Coloro che si considerano “eccezioni”: La desheredada di Benito Pérez Galdós

Abstract

This work aims at analyzing La desheredada by Benito Pérez Galdós from a psychoanalytic perspective.  The main purpose consists in identifying the traits of character that Freud attributes to the so called “Exceptions” in its protagonist. 

The author’s artistic economy, that does not enable the heroine to express her secret motives openly, leads  to look for such traits in the narrator’s allusions to her character and in the attitudes attributable to those  who consider themselves exceptions.  

The analogies lie in the rebellion against the unavoidable submission to the rules of necessity by  renouncing those satisfactions doomed to detrimental consequences, accepting sacrifice only for a better  end’s sake. Faced with the necessity of exchanging the immediate pleasure for a safer one, Exceptions say  that they have suffered and renounced enough, having thus the right to avoid any further self-denial and  expect compensation for their sufferings.  

These, in conclusion, are the desheredada’s secret motives, that the author hides in order to raise a subtle  background of sympathy based on understanding and identification. Galdós’ heroine, actually, becomes a  hyperbolic projection of something existing in everyone, because, deep down, we all would like to be an  exception and claim more privileges than the others.