An example of this would be the Countess in «Beatriz».
She believes that her daughter is possessed by an evil spirit.
It never occurs to her that her daughter’s ailment is caused by a reasonable,
practical, albeit tragic, situation - rape. When
the Countess becomes aware of the crime she does not report it to the authorities
or even the Church. She turns to the local witch
to mete out her revenge. The Countess has the witch
put a death spell on Fray Ángel as punishment for both besmirching
her daughter and the Countess’ name and honour.
In Supersticiones de Galicia, Jesús Rodríguez López
discusses the progression of religious beliefs brought to Spain
by different conquerors.The grandsons of Noah brought
the message of God, the Gauls, Celts, Phoenicians, the Romans and the Goths
brought in their own mythologies, all of which were mixed together to create
whatever superstitious beliefs in which the Galician people were inclined
to practice and believe.Rodríguez
López writes that «los habitantes de Galicia tuvieron, como
se ve, muchas supersticiones, debida a la mezcla de tales religiones, que
sólo conducían al fantasmo y a la perversión de las
costumbres y que fueron el desmoronamiento del gran Imperio romano»
(36).In
the Middle Ages, when the Catholic religion had a firm grip on most of Western
Europe, superstitions increased rather than decreased.López
states that «del siglo XII al XVI, el culto del diablo hizo rápidos
progresos. Hechiceros y brujos se multiplicaron de tal modo, que en el
año
1600, había solamente en Francia unos 300.000» (40). The devil
became a studied figure. He was painted, described and studied. His customs,
habits, tastes and his likes were well known. It was known how he came
to possess the bodies of the sick, it was known how to exorcise him from
the possessed, there were well known methods for recognizing witches and
efficacious methods in making them talk.Being burned
alive was their punishment (López 40).
Rosco N. Tolman writes that «in such works as Flor de santidad,
Los
cruzados de la causa, El embrujado, and especially
Jardín
umbrío, Valle-Inclán reaches the apex of his production
insofar as superstition is concerned. These works are replete with mystery,
mal
de ojo, people possessed, symbols of evil - such as the cat and the
color black, witchcraft, spirits, spells and evil omens» (132).
Witchcraft and religion often found themselves to be rivals.Emma
Susana Speratti-Pinero writes of the Church's persecution of the curandero/a:«A
lo largo de la historia, la actitud no desmiente la afirmación,
pues para ella los brujos fueron herejes y a veces competidores de los
miembros del clero» (120).Many
people would go to the saludadores to have someone they knew cured
if they were sick or exorcised if they were suffering from mal de ojo.According
to López, «el mal de ojo» consists «en suponer
que el hombre, con ayuda o intervención del demonio, es capaz de
producir males materiales, por la influencia de su mirada, sobre el individuo,
sobre los animales y aún sobre la hacienda» (149).
The power of the saludadora is called upon to rescue three youths
in «La misa de San Electus». The three
youths have been bitten by a rabid wolf.Interestingly,
their first choice is to consult the saludador de Cela.
He could do nothing for them.They believe there is
no hope for them, so they wait for their death. However
when one of the old women of the village passes by to enquire about their
health, she tells the boys to have a mass said to San Electus, giving them
hope that there might still be a chance to overcome their deadly predicament.
Sadly, the boys die the same day that the mass was said.T
oo little, too late.This story illustratesto
the reader that there are two paths to follow when searching for aid -
the Church and/or witchcraft, the Galician people did not care which one
was used as long as it was efficacious.
In «Beatriz», the Countess sends for the saludadora de Céltigos.
She is an old woman of great repute. The Countess
has heard of her great healing powers, «Me han hablado de una saludadora
que hay en Céltigos ....Cuentan que hace verdaderos milagros»
(35).Fray Ángel has also heard of her powers.The
intertwining of religion and superstition is illuminated in the figure
of Fray Ángel.He is the servant of God, but
he has usedor cast a mal de ojo over Beatriz
in order to seduce and rape her.In this instance,
even a man of God uses superstition to aid him in his evil doings.
The priest acknowledges the powers possessed by the saludadora de Céltigos and,
so, flees as soon as he hears that she is coming to see the Countess.
He realizes that either the Penitenciario or the saludadora will
unmask him as the perpetrator of the crime, consequently he decides that
flight is his only recourse. However he could not
escape the saludadora’s supernatural powers.
It is the saludadora who cures Beatriz of the mal de ojo
and it is the saludadora who is the instrument of the Countess'
revenge against Fray Ángel. She orders the
saludadora
to conjure up a spell against the priest so that he may die.
Fray Ángel is found dead the next morning.
Justo Alarcón, in his Ph.D. thesis, describes the saludadores
– witches, mentioned in the short stories. The saludadora,
in «Beatriz», according to Fray Ángel, is over a hundred
years old. She is described as «vieja, muy vieja, con el rostro desgastado
como las medallas antiguas, y los ojos verdes, del verde maléfico
que tienen las fuentes abandonadas, donde se reúnen las brujas»
(46). Alarcón writes that this saludadora
«tiene la propiedad de ver a distancia.». She had had a dream
that the Countess was calling her, and so she came to her immediately.
Alarcón also states that this saludadora «tiene la
cualidad de ver introspectivamente y de diagnosticar el mal que aqueja
a la víctima»(Alarcón 99).
The saludadora looks at Beatriz for a while and then pronounces
her diagnosis: «A esta rosa galana le han hecho mal de ojo»
(47). She also has the power to cure (Alarcón 99). After reaching
her diagnosis she goes on to give the Countess the cure, «la
Condesita está embrujada. Para ser bien roto
el embrujo, han de decirse las doce palabras que tiene la oración
del Beato Electus, al dar las doce campanadas del mediodía, que
es cuando el Padre Santo se sienta a la mesa y bendice a todala
Cristiandad» (47).
Here the use of prayer and of witchcraft are combined to cure the mal de
ojo (curse). This saludadora also has the power to evoke evil.When
the Countess asks her if she can work evil spells, the old woman baulks,
saying that it is a sin.The Countess, to assuage
the old woman's fear, tells her that she will have masses said on the saludadora's
behalf. Reassured, the saludadora, asks for Fray Ángel's
prayer book.She then rips out seven pages and places
them on the Countess' mirror. She then calls upon Satan to take Fray
Ángel's soul.The next morning his dead body
is found floating in the river. Here we see the use of religious
objects to conjure up evil spells.We also see the
misuse of the religious mass as a means of easing the saludadora’s
conscience
in regards to her practising the black arts.In the
saludadora
de Céltigos we can see the intertwining of these two religions.
She is cognizant of all the spells to use, good and evil, but uses them
within the guidelines of the Catholic religion. She is reluctant
to put a curse on Fray Ángel because the Church said to do so was
a sin, however, on the assurances of the Countess that she, the Countess,
could make everything right through prayer, does so.
The saludadora in «Del misterio» is basically the same.
Doña Soledad Amarante is also a product of the mixture of these
two religions. She is described as being devout, but also has powerful,
mysterious powers. The narrator tells us that this woman, Doña
Soledad Amarante, «iba todas las noches a la tertulia de mi abuela».
She was a «vieja que sabía estas cosas medrosas y terribles
del misterio. Era una señora
linajuda y devota que habitaba un caserón en la
Rúa de los Plateros. «She
was always knitting with a cat in her lap.She
is described as «alta, consumida, con el cabello siempre fosco, manchado
por grandes mechones blancos, y las mejillas descarnidas, esas mejillas
de dolorida expresión que parecen vivir huérfanas de besos
y de caricias» (85). The narrator was
extremely frightened of the old lady. He tells of Doña
Soledad Amarante who «contaba que en el silencio de las altas horas
oía el vuelo de las almas que se van, y que evocaba en el fondo
de los espejos los rostros lívidos que miran con ojos agónicos»(85).
One night Doña Soledad
arrives and confers with the narrator's grandmother. They talk of the narrator's
father who had been imprisoned in Santiago for being a `legitimista', that
is to say, a Carlist. When the narrator's mother begs the old woman for
details she turns to look at them, «alzó sobre nosotros la
mirada, aquella mirada que tenía el color maléfico de las
turquesas, y habló con la voz llena de misterio, mientras sus dedos
de momia movían las agujas de la calceta» (87). She
tells the boy's mother that her husband has a demon on his side.In
order to ascertain what has happened to the boy's father she uses her mysterious
powers: «se levantó del sofa y andando sin ruido la vimos
alejarse hacia el fondo de la sala, donde su sombra casi se desvaneció.
Advertíase apenas la figura negra y la blancura de las manos inmóviles,
en alto.Al
poco comenzó a gemir débilmente, como
si soñase»
(88). What Doña
Amarante tells them about the father in addition to the visual confirmation
of her power has the boy totally transfixed with fear.
At the moment that the old woman tells them that the blood that the father
had spilt was now falling on an innocent head, they all hear a door open.
The narrator starts to tremble. He points to the
mirror where he sees a shrouded figure with a knife at his throat. His
mother sees nothing. Doña
Soledad pronounces the somber prognosis that the spilt blood is now on
the innocent boy's head. The power of this memory
in addition to the fact that superstition and fear of the ghostly prediction
have been seared into the narrator's young mind have led the narrator to
believe that he has been constantly dogged by the murdered spirit of the
jailer; «las pisadas del fantasma que camina a mi lado implacable
y funesto, sin dejar que mi alma, toda llena de angustia, toda rendida
al peso de torvas pasiones y anhelos purísimos, se asoma fuera de
la torre, donde sueña
cautiva hace treinta años.Ahora
mismo estoy oyendo las silenciosas pisadas del Alcaide
Carcelero!» (89).
Another saludadora can be found in «Comedia de ensueño».
She is called Madre Silva. When the captain and his
followers return to their cave, the old woman is there waiting for them.
Within the booty presented to her there is a bejewelled hand.
The captain feels remorse at having cut off the hand from the young woman
and becomes entranced with its owner. He asks Madre
Silva if she can help him find out to whom the hand belonged through her
powers of magic, «[y] por ver el rostro de aquella mujer diera la
vida.Madre Silva,
tú que entiendes los misterios de la quiromancia, dime quién
era» (127). Madre Silva then «toma
entre sus manos de bruja aquella mano blanca, y sin esfuerzo la despoja
de los anillos. Luego frota la yerta palma para limpiarla
de la sangre y poder leer en sus rayas» (127-8). From
reading the palm Madre Silva recites the owner's story.
The young girl is a lamia, a folkloric character well known to the
Galician people, according to Rita Posse (505-8).
From birth she had been kept hidden through sorcery. A dwarf kept her prisoner.
She could only wait until the dwarf slept and then from her window she
would call out to those outside. Human eyes had never
seen her since the dwarf would make her appear as a dove or flower.
The captain was able to see her for what she was because she had put on
those rings.Madre Silva tells him that if he had
not cut her hand off he could have married her. She
was the daughter of a king. The enchantment from
the hand spills over onto the captain. He cannot
forget the woman and when a dog comes in and runs off with the hand, he
goes off after it in a maddened rage even though Madre Silva cautions him
that he will wander the woods until he is an old man.
Through these short stories we can see the importance of the role of saludadora
within Galician society.Alarcón
states that «la curandera representa la autoridad suma en cuestiones
de lo incógnito, de la religión, del misterio y de la superstición.
Y puesto que tiene el secreto de curar la posesión de los malos
espíritus, enfermedad terrible, de ahí radica también
parte de su autoridad y respeto que la gente la tiene» (102). She/he
is the person to whom all turn in times of crisis. She/he
holds a position of great respect and fear in the Galician society portrayed
in these short stories.
One can also find many instances of demonic possession or mal de ojo
by one of Satan's legions in Jardín umbrío’s
«Beatriz», «Mi hermana Antonia», «Milón
de la Arnoya»,
«Un ejemplo». As we have already
discussed, Beatriz is the victim of a mal de ojo. In
his article «La lógica de la superstición en El
embrujado de Valle-Inclán», Jesús
Rubio Jiménez writes about the practice of the mal de ojo
superstition.Many
of his observations can be applied to the short stories in Jardín
umbrío. According to Jiménez,
the mal de ojo comes from one looking fixedly upon another. «Quien
mira fijamente a otro, le agrede e intimida ejerciendo con su mirada un
poder sobre él. El intimidado elabora una
respuesta a esta agresión y buscará medios de respuestas”
(132). This person is called, according to Jiménez,
el
fascinador. In these short stories we see the fascinador in
the Saludadora de Céltigos, Máximo Bretal and Milón
de la Arnoya.
Usually the fascinador
is a marginal member of
society, that is, they live on the fringes of society, limiting their contact
with it. The fascinador
can be a hermit, witch,
vagabound, thief etc., «Vive de forma deferente del
resto de la comunidad. El mal viene de fuera de la
comunidad que comparte unas normas o si está dentro, lo está
en la marginalidad» (133). Emma
Susana Speratti-Pinero cites maledictions, that is, casting spells, the
use of mirrors and enchanted apples as objects used by the bewitcher to
gain his/her goal (128-132).
The saludadora uses a mirror to acquire this information, «[l]evántole
(the mirror) en alto la saludadora, igual que hace el sacerdote con la
hostia consagrada, lo empañó
echándole el aliento, y con un dedo tembloroso trazó el círculo
del Rey Salomón» (47). Doña
Amarante in «Del misterio» also uses a mirror in her maleficent
practices, «aquella señora
me infundía un vago terror, porque contaba que en el silencio de
las altas horas oía el vuelo de las almas que se van, y que evocaba
en el fondo de los espejos los rostros lívidos que miran con ojos
agónicos» (85).
In both «Mi hermana Antonia» and «Milón de la
Arnoya» the female victims have been enchanted by eating an apple.According
to Hebe Noemi Campanella, the enchanted apple was seen as «portadora del
encanto amoroso» (376). In Antonia's case it
was thought by the household members that she had been enchanted by one
of the apples given to them in gratitude brought to them by one of Máximo
Bretal's household: «Vino una vieja con cofia a darle las gracias
(to Antonia's mother), y trajo de regalo un azafate
de manzanas reinetas. En una de aquellas
manzanas dijeron después que debía de estar el hechizo que
hechizó a mi hermana Antonia» (68). In «Milón
de la Arnoya» the young girl claims to be possessed, a process which
commenced with her eating an enchanted apple Milón de la Arnoya
had given her to eat: «Vine a esta tierra por me poner a servir,
y cuando estaba buscando amo caí con el alma en el cautiverio de
Satanás. Fue un embrujo que me hicieron en una manzana reineta»
(135-6). The young girl has tried to flee from the source of the evil spell,
that is, Milón de la Arnoya, but he has come after her. Even
though Doña
Dolores has offered her protection, Milón's power over the girl
is too strong. Upon his appearance the girl knows it is Milón
even though he has disguised himself as a beggar.
He leaves on Doña
Dolores' orders but the girl suffers an attack that seems as if she is
possessed, «la renegrida, derribada en tierra, se retorcía
con la boca espumante, y las vendimiadoras la rodeaban, sujetándola
para que no se desgarrase las ropas» (139). Rita
Posse writes that another method of curing the possessed is the use of
the rosary, «cuya veracidad reside en el hecho de llevar la cruz.
Tiene también una base aceptable la utilización del rezo del
trisagio» (502). In this storywe
see Micaela coming towards the girl with a rosary with the intention of
using it to exorcise the demon within her or at least lessening Milon’s
evil grip on her soul. At that moment they hear Milón yelling
in the distance. His yells are likened to
animal noises. Upon hearing Milón's summons,
the young girl runs off before they could cure her with the blessed rosary.
They see her running off «espumante, ululante, mostrando entre jirones
la carne convulsa, rompió por entre los carros de la vendimia y
desapareció ... la vieron juntarse con Milón de la Arnoya
... prendiéndola de las trenzas, se la llevó arrastrando
a su cueva del monte» (139). What is described
here is, according to Jiménez, a «ramo cautivo», which
is «el comportamiento histérico violento de quienes tienen
el diablo metido en el cuerpo según una superstición muy
extendida en Galicia» (133). Thepeople
attribute the possession to the devil since many said «que habían
sentido en el aire las alas de Satanás» (Jardín
umbrío, 139).
In order to rid the person of this suffering, the tormented soul had to
be exorcised.
In «Un ejemplo», Jesús is on his way to cure a possessed
woman. When they come upon the woman on the road, «Jesucristo se
detuvo y la luz de sus ojos cayó como la gracia de un milagro sobre
aquella que se retorcía en el polvo y escupía hacia el camino»
(143). Just feeling his gaze upon her makes the woman feel touched
by a miracle. Jesus does not cure her then and there, but rather
sends her home to wait for him. Amaro does not understand why Jesús
does this. Jesús explains that the miracle must be seen by the village,
thus ennobling those lacking in faith. Thus, in the case of mal de ojo,
the
believers combat it using the appropriate amulets or participating in rites
designed to offer protection (Jiménez, 133)
Another supernatural belief subscribed to by the
characters in some of these short stories is the belief that the devil
or his followers are able to metamorphose, usually into a black cat.
González del Valle writes in his article «"Mi hermana Antonia"
y la estética del enigma inenigmático»:
Abundan
en «Mi hermana Antonia» situaciones en las que lo que acontece
responde, al parecer, a potencias cuyas características no se ajustana
las fuerzas de la naturaleza. Es así que se cree que Antonia se
enamoró de Máximo Bretal debido a que comió una manzana
hechizada y que el joven estudiante asume la identidad de un gato que tortura
a la madre de Antonia y que sólo abandona su víctima cuando
en dos ocasiones el niño que narra el relato lo espanta debido a
que es un ser inocente al valerse, en una oportunidad, de una cruz conseguir
sus objectivos (172).
The connection between Máximo Bretal and the cat becomes apparent
when the narrator mentions that as he and Basilisa run from the door their
path is crossed by a black cat, however, no one sees Father Bernardo leave.
Thus it is believed that it is Bretal, appearing as the good Father Bernardo,
who has come to convince Antonia's mother of the error of her thinking
concerning Antonia and Máximo. Then he turns into a black
cat upon leaving Antonia's mother.
The mother feels
herself persecuted by malevolent spirits. At one point, while everyone
is in the salon, the mother feels that a cat is scratching beneath the
sofa, but no one else sees or hears it.The mother
notices that Antonia is daydreaming.The mother believes
it is a manifestation of Bretal.She believes that
since Antonia must be thinking of him, that his malevolent thoughts have
transferred themselves in the scratching cat.While
Basilisa runs around the room with an olive branch sprinking holy water,
Antonia's mother grabs Antonia by the hair to make her stop thinking of
Bretal, thus ridding themselves of the tormenting cat.
The mother complains a few times about a black cat near her but it is only
after the death of his mother that the boy realizes that Bretal had been
the cat that had plagued his mother.One night Basilisa
comes for him. She has a pair of scissors in one hand and a cross in the
other.She gives the cross to the boy and says that
they must do as his mother asks and get rid of the cat.When
the cat comes out from under the mother's bed, Basilisa cuts its ears off.
The boy sees Máximo Bretal just before they leave with their grandmother.
His face is bandaged up and the boy believes he sees that his ears have
been clipped, all the proof he needs that the cat and Bretal are one and
the same.The boy totally believes that Bretal is
the devil and has done his utmost to bewitch Antonia.Such
was his power that he killed their mother because she stood in the way
of his desire for Antonia.Power that had been given
to him by the devil.Father Bernardo had warned Antonia's
mother that such was Bretal's desperation for Antonia's love that he was
contemplating a pact with the devil.Campanella
comments that «si es frecuente en Valle-Inclán la simbiosis
de los religioso, lo erótico y lo diabólico, pocas veces
ella alcanza la intensidad que tiene esta narración.
El amor no es aquí sólo erotismo o goce estético sino
verdadero sacrilegio» (375).
Sacrilegious because Bretal is a member of the Church. His calling upon
the devil for aid in the acquisition of Antonia's love is in direct opposition
to the Catholic religion, consequently, he looks to superstitious methods
to acheive his end. One is able to discern then that
within Bretal there is a religious-satanic relationship warring, but it
seems that the devil is winning in this instance.Campanella
states that «desde este momento el tema de lo diabólico se
enseñorea
de la pieza, y religión y paganismo se confunden en las mismas prácticas
cargadas de superstición» (375).
Campanella also recalls that the black hand in Galicia
is the «demonio de los bosques» (377).Antonia's
mother, who is a devout woman, has a hand that lacks some fingers, thus
to hide this imperfection she wears a black glove.Consequently,
it seems that Antonia's mother is also tied into the superstitious world
of Galicia.Campanella
writes that the significance of the black hand, like the black cat, is
the expression of witchcraft in the ambiance of Galican village life.Its
presence is the «nuncio de desgracias» (377).The
black glove, then, is the folkloric theme which Valle uses as an expression
of the demonic aspect in every human being that is found next to the angelic
spirit.Valle always uses the one hand to contrast the other:
Mi
madre era muy bella, blanca y rubia, siempre vestida, con guante negro
en una mano, por la falta de dos dedos, y la otra, que era como una camelia,
toda cubierta de sortijas. Ésta fue siempre la que besamos nosotros
y la mano con que ella nos acariciaba. (Jardín umbrío
69-70)
Emotionally, Antonia's mother is a portrait of contrasts.
She is a devout and caring woman, however, she cannot abide Bretal.Her
dislike for the boy seems unreasonable. She would
rather see Antonia dead than be with him. Her dislike of Bretal may have
seeped throughout the rest of the household. Fortified
with the explanation that Bretal had sided with demonic forces in his quest
to acquire Antonia's love, the members of Antonia's household believed,
as her mother believed, that Bretal was evil.
Christian ideology
is brought in to combat this evil possession of Antonia, however, as in
this instance, religion does not always triumph.Antonia's
mother would rather see Antonia die than let the two lovers be together.
Father Bernardo says that in Antonia's death the devil will win not only
Bretal's soul but quite possibly Antonia's too. The
mother becomes frantic at this pronouncement and asks the priest about
the Grace of God.Could not God bestow upon Antonia
his Grace and aid her in saving her soul?Father
Bernardo responds: «La
Gracia no está siempre con nosotros, hija mía.Mana como
una fuente y se seca como
ella» (73). Here we can see that the belief
in God is not enough in certain instances.It is this
belief that the combination of the superstition and religion may provide
the necessary weapons in their fight against evil.
In
«Mi bisabuelo», the great-grandfather is a legendary figure
reputedly to have malevolent forces assisting his causes.The
great-grandfather has a red spot on his cheek that the village people believe
is the kiss of a witch. The
bisabuelo is described as, «alto, seco, con los ojos verdes y el
perfil purísimo» (95).Green eyes are
a sign of malevolent forces.The saludadora de
Céltigos in «Beatriz» has green eyes, «los
ojos verdes, del verde maléfico que tienen las fuentes abandonadas,
donde se reúnen las brujas» (46).Thus
the village people and even the narrator's aunts believe that the great-grandfather
had some connection to the occult.
In «Tragedia de ensueño»
there can be found many folkloric and superstitious elements.The
grandmother is sure of her grandchild's impending death since for the last
three nights dogs have been howling at her door.
López writes that «los aullidos de los perros son de fatal
agüero» (79).
Rosa Seeleman also writes of folkloric elements in this particular short
story: «There are all manner of commoner details of superstition.
A grandmother is certain her ailing grandchild is near death because of
the howling of the dogs, and her apprehensions move her to declare that
she hears the beating of the child's wings, as though he were practising
flying.When the doors rattle it is useless to tell
her that the cause is the freshened wind of the night:she
knows it is the imperative summons of death» (111).
An
analysis of these short stories shows that the Galician populace appear
to rely on both pagan and christianbeliefs.One
observes a tight bond between everyday life and catholicism.Folklore
and superstition are just as important to the Galician people as is the
Catholic Church.The Galician people believed in portents
and omens, witches and demonic possession.One finds,
through these stories, that although the Church frowned upon the use and
belief of witchcraft, that it was still practiced on a daily basis.Mentions
of a saludador/a are interspersed in many of these stories.In
«Del misterio»it is an aristocratic woman
who has these mystical powers.The intertwining of
the occult and the Church are personified in Doña
Amarante. She is described as being well-titled and
devout. If the Church cannot be of aid then the people turned to the occult
services of these village witches.
The devil figured prominently in both superstition and religion. It was
believed that witches were his accomplices and that the devil could change
his shape and appearance. This aided the devil in his quest for unsuspecting
victims. Lily Litvak writes that «diablos y demonios fueron revividos
por los modernistas que también explotaron la sexualidad latente
de vampiros y súcubos y revivieron el decorado de la magia negra»
(Erotismo Fin de Siglo 112). An example of this would be the possessed
woman in «Un ejemplo». The old woman turns into a young, lithe
woman in an attempt to seduce Amaro from his holy path. She is obviously
a sucubus. People had no way of protecting themselves from the devil's
diabolical schemes except through the intervention of the Church and, failing
that, they could call upon the services of the saludadora. Satanism
provided all sorts of answers to unanswerable questions. Beatriz was possessed.
This covered up the ugly truth that she had been raped by the palace priest.
Antonia's mother dislikes Máximo Bretal. The only reason Antonia
is in love with him is that he has called upon the dark forces of evil
to enchant her. Not so. These two young people happened to meet and fell
in love. An ordinary occurrence with which Antonia's mother did not concur.
Perhaps she had higher aspirations for her daughter. Perhaps she saw her
aspirations to elevate her social status through an advantageous marriage
for Antonia threatened by the affection between the two young people. Consequently
she called their love for one another a product of demonic efforts. According
to Litvak, satanism is for Valle-Inclán not only «la expresión
de una estética sino también de una metafísica. Sabor
de pecado y aroma de santidad. Esplandor erótico y remordimiento
religioso, placer carnal cargado de angustia, goce sensual que se complace
en un singular fervor de profanación y sacrilegio» (Erotismo
117). We can see the contrast of religious virtue and the temptation of
the sexual animal within us all in Rosarito. She is beguiled, charmed by
the sexual animal within Don Miguel. This beast calls to the hitherto unknown
beast within herself. She could not fight both. Fray Ángel not only
partakes of erotic pleasure with Beatriz, but compounds this sin by raping
the girl in the most sacred of places, in the chapel. The sacrilegiousness
of this act only heightens the erotic flavour of this story.
To Valle-Inclán, who grew up in this kind of environment, this mixture
of religion and superstition was ordinary and natural. It did not surprise
him that the peasants believed in folklore. It only made his peasants seem
more nave and innocent. The rural populace perceived omens, portents, witches
and folklore as a constant in their lives. The Church frowned on beliefs
other than those defended by the Church, however these folkloric elements
were so deeply entrenched in the Galician psyche that they could never
be totally erased. Demonic possession was believed to be a condition any
unfortunate person could suffer. A witch or local priest or a combination
of both would be called upon to aid the victim. The only thing that mattered
was that the aid was efficacious. It is this sense of a backward, traditional
Galicia that permeates the short stories of Jardín umbrío.
Works
Cited
-
Alarcón, Justo S., Técnicas narrativas en "Jardín
umbrío" de Valle-Inclán. Diss. U. of Arizona, 1974. Ann
Arbor: UMI, 1974. 74-28, 307.
-
Campanella, Hebe Noemi., «Aproximación estilística
a un cuento de Valle-Inclán.», Cuadernos Hispanoaméricanos,
67.199-200
(1966): 373-399.
-
Litvak, Lily, Erotismo fin de siglo. Barcelona: Bosch, 1979.
-
Pérez Fernández, José, Valle-Inclán (humanismo,
política y justicia). Alcoy: Marfil, 1976.
-
Posse, Rita. «Notas sobre el folklore gallego en Valle-Inclán.»,
Cuadernos
Hispanoaméricanos, 67 (1966): 493-520.
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Rodríguez López, Jesús, Supersticiones de Galicia
y preocupaciones vulgares. 2nd ed. Buenos Aires: Nova, 1943.
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Roviro, Prudencio, «El campesino gallego», Published originally
in Madrid, Imprenta de L. Aguado, 1904, in Alfredo Vicenti's Aldeas,
aldeanos y labriegos en la Galicia tradicional. Madrid: Ministerio
de Agricultura, 1984, 163-202.
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Rubio Jiménez, Jesús, «La lógica de la superstición
en El embrujado de Valle-Inclán», Anuario Valle-Inclán,
III. Anales de literatura española contemporánea, 28,
3, 2003, pp. 123-154.
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Seeleman, Rosa, «Folkloric Elements in Valle-Inclán.»,
Hispanic
Review 3.2 (1935): 103-118.
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Speratti-Pinero, Emma Susana, «Los brujos de Valle-Inclán»
in Ramón del Valle-Inclán. Ed. Ricardo Doménech.
Madrid: Taurus, 1988, 118-154.
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Tolman, Rosco N., Dominant Themes in the "Sonatas" of Valle-Inclán,
Madrid:
Playor, 1973.
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Valle-Inclán, Ramón del. Jardín umbrío.
1st ed. 1903. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1986.
The
Galician people believe in portents and omens, in witches and demonic possession
as much as they believed in God.Prudencio Roviro, on his trip through