Doña Perfecta

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Doña Perfecta (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)

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Doña Perfecta Polentinos (DOHN-yah pehr-FEHK-tah poh-lehn- TEE-nohs), a wealthy and intensely religious woman who lives in the provincial town of Orbajosa, Spain. She represents the old order of provincial Spanish life: reactionary traditionalism, country (versus city) values, regional (versus central) government control, and, above all, neo-Catholicism characterized by religious intolerance and often profound hypocrisy. Her religious convictions—indeed, her whole way of life—are challenged when her nephew and ideological foil Pepe Rey appears on the...

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