Spanish Baroque Comedy: Characteristics and Social Impact
Features of the New Spanish Baroque Comedy
New Comedy refers to the type of works that filled the stages of 17th-century Spanish cities. Despite the thousands of texts, some common patterns facilitated the rapid composition of works in compliance with preset molds. This was due to the incessant demand of the public of the time, explaining the huge fertility of 17th-century playwrights, with Lope de Vega at the forefront.
Breaking with Classical Conventions
In contrast to the classical separation of tragedy and comedy, these works could mix comic and tragic elements to the great satisfaction of the audience. They offered a greater range and spectacular failure of the three dramatic unities demanded by classical rhetoric:
- Unity of Place: Classical theory required that the work be developed in the same place or nearby places. This was often disregarded in New Comedy.
- Unity of Time: The argument was prescribed to last no longer than one day. New Comedy often extended the timeframe.
- Unity of Action: Classical theory established that all dramatized events were related to a central and unique event. New Comedy frequently incorporated subplots and diversions.
Recurring Character Archetypes
The characters that appear in the works constantly repeat, making it easier for viewers to immediately recognize them and for writers to create them easily. These characters often lack psychological complexity and behave as type characters whose attitudes and reactions are easily predictable. The most common are:
- The Gallant: Handsome and brave.
- The Lady: Beautiful and amorous.
- The Beard: An older man, sometimes the king.
- The Antagonist: Opposes the gallant.
- The Maid: Companion and confidant of the lady.
- The Servant: Confidant of the gallant, often playing the function of the gracioso.
The gracioso, besides being a character that allows the protagonist to talk and express their concerns, has several other functions:
- Creates comical moments that lower the cumulative dramatic tension.
- Serves as a funny or ironic counterpoint to his master, sometimes parodying him.
- Plays the role of narrator of events not staged.
- Occasionally has a very modern distancing function, warning the public that what they are seeing is not reality but literature.
The number of characters in a single work is often very large, even with minimal functions. The intention is to produce a sense of spectacle. This proliferation of characters would be corrected by Calderon and his followers, who made the characters multi-purpose.
Structure and Language
The need to maintain public attention may also explain the division into three acts or days of Spanish comedies, compared to the five acts of classical theater. The language of the comedies can also be explained by the popular nature of the audience. Therefore, it avoids overly cultured terms and non-biblical, mythological, or literary allusions.
Performance and Visual Elements
The importance of performing and visual elements in the representation of the comedies should also be stressed. Costumes had to be adapted to the characteristics of the characters. The scenes could be external or internal, and the sets, more or less detailed, were to announce it. Stage accessories could be complex at times. Music was also used. The strength of the poetic word served to arouse the interest of the people.
Themes
Human participation is of great importance in representation. The themes of Baroque comedies are varied:
- Religious
- Historical and Legendary
- Pastoral and Chivalric
- Romantic
- Folkloric
- Aggrieved Peasants
- Mythological
- Philosophical
Love comedies are the most frequent, usually with a restless atmosphere conducive to entanglement, with a profusion of complaints, quarrels, and jealousy. The theme of honor is also important in many of these works, conceived as a superior force that is superimposed on the desires of the characters and forces them to act according to predetermined rules.
Social Function of Baroque Theater
Baroque Theater defended the social system of the moment and, with some parallels to the mass media of entertainment today, served as an effective means of propaganda for the ideas that underpinned the social system. In addition, the comic element, sometimes very daring, had to work also as an outlet in a society with many difficulties, such as 17th-century Spain.