Romantic Literature: A Deep Dive into Spanish Romanticism
Romantic Literature
Historical Themes
The Romantic period saw the emergence of exotic and literary characters from the Arab world, such as Don Juan and Don Quixote.
Feelings
Love
Love was portrayed as sentimental, dreamy, melancholic, and passionate.
Women
- The “angel of love”: sweet, innocent, beautiful, and perverse.
- The victim: vengeful and destructive.
Life
The Romantic man, in his search for an impossible dream, struggles to adapt to reality. This leads to anxiety, contempt for life, dangerous adventures, heroic dreams, and even the desire for death.
Social Conflicts
Romantic artists reflected social and political conflicts, often portraying marginalized characters like pirates and beggars as symbols of freedom.
Romantic Poetry
Two Stages
Triumphant and Combative Stage
This stage, marked by fervent and emotional poems, is exemplified by José de Espronceda.
Post-Romantic Stage
As Romanticism declined in Europe, the rhetorical tone and excesses were abandoned. This stage, characterized by more subjective and expressive poetry, is represented by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer and Rosalía de Castro.
José de Espronceda
Work
Espronceda, a representative of liberal Romanticism, cultivated various genres, including the epic poem El Pelayo, the historical novel Sancho Saldaña, and historical theater with Blanca de Borbón. He is best known for his lyric poetry, particularly El Estudiante de Salamanca and the unfinished El Diablo Mundo.
El Estudiante de Salamanca tells the story of Félix de Montemar, whose abandonment of Doña Elvira leads to her death. Don Félix is then pursued by a lady in white, who is revealed to be Death. He witnesses his own funeral and dances with skeletons in a crypt.
El Diablo Mundo, an unfinished epic of human life, comprises over 8,000 verses.
Style
Espronceda’s style is characterized by a variety of meters and stanzas, exclamations, rhetorical questions, anaphora, bimembrations, antithesis, and imagery drawn from visions, dreams, and nightmares.
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Prose
Bécquer’s prose is best represented by two works:
- Legends: Twenty-eight stories with Romantic themes such as impossible love, mystery, the supernatural, exoticism, and social customs.
- Letters from My Cell: Written during a stay at the Veruela monastery.
Rimas
Bécquer’s Rimas are 74 short, generally assonant poems in varied meters. Originally titled Book of the Sparrows, they were published posthumously by friends in 1871.
Themes of the Rimas
- I-XI: Poetry itself.
- XII-XXIX: Feminine beauty and love.
- XXX-LI: Melancholy, anger, and despair.
- LII-LXXIV: Loneliness and death.
Style
- Brevity and intimate tone.
- Repetitive structure.
- Imagery and similes based on nature.
- Use of dialogues.
- Predominance of assonance.
Poetic Ideas
Bécquer distinguished between two types of poetry: one that seduces with harmony and beauty, and another that is short, direct, and flows from the soul.
Rosalía de Castro
Work
In Cantares Gallegos, Rosalía de Castro champions the Galician language, celebrating the landscape, customs, and people. She also addresses social problems like male emigration and women’s labor. Follas Novas continues these themes. In En las Orillas del Sar (written in Castilian), the outside world serves only to remind the poetic voice of loneliness and sorrow.
Romantic Prose
Mariano José de Larra
Work
Larra wrote over 200 articles, a historical novel (El doncel de Don Enrique el Doliente), and a tragedy (Macías).
Newspaper Articles
Larra, one of the first Spanish writers to make a living from his writing, produced clear and rigorous prose, often reflecting the political demands of his time. He criticized absolutism and Carlism, mocked ignorant society, and rejected traditional family values.
Romantic Theater
Characteristics
Themes
Romantic drama often explored conflicts between love, honor, and destiny, incorporating historical, chivalrous, and legendary elements.
Rejection of Neoclassical Rules
- Multiple simultaneous actions.
- Varied locations and time periods.
- Mix of tragedy and comedy.
- Exciting scenes: nocturnal settings, gloomy landscapes, ruins, cemeteries, fights, challenges, and death.
Characters
- The Romantic hero: virile, handsome, defiant, passionate, melancholic, and often overwhelmed by destiny.
- The Romantic heroine: beautiful, fragile, passionate, pure, innocent, and often a melancholic victim.
Form
Romantic plays typically featured five acts, polymetric verse, and a mix of verse and prose.
Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino by the Duke of Rivas
Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, a Cordoba aristocrat educated in Neoclassicism, embraced Romanticism during exile in England. The premiere of Don Álvaro caused a scandal but marked the triumph of Romanticism in Spain. The play’s irregular structure, mixing prose and verse, popular scenes with refined atmosphere, and the passionate character of Leonor, exemplify Romantic drama.
Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla
José Zorrilla’s Don Juan Tenorio remains enduringly popular. It develops the myth of Don Juan, the libertine and seducer, who disregards human and divine law. Zorrilla’s Don Juan is unique in that his love for a novice leads him to repent and achieve salvation.