Laughter and criticism in Galdós

Abstract

Galdós' literature criticizes the corruption of Spanish society, its moral degradation, which he called cachexia. To carry out this criticism, he chose the serious-comic tradition that offered him the forms closest to his character and formation: the Cervantean tradition, especially that of the English writers. From them, and also directly, he absorbed the old methods of diatribe and parodied monologue, of Menippean dialogue and of the grotesque in general. He practiced almost all genres of laughter, but the most genuine of his aesthetics is the wide range of the social languages represented and how he discovers in them the variety of collective and individual evils that he satirizes. Humor allowed him an ethical didactism with a non-dogmatic attitude.