Doña Perfecta

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Literature · Subcategory: Literary street map · Year: 1876

Doña Perfecta , character and title at the same time of the social novel by Benito Pérez Galdós, published in 1876, where he shows us two Spains represented by its two characters: Pepe Rey, the Spain where understanding and freedom are possible, and Doña Perfecta, symbol of intolerance, arrogance and hypocrisy. An anti-clerical thesis novel, it criticises the excessive social role of religion.

"We do not know how Doña Perfecta would have been loving. Hating, she had the inflamed vehemence of a tutelary angel of discord among men. Such is the result produced in a hard character without native goodness by religious exaltation, when this, instead of being nourished by conscience and truth revealed in principles as simple as they are beautiful, seeks its sap in narrow formulas that only obey ecclesiastical interests. For prudery to be harmless, it is necessary that it exists in very pure hearts."

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