Tuberculosis y escritura, las dos muertes de El Doctor Centeno

Abstract

Pérez Galdós outlines in El Doctor Centeno (1863) the clinical and literary symptoms of the decline of Spanish romanticism in the mid-nineteenth century brought about by the positivism advocated by the bourgeoisie. This article explores the way in which Galdós, to achieve this, uses Alejandro Miquis, a consumed character who along the narrative experiences a twofold feverish process of romantic origin and nature. In the Madrid of 1863, Miquis is dying of tuberculosis, the same illness that romanticism had elevated to mythic proportions. At the same time, this character strives to renew the drama of his time by writing and offering to the brand new middle class a historical play of unmistakable romantic leanings, which is as anachronistic and moribund as he is. Thus, through his death, the ensuing defiling of his work, and a narrative structure filled with medical and literary winks, Galdós succeeds in expanding the death certificate to the whole romantic culture.