Feminine Desire Versus Catholic Morality in «La Regenta» (1884-1885) by Leopoldo Alas and «Oremus» (1893) by Eva Canel

Abstract

Novels of adultery capture, from within their universes, women in constant frustration with their situations and, above all, with their marriages. In this article, one of the behaviours that endangers the family (the pillar of bourgeois society) will be analysed from the perspective of feminist literary criticism: desire materialised in adultery, confronted with the influence of religion in nineteenth-century Spanish society. As a behaviour derived from lust, it is generally understood as the desire of men instigated by women, that is, women as objects of men’s sexual appetite, or as instigators of men’s downfall. However, in this study, a male-authored novel of adultery enshrined in the literary canon and a female-authored novel of adultery recently rescued from oblivion –La Regenta by Leopoldo Alas and Oremus by Eva Cane– will be analysed in an attempt to explore the role of women as desiring subjects.