SOURCE: Whitenack, Judith A. “‘Bonifacio y Dorotea’ and the Merchandising of Love.” Hispanic Review 58, no. 1 (winter 1990): 57-71.

In the following essay, Whitenack examines the tale Bonifacio y Dorotea in Guzmán de Alfarache, concluding that mercantile interests are of far greater importance to themes in the narration than Guzmán's sexual deviancy.

It is no news for readers of Guzmán de Alfarache that Guzmán's wife, mother and grandmother were all prostitutes. We also know that Guzmán, following the pattern set by the man who was probably his father, lived for a time on his wife Gracia's earnings and even acted as her alcahuete. Indeed, Guzmán's unsavory relationships with women from early childhood on have given rise to various psychoanalytical analyses of his warped sexuality and his possible homosexual inclinations (Brancaforte; Cros; Johnson). I do not disagree entirely with these interpretations, but I consider Guzm...