MARÍA ARACIL AND SACHA SAVAROF: TWO FEMALE CHARACTERS IN PÍO BAROJA’S NARRATIVE

Abstract

Pío Baroja has been considered by critics as a misogynist and a writer who has not created valuable female characters. This article aims to highlight the importance of the roles of two female figures who are also protagonists of three of his novels. These heroines are not static figures but, like the author’s other heroes, they move from one place to another. Baroja dedicates the first chapters to explain how the environment in which they grow determines their personality and, in the development of the young medical student Sacha Savarof, Schopenhauer's influence is observed. In the novels appear topics of interest for women such as education, female friendship or divorce; what places Baroja’s thought at the forefront of feminism.