The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo José Cela
"The Family of Pascual Duarte" is a novel by Spanish author Camilo José Cela, published in 1942. The story follows Pascual Duarte, a man sentenced to death, who recounts his troubled life as a warning to others. Born into an impoverished and abusive Extremaduran peasant family, Pascual’s early life is marked by neglect, trauma, and violence. His father, driven mad by rabies, dies in a tragic incident just before the birth of Pascual's mentally disabled brother, Mario, who faces further cruelty and neglect throughout his life.
Pascual's narrative includes a deep exploration of his relationships, particularly with his sister Rosario and his wife Lola, both of whom seek escape from their dire circumstances. As Pascual grapples with his violent impulses and the harsh realities of his environment, he becomes increasingly embroiled in tragedies, including the deaths of loved ones and acts of revenge. The novel paints a bleak portrait of life shaped by abuse, despair, and moral decay, ultimately culminating in Pascual's own violent end. This compelling story provides a profound commentary on human suffering and the cyclical nature of violence within families and society.
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The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo José Cela
First published:La familia de Pascual Duarte, 1942 (English translation, 1946)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of plot: Early twentieth century
Locale: Extremadura, Spain
Principal characters
Pascual Duarte , a convictPascual’s Mother ,Mario , his brotherRosario , his sisterLola , his first wifeEl Estirao , Rosario and Lola’s lover
The Story:
Sentenced to death, Pascual Duarte decides to write a history of his life to serve as a warning to others, or so he implies. Pascual was born to a poor Extremaduran peasant family and raised in an atmosphere of hate and resentment. Both parents were abusive drunkards, and his younger brother Mario was mentally disabled, unable even to walk. The only saving grace of the family was Rosario, his sister, but she left home to better her situation by becoming a prostitute. She returned home once, ill with fever, but left as soon as she was well. Fifteen years after Rosario, Mario was born. Two days before his birth, Pascual’s father, Esteban, was bitten by a rabid dog. The family, afraid of being attacked, locked Esteban in an armoire, where he died on the day of Mario’s birth, screaming, driven mad by the disease.
Mario, scorned by everyone except Rosario, crawled and lived on the floor with the pigs and dogs. One day, the pigs ate his ears, and, from then on, it was hard for the family even to look at him. Generally unresponsive, Mario would go into shrieking fits at the sight of pigs. During one of these episodes, Don Rafael, who may have been the boy’s father, kicked the child into unconsciousness, blood gushing from the boy’s ear cavity. Pascual’s mother laughed, but although Pascual, fearing to be called soft, also did nothing, from that day forward, his active hatred of his mother grew. Shortly afterward, Mario was found drowned in a vat of oil, perhaps murdered by Rafael.
Pascual fell in love with, and raped, Lola. On discovering that she was pregnant, he married her. On their wedding day, their horse injured an old woman, a bad omen that presaged Lola’s fall from that same horse on the day they returned from their honeymoon. The fall caused a miscarriage. Pascual was not with her. He was celebrating with friends in a bar, on a drinking spree that ended in Pascual’s seriously wounding a friend who taunted him.
Pascual was always given to violence. When he learned of his wife’s miscarriage, he blamed the horse and stabbed the animal to death. One day, while sitting in his favorite spot with his only friend, his dog, nearby, he seemed to read reproach in the animal’s eyes and repeatedly shot the dog to rid himself of that look. Pascual also was tormented by premonitions of ill fortune. When his first child (his wife’s second pregnancy) was born, although the baby seemed healthy, he could not rid himself of a sense of foreboding, and the child died of illness in early infancy. After the baby’s death, Pascual could not endure the atmosphere in his home and fled to Madrid. From Madrid, he traveled to La Coruña, hoping to set sail for America. The trip was too costly, however, and after two years of working at odd jobs, Pascual returned home, only to find his wife pregnant with another man’s—El Estirao’s—child.
El Estirao was the abusive pimp and lover of Rosario who always delighted in taunting Pascual. His seduction of Pascual’s wife maddened the peasant, and, after the effort of confessing the truth to him, Lola suddenly died in Pascual’s arms. When El Estirao returned, looking for Rosario, Pascual killed him, crushing his spine. For this crime he was sent to prison but was released for good behavior after only serving two years.
When he returned home after his imprisonment, he found no one there to welcome him. Rosario was gone again, and his mother’s conduct toward him worsened. He married again, this time to the timid daughter of the local midwife, who secretly cared for him. His mother’s treatment of Esperanza, however, was terrible, and Pascual, now certain that his mother was still the source of all of his trouble, decided he must kill her to survive. Full of loathing, he carefully planned the crime, but at the last moment he was unable to strike. He stood paralyzed by her bed until she awoke. After a fierce struggle, he finally subdued and killed her. Earlier, Pascual might have been responsible for the assassination of the village patriarch, Don Jesús, during an uprising at the start of the civil war. Pascual was captured and is waiting to be hanged, but whether for the death of his mother or Don Jesús is uncertain.
Pascual, in his memoirs, professes to have come to terms with his fate, but, at the end, he is led kicking and screaming to the scaffold. He does not describe this episode, as one might expect, in his memoirs. Other witnesses report his shameful end.
Bibliography
Busette, Cedric.“La familia de Pascual Duarte” and “El Tánel”: Correspondences and Divergencies in the Exercise of Craft. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1994. Busette compares and contrasts the debut novels of Cela and Ernesto Sábato, analyzing their narrative purposes, language, protagonists, and other elements of the two books.
Charlebois, Lucile C. Understanding Camilo José Cela. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998. A thorough if progressively difficult study of Cela’s equally difficult novels. Each chapter focuses on one of the novels, beginning with The Family of Pascual Duarte through La cruz de San Andres. Includes chronology and select bibliography.
Foster, David W. Forms of the Novel in the Work of Camilo José Cela. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1967. Analyzes Cela’s constant tinkering with the narrative structure and intent of his novels and his seeming lack of satisfaction with previous efforts.
Hoyle, Alan. Cela: “La familia de Pascual Duarte.” London: Grant & Cutler, 1994. A concise introductory overview and critical interpretation of the novel. Written in English with Spanish quotations.
Kirsner, Robert. The Novels and Travels of Camilo José Cela. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963. Discusses the narrative techniques used in Cela’s novels and travelogues, in which the line between the two genres is often blurred. A good analysis of the treatment of landscape in The Family of Pascual Duarte.
McPheeters, D. W. Camilo José Cela. Boston: Twayne, 1969. One of the best and easiest introductions to the early work of Cela, with special emphasis on The Family of Pascual Duarte.
Peréz, Janet. Camilo José Cela Revisited: The Later Novels. New York: Twayne, 2000. Peréz updates and expands McPheeters’s overview. Analyzes Cela’s novels and provides biographical material, an index, and an annotated bibliography for further study.
Spires, Robert C. Mode of Existence and the Concept of Morality in “La familia de Pascual Duarte.” Ames, Iowa: Orrin Frank, 1968. Analyzes the moral climate of the time as well as that of the novel. Good discussion of how Pascual sees the world and how the world sees him.
Turner, Harriet, and Adelaida López de Martínez, eds. The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Novel: From 1600 to the Present. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Cela’s work is discussed in several places, particularly in chapter 11,“The Testimonial Novel and the Novel of Memory.” Places Cela’s work within the broader context of the Spanish novel.