Miguel Delibes’ Characters: Carmen and Mario in ‘Five Hours with Mario’

Characters in *Five Hours with Mario*

Carmen Sotillo

Carmen Sotillo is Mario’s wife and the narrator of the story. Physically, the book reveals many aspects of her, although it mentions several times the beauty of her generous heart. It also refers to the fact that having so many children spoils the body. Psychologically, the narrative delves deeper. One can appreciate the feeling of frustration that accompanies each of her words for various reasons. Among these is the feeling that her husband not only has shown no understanding of her ideas but also failed to meet her needs. She is always bothered because Mario does not take her into account. There is little communication between the spouses, and his wife intends to be heard even against Mario’s lifeless body.

She has a value system based on the success that comes with a good social position and completely rejects Mario’s entire system of values and beliefs. She opposes all social reforms supported by her husband. Saving face seems to be the fundamental issue that haunts the widow. Some of the things that affected her were that they did not have relations on their wedding night, which she felt was a humiliation she would never forget. Another is the fact that Mario did not want to buy a car she wanted. She likes to distribute alms directly to the poor to see them express their gratitude and to ensure that only those who deserve it receive it.

It should be mentioned that Carmen is a hypocritical person who gives much importance to appearances. She is self-absorbed, smug, and has fascist tendencies. She wants to impose her values and beliefs on their children and complains of having to carry everything about the house and the care of children without any help from her husband. She feels that Mario never treated her as a woman and was even unfaithful. This is analyzed by Carmen, who then holds it against her deceased husband.

Mario

The author characterizes him indirectly; he does not speak, as he is dead. As for his physique, it is remarkable that he was not very appealing and had pale skin. The psychological characterization extends much further. His thinking seems different from most people at the time, especially that of his wife, Carmen. Mario’s character is defined as persistent, idealistic, and impractical. He is a unique, intellectual, sincere, tolerant, and compassionate husband with progressive ideas. He is spiritual and dreams of an ideal society in which everyone is given equal justice and opportunities. Mario’s ideals are social equality, personal authenticity, freedom, and justice. Mario believes that the problem of the poor is solved with fundamental changes in the structure of society itself.

Unlike Carmen, Mario did not give much importance to religion or the need to purchase a car, as he drove to work by bicycle. Neither did he give much importance to sex. You could say that he was a good and humble man, a real man, other than that due to his proletarian tastes, he defended the poor without getting rich.

Biography of Miguel Delibes

Miguel Delibes was born in Valladolid on October 17, 1920. He was educated in a family of bourgeois liberals and Catholics. He studied for ten years in a school run by Carmelite parents and later studied high school at the “Our Lady of Lourdes” school in Valladolid.

He spent many summers of his childhood in the village of Molledo-Portolín, Santander, where his father was from and where he learned to love nature.

The Spanish Civil War surprised him at age 15. During those years, he began his studies at the School of Commerce and simultaneously took classes in drawing and modeling at the School of Arts and Crafts.

After the war, he worked as a cartoonist in the Valladolid newspaper “El Norte de Castilla.” He later completed an intensive journalism course in Madrid in 1944 and became editor of “El Norte de Castilla.” He obtained the Chair of Commercial Law at the School of Commerce of Valladolid.

In 1946, he married Ángeles Castro.

In 1948, he was awarded the Nadal Prize for his novel “The Shadow of the Cypress is Long.”

In 1974, his wife died, and this marked him so deeply that some critics have noted two stages in Delibes’ writing (before and after his wife’s death). She meant his balance, the axis of his life, and the stimulus of his work.