Marianela

“In your uncertainty, it was hard to say whether she was astonishingly forward or lamentably backward.”

The descriptions of Nela in the novel often note how her qualities always fall in between stages—beautiful and ugly, old and young. She is described as both aged from her tragic life and child-like. To Teodoro, Nela appears somewhat like the native person to the colonial explorer of the New World. Her beguiling and unfamiliar qualities make him believe that she is advanced, but her wild and untamed qualities also make her appear backwards to him.

“No, Senor. I am of no use at all.”

Throughout the novel, Nela repeatedly insists that she is useless. Her lack of self-worth can be attributed to her being an orphan and living with the Centeno family, who treat her poorly. Lacking any strength to do manual labor in the mines, the only job suitable for her is to be Pablo’s guide. As her worth is determined largely by her service to Pablo, she does not have a strong independent sense of self. This attitude incites the pity of those around her, particularly Teodoro who wishes to give her an education so that she might know her worth through learning.

“Nela’s mouth was, strictly speaking, ugly, still it deserved a word of praise from the point of view expressed in the line from Polo de Medina: ‘A mouth is sweet that asks for nothing.’”

While Nela’s mouth is described as physically unattractive, Teodoro considers that her lack of want is a redemptive quality. He considers the words of the Spanish poet, Salvador Jacinto Polo de Medina, who says that there is beauty in those who desire nothing. Polo de Medina is referring to those who are content with their status in life and are not desiring of anything more. Teodoro believes that this quality makes Nela innocent, if not simple. Her inner beauty outshines her lack of physical beauty.

“Yes—I tell him everything. He asks me what a star is like, and I tell him all about it in such a way that it is the same to him as if he could see it. I explain it all—what the planets are like, and the clouds, and the sky, and the water, and the lightning, the weather-cocks, the butterflies, the mists, the snails, and the shapes and faces of men and animals. I tell him what is ugly and what is pretty, and so he gets to understand everything.”

Nela is tasked with being Pablo’s guide in the world, which means that she describes the world to him as she sees it. As her character is associated with nature, she prizes its descriptions above all. Most importantly, she sets the terms for what constitutes beauty in the world. This is especially significant as Pablo strays from these terms once he gains his sight and rejects Nela altogether.

“There are many more blatant evils in the social order as, for instance, speculation, usury, the worship of mammon among men of high culture; but above all these, broods a monster which secretly and silently ruins more than all else, and that is the greed of the peasant.”

The novel seems to imply that the poor laborer or peasant poses a bigger threat than the crimes of the rich. The laborer or peasant spend their lives toiling for their meager living. Therefore, they only know the value of money as their lives center around having enough of it. This is the case for the poor laborers of the Socrates imines. The Centeno family count their money every night, a quality that the novel frowns upon as it shows an unflattering obsession with money. Furthermore, the Centeno family’s hoarding of their money means that no one has bothered to clothe or feed Nela adequately. Nevertheless, Señana believes that by taking Nela into their house, the family is performing an act of charity that they will be rewarded for in heaven. The novel critiques this false charity of the Centeno family by pointing out “the greed of the peasant” through such behavior.

“No one had told her that she had a right, by the very sternness of Nature in creating her, to certain tender cares which the strong can dispense with—the healthy and those who have parents and a home; since under the laws of Christian jurisprudence the helpless, the poor, the orphan, and the destitute, are all alike worthy of protection.”

As an orphan, Nela often feels that she does not belong to anyone but her deceased mother in the caverns of La Trascava. She is mistreated by the Centeno family such that she believes herself to be less worthy than those around her. The novel suggests that had she been told about Christianity and taught its values of love and care, she would know her worth better.

"I would not have my son doubly blind.”

Since Pablo’s mother died when Pablo was very young, Francisco has taken every care to provide his blind son with every opportunity his wealth can afford. He fears his son being “doubly blind,” or being ignorant of the world around him, in addition to lacking sight. Francisco is especially concerned when Nela’s wild and irrational imagination seems to influence Pablo greatly, countering the scientific knowledge that he hopes to instill in his son. This concern is what incites Francisco to pursue surgery for his son’s eyes as soon as possible.

“This helpless little creature, whose spirit seemed imprisoned and confined in the feeble body, expanded and rose elastic when she was alone with her master and friend. With him she at once became original, bright and intelligent; she had feeling, grace, refinement and fancy. When she left him, the dark doors of a prison seemed to close on her once more.”

Throughout Nela’s tragic life, she has only known her importance through her role as Pablo’s guide. As Pablo is the only one who has expressed care and affection towards her, she has defined her life by his love. In his presence, she becomes vibrant and animated, but when she returns to the sadness and abandonment of the Centeno house, there is no love there for her.

“God has given you a large share of all the gifts that are in his store and part of himself; I know it well—I cannot see what is outside, but I can see within, and I know all the wonders of your spirit that you have shown me since you have been my guide…”

Before Pablo gains his sight, he has relied on Nela to narrate the world to him. Beyond descriptions of their surroundings, Nela has also conveyed the spiritual dimensions of the world. Thus, Pablo attributes his ideas of love, beauty, and spirituality to Nela. He is content with his blindness as Nela’s presence and words offer him a different kind of insight into the world.

“Tell me, Nela—what are you like?”

“But Nela did not answer; the question was a stab to her heart.”

In Pablo and Nela’s discussion of beauty, Pablo becomes intrigued and desires to know of Nela’s beauty. While Pablo’s affection for Nela has always seemed unconditional, she fears that his further inquiry into her physical appearance may expose her as someone who is not attractive. She fears that telling him the truth will destroy any affection he has for her.

“Yes, you are the most perfect beauty imaginable…[h]ow could it be possible that your goodness, and innocence, and freshness and grace—your imagination, your sweet and lovely soul, which have all combined to enliven and comfort my dark and melancholy life—how, I say, could it be possible that they should not be embodied in a person as lovely?”

Lacking sight, Pablo believes in his imagination that Nela is beautiful. He determines her beauty according to his beliefs of her goodness and innocent views of the world. Nela’s inner beauty represents a totalizing beauty for Pablo as he cannot see and therefore does have the capacity to make that physical distinction.

“The gift of sight may lead him into many errors—may betray him into a misapprehension of abstract truth—and abstract truth proves that you are beautiful, without any stain or blemish of ugliness.”

When Nela appears hesitant towards Pablo’s proclamations of her beauty, he points to how his blindness can offer more insight into beauty than those with sight. He argues that the seeing man can make errors, too, through the ways in which they scrutinize the things they see and thereby create many complicated inferences from such discovery. Lacking sight, Pablo believes that he can identity beauty more easily as it will always remain pure and clear to him. He chooses to believe that Nela represents such beauty.

“Even our name seems to me to be of purely Saxon origin. I give it this etymology, Gold-find, or, as you may say, Gold-finders. Well, and my brother finds it in the bowels of the earth, while I find it in that marvelous miniature universe: the human eye.”

In Teodoro’s story of his and his brother’s early trials as impoverished youth in Madrid, he draws an analogy between his struggles and those of a colonial lineage. He believes that since the etymology of his name points to the seeking of gold, he and his brother are destined to make such socially-important discoveries. For Teodoro’s brother, it is work in the mines, and for Teodoro, it is in his work as an eye doctor. This passage links sight to the idea of colonial discovery.

“No, no, Nela is no fool by a long way. If any one had taken the trouble to teach her anything, she would have learnt it better, perhaps, than most children. Would you believe it? Nela has a great imagination; but lacking, as she does, the most rudimentary knowledge, it has of course, made her sentimental and superstitious.”

As Teodoro is walking with Sofía and Cárlos through the mines, Teodoro comes to Nela’s defense when Sofía speaks poorly of the young orphan. In attempting to achieve diplomacy between the two, Cárlos offers the above thoughts about Nela. He argues that she is not ignorant as she may seem, as she possesses a great imagination of the world. However, since she does not have the education to structure some of this imagination, her ideas are mainly influenced by emotions and false beliefs, rather than science and rationality.

“I was a sort of Columbus, the Columbus of labor; a sort of Cortés; I discovered a New World for myself, and having discovered it, I conquered it.”

Teodoro compares his early struggles in Madrid and later travels in the Americas to that of colonial explorers Christopher Columbus and Hernán Cortés. Through hard work, he eventually came to study anatomy and became an eye doctor. Possessing knowledge of a world previously unknown to him, it felt as if he was discovering the New World. The discovery of knowledge itself was a victory just as the arrival of Columbus and Cortés in the New World set into motion a series of colonial conquests that forever altered the land.

“The absolute neglect in which her whole nature had been left until the time of her acquaintance with Pablo Penáguilas was the cause of this confusion, and her friendship with this strange being, who, shut up in darkness, nevertheless with his mind’s eye boldly investigated all the problems of life, had come to her too late. Nela’s system of philosophy, of her own fabrication, had already petrified—a strange compound of paganism and sentimentality.”

The passage suggests that prior to Nela’s encounter with Pablo, the young orphan’s worldview was already concretized by the neglect of those around her. Lacking familial love and support, Nela’s knowledge of the world is based on her imagination of nature and the haunting presence of her deceased mother in the hole at La Trascava. While Pablo has the privilege of his family’s wealth and support to enable him to learn about the world despite his blindness, Nela has no such opportunity. Thus, an education for her at this later stage of her life would be impossible, as her views are already set.

“Oh Lady Mother! Now that you are going to work a miracle and let him see, make me beautiful or strike me dead, for I shall not be wanted any more in this world.”

Upon finding out about Pablo’s impending eye surgery, Nela mourns the possibility that his sight will signal the end of his affection for her. She believes that when he sees her, he will be disappointed in her lack of beauty and abandon her, leaving her with no more reason to live. The news devastates her so much that she prays to the Virgin Mary. In her prayer, she asks that if the Virgin Mary is going to give Pablo his sight, then the Virgin Mary should either make her beautiful, so that the boy will love her, or kill her, so that she does not have to face his rejection. She cannot imagine living in the world without Pablo’s love.

“And so, without in the least intending it, I have compared her to our Mother Eve—wide as the distance is between her who yielded to the Serpent and her who set her heel on his head; but the beauty of a lovely girl is enough to betray us into such unlucky blunders.”

While the narrator of the novel has compared Florentina to the Virgin Mary in her beauty, they also describe her as another biblical figure, Eve. While the Virgin Mary represents beauty and benevolence, the comparison to Eve suggests that Florentina’s presence is the catalyst for Nela’s doom. As Eve succumbed to the Serpent’s words and was responsible for the pain and suffering of humans, Florentina’s intervention in Nela and Pablo’s relationship would eventually alter their entire dynamic. When Pablo sees Florentina for the first time, he begins to regard her as the highest standard of beauty and refuses everything else, including Nela.

“What you are saying…proves to me how differently things are seen by different eyes, and that the precious gift of sight sometimes travesties them strangely, changing their natural form into something whimsical and unreal; for, after all, what you see before you are neither cats nor men, toothpicks, cathedrals, nor coffee-pots, but merely limestone rocks and masses of calcareous stone stained with oxide of iron. And it is your eye that burlesques so simple a fact.”

Florentina begins influencing Pablo’s views before he gains his sight. With Nela, Pablo is swayed by the passion of the young orphan’s imagination and adapts to her views. With Florentina, he learns that sight and the making of meaning from sight are subjective. According to Florentina, one’s sight is capable of different types of imagination. When he starts to learn this truth, he slowly moves away from Nela’s way of thinking and begins to understand the world differently. Unfortunately, this also means that he is slowly leaving behind his affection for Nela in favor of more developed ways of viewing the world.

“The idea that she was about to cross the boundary of the spot of earth where she had lived so long, and where her mother slept the sleep of the dead, made her feel as if she were being torn up by the roots. The beauty of the place in all its variety seemed to claim her by a sort of relationship; the rare and fleeting joys, nay, the very misery she had known there; the memory of her friend and of the happy hours when they had walked in the woods or sat by the spring at Saldeoro; all the feelings of admiration or of sympathy, of love or of gratitude, which had grown and blossomed in her soul among these scenes—these flowers—these clouds—these rustling trees—these frowning rocks—inseparable as it were from the loveliness or the grandeur, the progress and the immutability of all these works of nature, were so many roots from her heart, and dragging them up from the soil was bitter anguish.”

Devastated by the news of Pablo’s sight, Nela feels the end of his affection for her to be near and plans to kill herself by throwing her body into the hole in La Trascava just as her mother had done. Her tragic history is literally located in this site of trauma through Nela’s mother’s haunting. Nela also feels an affinity with the natural surroundings of La Trascava, which informs her spiritual imagination of the world. This view also informs her love for Pablo, who has shared this space with her throughout the years. While he has shared this with her before, his sight means that he will never return to this place as he will see it for what the rest of Socrates know it to be—a terrifying and haunted space. She is all alone now.

“To see Nela—but he never shall see Nela—Nela will never let him see her!”

When Teodoro attempts to retrieve Nela from the hole in La Trascava, Nela appears hysterical as she refuses to leave with him. After much prodding, Nela eventually confesses her love for Pablo and offers the seemingly nonsensical words above. The repetition of “see” emphasizes Nela’s distress over the success of Pablo’s surgery but also expresses her limited faculties to explain her grief as someone with more advanced knowledge of the world would be able to do.

“Cousin, my father read me, I remember, a passage in history about Christopher Columbus who discovered a New World, which no European had ever seen before. That navigator opened the eyes of the Old World, so that they saw another and more beautiful one. I cannot help thinking of him as a man like Teodoro Golfin, and of Europe as a blind man to whom America and its wonders were like a revelation of light.”

In this passage, Pablo compares himself to the Europeans who were transformed by the colonial explorations of the New World. He says that Teodoro represents an explorer much like Columbus who changed the way Europeans saw the rest of the world. This comparison foreshadows Pablo’s later encounter with Nela for the first time since has gained his sight. If Pablo represents the European of the Old World, then Nela is the native of the New World. The sight of Nela causes Pablo to respond in shock and horror, as his true knowledge of her has always been mediated by his blindness. In this way, Pablo’s encounter is much like the European learning of the horrors of the New World for the first time.

“In all her life she has never been taught a single lesson, never heard a word of loving counsel, nor a precept of pious dogma; she is guided entirely by ill-understood examples which she adapts to her own instincts and desires. Her criticisms are all her own, and as she is full of imagination and feeling, and the strongest native impulse of her soul is to worship something, she has worshipped Nature, after the fashion of primitive races.”

Teodoro attempts to explain Nela’s predicament to Florentina. He understands the young orphan to be informed purely by her wild imagination that is based upon the worship of nature. As her spiritual life is colored only by such whims, her beliefs resemble those of the “primitive races” who prize natural knowledge over that of rational science. Teodoro laments that Nela has never had the opportunity to be civilized through education, which has only allowed her false ideas of the world grow.