The Hive: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Hive: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the intricate lives of several characters set against the backdrop of post-civil war Madrid, revealing the social and economic struggles of the time. Central to the narrative is Martín Marco, a chronically impoverished leftist intellectual whose disdain for the fascist regime and societal inertia reflects his growing mental instability. His interactions with lower-middle-class denizens and frequent visits to cafés illustrate the pervasive despair of 1940s Spain. Martín's sister, Filo, navigates her own challenges as a mother of five, caught between her husband's struggles as an accountant and her brother's expectations. Roberto González, Filo's husband, embodies the working-class struggle, striving to support his family despite his animosity towards Martín. Meanwhile, characters like Doña Rosa, the resentful café owner, and Señorita Elvira, an aging prostitute, further highlight the harsh realities of their environment. Doña Ramona Bragado, a shrewd businesswoman, contrasts with the other characters through her opportunistic pursuits, adding complexity to the social dynamics at play. The character analysis offers a poignant look into personal and collective hardship, emphasizing the moral and emotional ramifications of their circumstances.
The Hive: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Camilo José Cela
First published: La colmena, 1951 (English translation, 1953)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Madrid, Spain
Plot: Social realism
Time: December, 1943
Martín Marco (mahr-TEEN), a chronically impoverished leftist intellectual and freelance writer of articles for daily newspapers in Madrid, Spain. Martín is first seen being thrown out of Doña Rosa's café for his inability to pay his bill. His nighttime walks through post-civil war Madrid serve as the novel's principal thread, linking the city's dispersed locales and its plethora of lower-middle-class denizens. Martín's republican sympathies oppose him to Francisco Franco's fascist régime, and his obvious disaffection with Spanish life of the 1940's may be a contributing factor to his apparent growing dementia. His aimless café-hopping and frequent association with prostitutes mirror the dispirited inertia and moral lassitude of the era. Although Martín's political leanings tend toward the espousal of a collective responsibility for all Spaniards, he is not above accepting, or even expecting, handouts in the stagnant economy in which all of his fellow citizens must make do. Martín's emergent mental unbalance is most clearly in evidence in the novel's final section. Rambling and disoriented, he visits his mother's grave and contemplates becoming part of the societal establishment he so despises.
Filo (FEE-loh), Martín's kindhearted sister. She and her accountant husband, Roberto González, have five young children. Barely able to make ends meet with the paltry salary Roberto brings home, Filo must also contend with Martín's constant expectation of leftover food as well as the intense mutual dislike the brothers-in-law feel toward one another. On the day before she turns thirty-four, Filo fears that Martín and Roberto will forget her birthday, as they did the previous year, and that she will again feel unimportant and neglected.
Roberto González (gohn-SAH-lehs), Filo's husband, whose salary as an accountant for a perfume shop and a bakery barely keeps his large family clothed and fed. Roberto has always harbored an intense dislike for Martín, whom he considers arrogant and lazy. Martín calls Roberto “that beast” and despises his petty-bourgeois temperament and lifestyle. Roberto must ask his employer for an advance in order to buy Filo a birthday present and his children a new ball. Despite what Martín thinks, Roberto loves his family dearly and does his best to provide for them in hard economic times. Filo defends him as a decent and honorable man.
Doña Rosa, the mean-spirited owner of a café frequented by Martín and many other characters. Doña Rosa, fond of screaming at employees and customers alike, is not above watering down her drinks to save on precious ingredients during Spain's postwar rationing. Doña Rosa's recommendation that her waiters give Martín a sound thrashing for not being able to pay his tab provides a good glimpse into her typical behavior. In addition to having little use for the down-on-their-luck types who, whatever she may think about them, keep her establishment afloat, Doña Rosa is staunchly profascist and greets the news of Adolf Hitler's World War II setbacks with considerable trepidation.
Señorita Elvira (ehl-VEE-rah), an aging prostitute who spends so many listless hours in Doña Rosa's café that she is considered by the clientele to be part of its furniture. Orphaned young, after her father was executed for killing her mother, Elvira took up with a merchant to escape her crushing poverty. Once he started beating her, she left him for a life of prostitution. Elvira's situation is undoubtedly one of the most pathetic and dire of any character in the book. She basically subsists from day to day, dreaming of a quiet death in some hospital room near a radiator.
Doña Ramona Bragado (brah-GAH-doh), a shrewd businesswoman who turns a large cash settlement from a past tryst with a nobleman into a lifelong nest egg. She purchases a dairy with her unethical gains and supplements her steady income by acting as a procuress of impoverished women for financially secure gentlemen.