Spanish Plays: English Translation - Essay Example

Farzeela Spanish Plays Dec-6th- 2005 Spanish Plays: English Translation Pedro Calderon de la Barca was one of the greatest Spanish playwrights of the Golden Age. Among his well-known dramas of the modern age are El medico de su honra (1635; The Surgeon of His Honor), La vida es sueno (1635; Life Is a Dream), El alcalde de Zalamea (1640; The Mayor of Zalamea), and La hija del aire (1653; The Daughter of the Air). He was a man who possessed his own religious, philosophical and methodological themes, which are reflected in his masterpiece. His work mainly portrays and revolves around three protagonists, out of which we are going to discuss and differentiate between one: Men and Women Classes God and Man Tirso de Molina: El Burlador de Sevilla - The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest Tirso, being a devout priest portrayed a character reflecting Satan and evidently realized that his Don Juan character was too supernatural in power and deftness to fulfill any role as a warning to the simple mortals in the audience who might also enjoy tricking women. Tirso therefore reversed the ethical emphasis of his play to show a morally degenerate society-his society that ignores the fundamental issue of why such a creature could so successfully operate in its midst. The drama’s message is therefore directed to everyone in the audience to observe and learn a lesson from a simple theme that good ends up in a good result while bad always ends up worst. “As a man soweth, so shall he reap (‘quien tal hace que tal pague’)”. If the theatergoers see the social corruption on stage as a reflection of their own environment, then perhaps out of moral shame and self-respect they will try to remedy the situation and make their society one in which the Don Juan type cannot operate. This appears to be the fundamental moral lesson of the drama for it speaks to the whole of society and not just to a few isolated members. In the play of “The Trickster of Seville and the stone guest” the conflict I would like to discuss is between Don Juan and God or between good and evil, which has started right from the day God created Adam and is till on its way. In this sense the conflict seems to be between man and Satan so it would be wrong to say that conflict between Satan and God has resolved. However in this play, Don Juan acts as an adversary of God tries to convict humans but still has presented himself a super natural power which more or less resembles the evil, as he is devilish in his nature so called “a man without a name,” an elemental and biological force in nature who, through the use of darkness, self-effacement, and lies, deceives the unsuspecting female. He is clearly also the master of disguise, being able to impersonate the voice and body of others to such a degree that the female is totally unaware of the deception. The conflict in this play actually revolves around the character of Don Juan as a Satan who employs the same evil methodology in virtually every situation. He lies, uses the cover of darkness, and works on the moral weaknesses of others to achieve his own ends. He could not have seduced Isabela if she had not wanted to be seduced, as it is his perception that unless and until the person itself does not want, he is unable to serve him, the same perception which Satan possess. The devil is universally known as the Prince of Darkness, and Don Juan always carries out his seductions in the dark. In Catholic theology, Lucifer is the master of disguise who, as an incubus (a demon who formerly believed to have sexual intercourse) takes human form to seduce unsuspecting women. He is the lord of the natural universe because, although God ejected him from Heaven, he retains on earth all of his angelic powers. Furthermore, Lucifer is allowed to function so freely because God uses him as an instrument for measuring His justice. In an analogical manner, Don Juan Tenorio is a part of the divine plan of justice. He punishes Isabela for succumbing to her lustful appetites, as he will punish the other women he meets for their particular sins. Christian theology also emphasizes that the devil cannot deceive anyone without that person’s expressed consent; any other theological position would give to Satan the power to force a person’s will. The sinner must therefore open the door to Satan, precisely as Isabela and the other three girls freely admit Don Juan into their bedchambers. Of most importance to the structure of El burlador de Sevilla, Satan is considered to be so powerful that, according to Church doctrine, nemo contra diabolum nisi Deus ipse (No one can conquer the devil but God himself). Likewise, no mortal in the drama is able to stop the destructive force of Don Juan; so God sends an immortal creature to punish the miscreant. This theology of the devil is one of the most salient reasons Tirso attached the statue episode to his play. In the end Don Juan is punished by the only person capable of punishing him, an agent of God. Throughout the play, Tirso has characterized his protagonist as a personification of the devil, supremely beautiful, a prince of darkness, more powerful than any mere mortal, and capable of bringing total chaos to a corrupt society who by its sins allows him to operate in its midst. This absolute power is what gives Don Juan his mythic aura. He is wholly evil, without a taint of saving grace, but the heroic dimensions that always accompany a figure more powerful than his contemporaries cause the spectators to view Don Juan with a sense of awe and fearful respect. The protagonist is finally destroyed-as he must be, since he would eventually have destroyed all of the society by the one person more powerful than himself. (http://www4.gvsu.edu/wrightd/HNR215%20and%20216C/Trickster%20of%20Seville.htm) Pedro Calderon: El alcalde de Zalamea – The Mayor of Zalamea Calderon in his work is very conscious to make “fortunate” use of human passions and emotional attitudes and beliefs, often in the form of “accidental occurrences” with symbolic stage support, in order to advance his dramatic argument. Popular in the seventeenth century but somewhat in the today’s era one would found it disgusting that Calderon’s plays, which carry to an illogical and sometimes morbid extreme the “point of honor.” By honor Calderon means “a very touchy sentiment of marital honor, which is marked by the least breath of doubt. Honor is therefore in this case synonymous with reputation.” In such plays the author assumes “that a husband has the right to kill, not only a more or less guilty lover, but even an absolutely innocent wife, whose fair fame chance has beclouded with a suspicion of infirmity or sin.” The brother of a maiden is bound by much the same code. The Mayor of Zalamea borders on this theme. (http://www.siue.edu/~jbueno/COURSES/FL111C/AIDS/Topical_Index/litera.htm) Calderon is perhaps best known for his plays of honor and revenge. In The Mayor of Zalamea, the captain of a visiting troop of soldiers, Don Alvaro certain of his bad consequences, abducts the daughter of a wealthy farmer (Pedro Crespo) and rapes her (Isabel). Crespo is determined to avenge his honor, but before he is able to do so, he is elected due to his good reputation, mayor and magistrate of Zalamea. Forced to place justice above revenge, he goes to Alvaro and humiliates himself by begging him to marry Isabel and restore her honor. Over here we can see that instead of taking an immediate revenge the father preferred to talk to the culprit. As a villain of the play Alvaro contemptuously refuses, and Crespo arrests him. A dispute developed between Crespo and Don Lope de Figueroa, Alvaro’s s general, who threatened to storm the prison and free Alvaro. Violence is turned away by the arrival of King Philip II. The King listened to the case and demanded to see Alvaro, but Crespo has already had him executed. Impressed by Crespo’s steadfastness and agreeing that the penalty was just, the King appoints Crespo mayor for life. (www.4-wall.com/authors/authors_c/calderon/mayor_zalamea.htm) So in this play Pedro has portrayed the conflict between Crespo and Alvaro as well as between Isabel and Alvaro. But the major conflict of the play on which Pedro has focused is the dispute between a father and a rapist, as the father’s revenge might seem understandable to our modern sensibilities, and is established as a matter of common sense and goes on until and unless Crespo punishes Alvaro for the reason of not marrying her daughter, a daughter whom he has exploited. Another aspect of the play, which can be viewed from a different or religious point of view, is the dispute between God and Alvaro, though seem unnoticeable it is God who through Crespo made it possible to punish Alvaro for the sin he committed and further to resolve the conflict He send King to handle the case in favor of the farmer. Calderon has also dealt with honor and revenge in a trio of wife-murder plays in which it may be more difficult to identify with the agent of vengeance. In each of these plays, the wife is murdered either directly or indirectly by the husband who suspects her of infidelity and wishes to restore his lost honor. (http://coloquio.com/famosos/calderon.htm) Thus it can be seen from the reference of both the plays that the nature of conflict was almost the same, “Between Good and Bad” and therefore the resolution was also to some extent the same, i.e., by punishment of the “bad”. Work Cited 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Read More