loafer, was originally a synonym of
pinche, meaning cook’s boy or sp it-tu rn er . It came to
mean a whole class of individuals characterized by a ll of
the attrib u tes of the heroes of the picaresque novels: the
Lazarillos, the Pablos, the Guzmanes, etc. Balseiro^ re
cords Atkinson’s definition of the picaresaue novel, nar
rowing its scope prim arily in subject natter:
TT... the picaresque novel may be taken to be the
prose autobiography of one who rebels against a ll
^For a b rief discussion of the etymology of the word
pfcaro, see note in Ernest Yerim^e and S. Griswold Yorley,
A History of Spanish L iterature (New York: Henrv Holt and
Co., 1931), P- 202.
4Jos£ A. Balseiro, Novelist as Espafinles T"Todernos (New
York: llacmillan and Co ., 1933) , p • 256.
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