Characters and Synopsis of ‘El sí de las niñas’
Main Characters in *El sí de las niñas*
Don Diego is a pivotal character. He is a wealthy, well-educated, and generally good-natured 59-year-old man. He is also Don Carlos’s uncle and is intent on marrying Doña Francisca.
Don Carlos, Don Diego’s nephew, is a talented young man, a skilled soldier, and deeply in love with Doña Francisca. He is a lieutenant colonel stationed in Zaragoza but falls in love with Doña Francisca when he meets her in Guadalajara. He is sometimes referred to as Don Félix, a name he uses when revealing his identity to Doña Paquita.
Doña Irene is Doña Paquita’s mother. A widow who has had twenty-two children, she is a good and honorable woman. However, after three marriages, she is impoverished and seeks to marry her daughter to the wealthy, older Don Diego.
Doña Francisca is the daughter of Doña Irene. She is the young woman Don Diego intends to marry. Only sixteen years old, she has been raised by nuns in a convent in Guadalajara. She is lively, spontaneous, witty, humble, and very well-educated, always obeying her mother. She is in love with Don Carlos and is affectionately called Doña Paquita by her family and close friends.
Rita is Doña Irene’s maid. She supports Doña Paquita and is her close friend.
Simón is Don Diego’s servant. He is a good, educated man of great loyalty.
Calamocha is Don Carlos’s attendant. He is a worldly, somewhat impulsive, and eccentric man. He is friends with Rita.
These characters can be divided into principal (Don Diego, Doña Francisca, Don Carlos, and Doña Irene) and secondary (Rita, Simón, and Calamocha).
Leandro Fernández de Moratín: Life and Works
Leandro Fernández de Moratín was born in Madrid on March 10, 1760. He was the son of the poet and playwright Nicolás Fernández de Moratín. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, particularly France, and belonged to a small group of learned Spaniards. During the War of Independence, he sided with Joseph Bonaparte and served as chief librarian. After the French were defeated, he was exiled to France and died in Paris on June 21, 1828.
His love life significantly influenced his literary career. His first love, Sabina Conti, ended up marrying an older man. He later had an affair with Paquita Muñoz, who also married an older military man.
Fernández de Moratín was known for being an intelligent and cultivated man, albeit introverted and complex. Trained in French culture and aesthetics, he was a pro-French Neoclassical advocate. Like other enlightened thinkers, he admired France and believed it could inspire Spain to overcome its poverty and cultural backwardness.
He initially gained prominence as a poet with works like the heroic romance *The Conquest of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs* and the poetic lesson *Satire Against the Vices Introduced in Castilian Poetry*, which earned him two consolation prizes from the Royal Academy of Language. Moratín’s literary fame stems from his satirical Neoclassical comedies, such as *Old and Girls* (1790), *The New Comedy* (1792), *Baron* (1803), *The Prude* (1804), and his best-known work, *El sí de las niñas* (*The Maidens’ Consent*) (1806).