Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Decimonónica
Volume
17
Issue
1
Publisher
Decimonónica
Publication Date
2020
First Page
65
Last Page
80
Abstract
The protagonist of Benito Pérez Galdós’s La desheredada (1881), Isidora Rufete, is plagued by delusions of falsely promised nobility that she believes to be etched into her face and her character. Her misunderstanding, which goes hand in hand with a ruinous personal economy, shapes her self-conception, one that ultimately leads to her choosing prostitution as her only tenable relation to the market, one that reflects the worth placed in her body. Isidora is also an insomniac. Galdós recounts her nighttime flights of fancy, describing them as a second life that she fully populates with the friendships, the well-being, and above all the luxurious lifestyle, that are lacking in her waking hours (114). She spends the money that she is able to come by as though she benefitted from the riches she dreams up for herself at night. Yet even Isidora recognizes her joyous imaginings—“¡Qué hermoso palacio, Dios de mi vida!” begins the chapter “Insomnio número cincuenta y tantos”—as a form of suffering since they come at the expense of sleep: “¡Qué suplicio! Me muero de insomnio...” (214, 216).
Recommended Citation
Rankin, Tess C., "La segunda vida de Isidora Rufete: Insomniac Dreams of Self in La desheredada" (2020). Decimonónica. Paper 51.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/decimononica/51