Doña Perfecta as Nineteenth-Century Revision of El alcalde de Zalamea

Abstract

Galdós's 1876 novel Doña Perfecta exhibits a remarkable similarity in overall plot, individual incidents, characterization, and atmosphere to Calderón's 1636? drama El alcalde de Zalamea. But, whereas Calderón's play celebrates the imposition of traditional authority and a necessary sheltering of women, Galdós's novel lays out a new situation in which authority is questioned and women strike out for their own interests. What both works, nevertheless, have in common is a faith in the essential honor of human beings uncorrupted by a system imposed from above. Galdós owned Calderón's play, and he likely attended it at least once in his early work as a theatrical reviewer in Madrid. He disliked nineteenth-century Spain's continuation of Calderonian theatrical traditions including the dramatist's emphasis on honor and retribution for infractions against it. Galdós also owned a copy of an earlier play once attributed to Lope de Vega, and the present study will show why Galdós's novel likely did not find inspiration in this other work. There was also an intervening Alcalde revision that may have intensified Don Benito's reaction to Calderón.