The Legends of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Monte de las Animas
This legend tells the story of what happened in the Monte de las Animas, located on the outskirts of Soria, on the banks of the Duero River. Legend has it that it happened to a young man named Alonso who was trying to please his cousin. The story takes place in the Middle Ages and is told from Alonso’s perspective within the work.
It can be said that at the time of the narration, the character is recalling some facts that he himself knew in detail. Then, a flashback occurs, recalling a story that happened prior to the time they are living. This memory spans twenty-four hours, from morning until dawn the next day.
Characters
Alonso
Heir to the land where the story unfolds. He is an innocent young boy in love with the beautiful Beatrice. He dies trying to please her by searching for a lost object of hers.
Beatrice
Alonso’s cousin and the daughter of the Counts of Borges. She is a beautiful young woman who appears to be cold and calculating, capable of manipulating Alonso.
Other Characters
Counts, servants, hunters, Templars, and gentlemen.
Moonbeam
This legend is set in Soria. In it, we can distinguish various themes: Love, Dream, and Fantasy, all intertwined with the intangible woman.
Manrique loves solitude. He is a poet who retires to a secluded place to write or read, where his imagination makes him see fairies. This is how he discovers his “beloved.” He descends into madness as the story progresses until he is finally “disillusioned.”
Plot
Approach
On a moonlit night, Manrique reaches the cloister, chasing a beautiful woman. He calls out to where he thought she was, the woman of his dreams, but she is not there.
Node
He leaves the cloister and heads towards the mall, where he seems to see the reflection of his beloved’s suit running. Suddenly, it stops.
Outcome
He discovers that what he was chasing was a moonbeam.
The Kiss
During the War of Independence (1808-1814), a young officer of dragoons in the French army is staying with his troops in a former convent in the city of Toledo. The first night, the officer finds a statue of a lady named Elvira Castañeda kneeling in devout prayer in the chapel of the dilapidated building. The officer is immediately entranced by the marble beauty of the lady. Beside her is the statue of her husband in the same prayerful attitude. From that moment, a feeling akin to jealousy invades the officer.
The next day, he tells his fellow soldiers about his infatuation and invites them to an evening party where, besides meeting his “lady,” they can enjoy champagne. At night, they all go to the convent and light a bonfire to keep warm. The officer shows them the statue of his dreams, and everyone praises its beauty. Then they start drinking and singing. When the drink has taken effect, the young man goes to the statue of the husband and throws his glass in its face as a challenge.
Then he goes to the lady with the intention of kissing her. The soldiers look on in horror as the stone knight delivers a fatal blow with his gloved hand to the officer.
Maese Perez, the Organist
The story takes place in Seville, in the convent of Santa Inés. The protagonist is the organist Maese Pérez, who was blind from birth, but this was not an obstacle to his playing the organ. He had few friends, and his only family was his daughter. People loved to go and hear him play because he played very heavenly music.
He played so well that the Archbishop of Seville proposed that he go to the cathedral to play at midnight mass. Maese Pérez became very ill, and as Christmas approached, seeing that he was about to die, he wanted to be taken to his church to be able to play one last time.
The Archbishop appointed a substitute to play in his place (who was very jealous). As Maese Pérez had asked, he was taken to play at the cathedral on Christmas Eve. The following year, the substitute played, but not very well, and it was incomparable to the blind man’s playing. That same day, to everyone’s surprise, a very beautiful melody sounded in the convent where the old man used to play, but no one was sitting at the organ playing the instrument. It was the spirit of Maese Pérez who played that day. This miracle was repeated until the body decomposed.
Green Eyes
This legend seems to be a duplicate of “Maese Perez, the Organist.”
The Gold Bangle
This legend also seems to be a duplicate of “Maese Perez, the Organist.”
The White Deer
This legend is set in Aragon in the Middle Ages. It features an Aragonese nobleman, Don Dinis, who had a daughter, Constance, with a personal servant named Garcés. One day, after finishing a hunt, they all gathered under some trees. A young man told Don Dinis that he was not quite right because he thought that all the deer were against him. One day, while looking for deer, a group of Corzas appeared, led by a white doe, and he fled in panic. Everyone laughed, except Esteban Garcés, who could not stop thinking about the story of the white deer.
Garcés loved Constance and thought that if he caught the white deer for her, she would fall into his arms. He left the castle armed, thinking that he would catch his prey. After battling the elements, he spied the white doe with her herd caught in a thicket. Garcés shot an arrow and hit the target, but in reality, it was Constance who had been disguised as the deer.
Topic
“The transformation that death causes becomes love.”
The Skull of Christ
This legend is part of the Reconquista and is set in Toledo. The main characters are Agnes, Alonso, and Lopez.
Alonso and Lopez have been friends since childhood, and both are in love with the same person, Agnes. The two begin to compete to show who deserves her. At one point, Inés drops a glove on the ground, and both Alonso and Lopez catch it, one at each end. The king arrives and prevents them from fighting over the glove and gives it to Agnes.
A party is held to celebrate the departure of the troops to war the next day. At the end of the party, Lopez and Alonso leave to fight a duel to the death. At first, they look for a place with light to fight until they find a lantern that illuminates a Christ with a skull at its foot (hence the name of this legend). When they try to start the duel, the light goes out, and they decide to leave, but the light turns on again (and so on repeatedly). At this moment, they both come to the same conclusion: that God does not want them to fight. They decide to go to the Palace so that Inés can decide which of them will stay, but they find a surprise: Agnes is with another lover. Alonso and Lopez must inform all the soldiers, who react by laughing at Agnes.
The Miserere
A man finds a book in an abbey. While reading the book, the man discovers a word on the edge of a page whose meaning he does not know, so he asks an old man about its meaning. The old man recognizes the word and tells the “researcher” an old legend.
He says that some time ago, a man entered the abbey seeking shelter and a piece of bread. Those who lived in the abbey did not have any problem with this since it was practically their job. At dinner, the monks began to ask the newcomer questions. He answered almost every question until they reached one that he could not answer: “What do you do?” The man replied that he was a musician and that at that time he was finishing the Miserere so that the Lord would forgive all his sins. Upon hearing this, one of the monks gathered there told him that his work was done because in that monastery in the mountains, they had heard the dead monks sing the Miserere every night. The musician decided to climb to the monastery and take notes to complete the score.
He was already inside the monastery when he saw that it was in ruins, and only the skeletons of the monks climbed up the mountainside to stand in a line to sing the song. The stunned man tried to stay alert to hear the result of so many years of work, but when the monks were on verse 10, a great flash left him frozen and unconscious. When he awoke the next day, he went down the mountain to reach the abbey and sought refuge there to write the Miserere. He wrote down everything he heard, but when he tried to write the ending, it was impossible. He wrote many drafts but could not finish it. Such was his frustration that he died mad.
Features
Bécquer’s work is characterized by social criticism, and the structure of his work conveys a sense of the “absurd.” It is characterized by action, as it is a realistic style characterized by the description of the characters and society.
- Gives more importance to feelings than reason.
- Expresses the most intimate emotions freely, giving priority to melancholy and despair.
Literary Genre (Lyric Poetry)
- Introspection and expression of the author’s feelings.
- Requires an effort of interpretation from the reader.
- Most lyric poems are characterized by their brevity.
- Subjective.
- Expressed with great frequency in the 1st person.
- Use of literary or stylistic devices (for more beautiful speech).
Realistic Fiction
- The main theme of the novel is the conflict between the individual and society.
- It seeks to understand the reason for the character’s marginalization within society.
- The center of the novel is the character who embodies and expresses the general characteristics of a social group.
- Many settings (mostly folkloric); meetings in casinos, street rallies, festivals, etc.
- It is a total representation of life, eliminating the fantastic.
- The author shows the misery and human interests of the time, becoming critical and judgmental, trying to improve society.
Theme
Mainly derived from the bourgeois mentality: power, money, social influence, or political issues of the day.
Characters
They reflect the changes and social tensions: workers, beggars, politicians, and the middle class.
Bécquer’s Life and Historical Context
- Poet
- Author of stories and legends
- Journalist
- Biographer
- Playwright
- Historian
- Literary and theater critic
Bécquer was a sentimental author characteristic of Romanticism or the Second Period, also known as late Romanticism. It was an absolutely hectic century, a characteristic that is reflected in the romantic authors.
- Romanticism: It can be defined as a movement against neo-classicism, which gives preference to feelings.
Born in Seville in 1836 and died in Madrid in 1870, shortly after the death of his brother Valeriano.
The life of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer spans from shortly after the beginning of the regency of Queen Maria Cristina (wife of Fernando VII and mother of Elizabeth II) until the mid-six-year period or Revolutionary Liberal.
- Sexenio Liberal: This is the revolution that leads to the final overthrow of Isabel II and causes a period of six years without real power of the Bourbons, from 1868 until 1874.
Bécquer was the one who saw the link between what poetry would become (he makes a great twist, typical of Baroque poetry).
He is also characterized by a Banal Poetry, i.e., having little value or importance due to its lack of content.
Bécquer perfectly internalized the romantic mind, in which poetry was a fantasy and internalization of what he wanted, not the living, the excitement of fantasy and imagination. Bécquer was a formal romantic, i.e., present only in the form of rebellion and literary aesthetics. His art, with the most dramatic break (it in). It reflects the struggle of society and breaks with the classical forms, as opposed to looking at the opposite lines. Narrators blend different levels.
Despite his short life, Bécquer has left a very important legacy for the future, becoming a major exponent of Romanticism. Perhaps, he was one of the last of this literary movement.