Marianela

Benito Pérez Galdós

• Publisher: Perlego
• Year: 2005
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9700000017340
• Subtopic: European Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

The novel takes place in the fictional town of Socartes, Spain. The town's name refers to the philosopher Socrates, and his ideas about internal and external beauty. It tells the story of Marianela (sometimes referred to as "Nela"), a poor orphan girl with an ugly face, and her love for Pablo, a blind boy, who also has romantic feelings towards Nela. Marianela frequently sings to Pablo, and he believes she is beautiful because of her voice and wild yet intelligible imagination. Pablo's father asks a famous doctor, Teodoro Golfin, to examine Pablo to determine if his sight can be obtained. Pablo, full of hope at the prospect, promises Nela that he will marry her after the operation, if successful. He is convinced that Nela is beautiful, even when she tells him otherwise. In the meantime, Pablo's father plans for Pablo to marry his beautiful cousin, Florentina, but tells neither of them about it. Florentina comes to Socartes, and when Marianela first sees her, she mistakes her for the Virgin Mary because of her beauty. When Florentina is out walking with Pablo and Marianela, she expresses her pity for Nela because she is poor, abandoned and nobody loves her. She vows to take charge of Nela and clothe and educate her, and have Marianela live with her like a sister. Pablo eventually gets the operation that gives him his sight. Before seeing Nela, he sees Florentina and assumes she was Nela but was corrected. He is completely entranced by Florentina's beauty and occasionally asks for Nela. Nela attempts suicide because she knows that now she is of no use, since Pablo has the ability to see and differentiate between beautiful and ugly, but she is saved by Dr. Golfín. He takes Nela to Pablo's villa and into Florentina's room (which used to be the room of the wife of Don Francisco) and takes care of her while she is hiding away from Pablo because of her looks. Then, due to Pablo's desire to see Florentina, Pablo finds his way to Florentina's room and serenades Florentina for all her beauty. He then has his attention drawn to Don Teodoro and Nela on the sofa and confuses her for "just a poor girl who Florentina took in from the street." Marianela then finally reveals herself and kisses Pablo's hand three times. Upon the third kiss, she dies of a broken heart and leaves Pablo distraught and shocked.