Spanish Romanticism: Authors, Theater, and Historical Novels
The Historical Novel in 19th-Century Spain
In the mid-nineteenth century, the historical novel was the literary genre in fashion. Many authors followed in the footsteps of Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and especially Walter Scott, whose works, optimistic and encouraging the empowerment of the actors, fit perfectly within the liberal ideology.
In the historical novels of Spanish Romanticism, the selection of cases was usually guided by the ability to draw parallels with contemporary problems. The extensive list of works that have medieval gangs fighting in the background, for example, evidently related to the Carlist Wars, in the same way that the frequent occurrence of problems arising from the dissolution of the Order of the Temple has to do with secularization processes undertaken by the liberal state.
The genre evolved into increasingly detailed atmospheres. The increasing and more critical use of historical sources helped give credibility and strength to the fabric of the stories, but also very often tended to fall into mere exercises in style and overly archaeological reconstructions.
Modeled after Scott, the narratives tended to be staged by imaginary characters backed by other, secondary characters drawn from historical documentation. However, it was not uncommon to see glaring anachronisms in their behavior, especially when they revealed their moods.
Another feature of the Spanish historical novel of romance is the tendency of the narrator to introduce their own opinions into the story, preventing the reader from becoming a theatrical audience, interfering in the events, which, incidentally, generated an inevitable separation between past and present.
Mariano José de Larra (1809-1837)
Mariano José de Larra was a Spanish Romantic writer and journalist famous for his brilliant portraits of life and Spanish society of his time. Larra was born in Madrid during the French occupation and spent his early years in Bordeaux, where his father, a military surgeon who had collaborated with the invaders, took refuge after the defeat of the French in 1812. After the amnesty of 1818, the family returned to Madrid, and his father became the personal physician to the brother of Fernando VII. Larra studied at a Jesuit college and completed his training in Valencia and Valladolid.
He began a brilliant career as a journalist, first in two newspapers of his own, El Duende Satírico del Día (1828) and El Pobrecito Hablador (1832-1833), and later worked as a theater critic with the Revista Española, where he signed his articles under the pseudonym of Figaro. He became one of the most famous and highest-paid journalists in the country and contributed to various publications in addition to writing the novel The Youth of Prince Henry the Sufferer (1834) and the drama Macías (1834). He also translated several French plays.
Larra is best known for his Articles of Customs and Scenes of Spanish Life. These articles, typically characteristic of the time, were imbued with nostalgia. Larra, by contrast, used the genre to produce a series of tremendously satirical portraits of society, which displayed his talent for describing journalistic complacency, hypocrisy, emptiness, and corruption of Spanish society. Influenced by French neoclassicism, his life became, however, a symbol of romantic confusion. He was bitterly unhappy in love; in love with a woman who later proved to be his father’s mistress, he lived an unhappy marriage and committed suicide after a failed adulterous romance at age 28. Although Larra offers a very pessimistic view of Spanish life, his irritation responds to the love he felt for his country. He is one of the foremost writers of the nineteenth century, both for his vision of life and for the literary quality of his writing. Sixty years after his death, the Generation of ’98 made Larra the harbinger of this literary movement.
The Duke of Rivas (1791-1865)
Don Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, was born in Córdoba. Like Martínez de la Rosa, he was first neoclassical in his youth and romantic after his exile to France. He had to leave Spain because of his liberal ideas. He was in England, France, and Malta. He met John Hookham Frere in Malta, who induced him to become interested in Spanish literature of the Golden Age. This influence is noticed in his works:
- The Lighthouse of Malta
- The Moorish Foundling
His most important work, Don Álvaro, or the Force of Destiny, which premiered in Spain in 1835, definitely consolidated the Romantic movement.
The Triumph of Romanticism in Spanish Theater
Neoclassical theater was unable to permeate the tastes of the Spanish. In the early nineteenth century, works of the Golden Age were applauded. These works were neglected by neoclassicists for not being subject to the rule of three unities (action, location, and time) and for mixing the comic with the dramatic. But those works attracted attention outside Spain precisely because they did not submit to the neoclassical ideal.
Romanticism triumphed in the Spanish theater with The Conspiracy of Venice by Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, Il Trovatore by Antonio García Gutiérrez, and Los Amantes de Teruel by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch. But the key year was 1835, when Don Álvaro, or the Force of Destiny by the Duke of Rivas (1791-1865) premiered. The most cultivated genre was drama. All the works contained lyrical, dramatic, and romantic elements. Freedom prevailed in the theater in all aspects:
Structure
- The rule of three unities, attached to the Enlightenment, disappeared.
- Dramas tended to have five acts in verse or in prose and verse mixed, with varied metrics.
- Stage directions were abundant, unlike in neoclassical works.
- The monologue gained new strength as the best means to express the internal struggles of the characters.
Scenarios
- The action gained theatrical dynamism with a variety of locations used in the same representation.
- Authors based their works on typical romantic places, like cemeteries, ruins, lonely landscapes, prisons, etc.
- Nature was consistent with the feelings and moods of the characters.
Theme
- Romantic drama preferred classic, adventurous, chivalrous, or national historic themes, with love and freedom as standards.
- Night scenes, challenges, hidden characters, mysterious suicides, and samples of gallantry or cynicism abounded.
- Events unfolded at a breathtaking pace.
- The works did not aspire to lecture, as claimed by neoclassical works, but to move.
Characters
- The number of characters in the works increased.
- The male hero was often mysterious and bold.
- The heroine was innocent and faithful, with a passionate intensity.
- Both were marked for doom. Death was liberation.
- More importance was given to the vitality of the actions than to the analysis of the psychology of the characters.