Doña Perfecta

Around 1876, literary circles in Madrid debated the merits of realism versus idealism in the novel. Many feared that the realist trend, initiated in 1849 with Fernán Caballero's La gaviota, would fade due to the emergence of idealistic novels like Alarcón's El sombrero de tres picos and Juan Valera's Pepita Jiménez (1874). So relevant was this discussion that the Ateneo Científico y Literario of Madrid organized a series of debates on the topic in 1875.

Against this backdrop, and commissioned by Fernando León y Castillo to provide a realist counterbalance for Revista de España, Benito Pérez Galdós penned Doña Perfecta. While Galdós was engaged with his historical Episodios Nacionales, this work became a prototype and symbolic representation of its time, capturing the urgent need to portray contemporary Spanish reality.

In Doña Perfecta, Galdós creates Orbajosa, a fictional provincial town that serves as a microcosm of 19th-century Spanish society. This town, devoid of cultural life and economic prosperity, revolves around social gatherings and a traditional morality often tainted by hypocrisy. The central conflict of the novel lies in the antithesis between the rigid, traditional provincial life, symbolized by Orbajosa and its inhabitants, and the young Pepe, representing the progressive ideas of the capital, Madrid. Orbajosa's regional worldview fanatically clings to traditional customs, closing itself off to any new ideas from outside.

Doña Perfecta thus illustrates a core characteristic of Galdós's contemporary society: the pervasive hypocrisy stemming from an oppressive morality. This forces individuals to adopt a double standard—one for their public image and another for their true approach to life. This characteristic unites all the inhabitants of Orbajosa; even their ironically chosen names, like “Doña Perfecta” (far from “perfect”) and “Don Inocencio” (not at all “innocent”), highlight this pretense.