Characters of The Mayor of Zalamea: Analysis
Pedro Crespo
An old farmer appointed mayor of Zalamea. He has a son, Juan, and a daughter, Isabel. His character is dynamic, contradictory, highly complex, and continually changes as the action develops. He possesses a high sense of social honor but believes that, by natural law, peasants hold an inferior position to nobles. He is one of the greatest characters created in Spanish Golden Age drama. Almost all other characters exist primarily in relation to him, though this doesn’t mean they lack autonomy and individuality. However, their main function is to illuminate, sometimes by contrast, aspects of the protagonist’s complicated and enigmatic character. They exist to enable this initially almost monolithic character to become mythical, contradictory, and multidimensional. According to local tradition, his house is still preserved in Zalamea de la Serena.
Isabel
Isabel‘s character lacks great psychological depth. She does not emerge as a tragic figure; her undeserved tragedy evokes compassion from the audience, rather than the horror and admiration associated with true tragic effects. Her suffering highlights the wickedness of man, not the unfairness of the universe or society. Isabel is a victim, not a tragic figure. As the only daughter of Pedro Crespo, she appears infrequently in the first act, only twice, both times spurning the advances of suitors. She shows contempt for Don Mendo and later for the Captain. Isabel takes her role as a protector of the helpless lady very seriously. In the second act, she appears again as the dutiful daughter of Crespo and as a gracious and attentive hostess, offering to serve dinner to Don Lope.
Juan
Juan has as high a sense of social honor as his father, Pedro Crespo, but he does not seem to share his father’s view that peasants, by natural law, hold an inferior position to nobles. As cunning and proud as Crespo, Juan lacks his father’s prudence and dissimulation. With the character of Juan, Calderón has created an immature Pedro Crespo. Juan can be seen as representing a stage in the psychological and moral development of Pedro Crespo. Perhaps Crespo was similar in his youth and, like Juan, needed protection from himself. He shows clear envy towards the Captain in the first act.
Don Mendo
Don Mendo, the only nobleman character from Zalamea, is simply a parody of a gentleman with famous literary antecedents. He represents a concept of honor based purely on genealogy. Don Mendo is comparable to Don Quixote due to his odd figure. Don Mendo lives in a fantasy past where peasant women like Isabel surrender to gentlemen like him, only to be left in a convent when the gentleman tires of them. Ironically, Don Mendo‘s fantasy partly becomes reality through the Captain‘s actions: Isabel will indeed end her life in a convent. His use of clichés and hackneyed tropes of courtly love clearly presents him as an imitator of Don Quixote. Grotesque and comic, Don Mendo disappears midway through the second act, just as events begin to take a serious turn.