Tirso de Molina and Calderón de la Barca: Key Works & Themes
La Dama Boba
La Dama Boba is a swashbuckling comedy known for its urban setting and abundance of comic artifice, including misunderstandings, letters read by unintended recipients, and improbable coincidences.
Nise and Finea are beautiful sisters, but Nise is intelligent, while Finea is considered simple. Laurencio, a poet, prefers Finea for her dowry. Another suitor, Liseo, a nobleman chosen for Finea, is loved by Nise. Love transforms La Dama Boba, though she pretends to remain unchanged. Ultimately, the relationships are resolved: Nise is accepted by Liseo, and Finea marries Laurencio.
Tirso de Molina
Tirso de Molina (1579-1648), a prominent disciple of Lope de Vega, was highly influential in the first quarter of the 17th century.
Key Features of Tirso de Molina’s Works
In his works, Tirso followed Lope’s model and defended the new comedy, incorporating elements of intellectual and psychological insight.
His dramas are particularly notable for their concern with the status of women. Like Lope’s heroines, Tirso’s female characters are characterized by their courage, boldness, and remarkable intelligence. Tirso is considered a master of the sitcom and creator of memorable characters. His works often contain a high degree of political criticism aimed at the government and the corruption of the court.
Key Plays by Tirso de Molina
- Comedies
- Palatial comedies
- Biblical dramas
- Comedies of saints
- Tragicomedy
- Mythological comedy
- Mystery plays
The Trickster of Seville
This myth has generated a long lineage in Spanish and universal literature. Thematically, this drama is divided into two stages:
Don Juan Tenorio’s Delusions
Don Juan deceives four women: two nobles and two commoners.
Key Episodes
- Double Invitation: Don Juan invites the funerary statue of the Commander to dinner, and the statue returns the invitation to dine in the chapel.
- Punishment: Don Juan attends the event and receives his sentence, dying and sinking into hell.
Calderón de la Barca
Calderón de la Barca’s (1600-1681) production can be divided into two stages: early works for the stage and later, more spectacular dramas. He wrote works for the palace and mystery plays.
Key Features of Calderón de la Barca’s Works
His works reflect concern about religious, ethical, and moral issues.
Calderonian dramas have a high intellectual tone and great complexity.
Calderón focused on serious drama, emphasizing the exploration of themes over their resolution. He offers a pessimistic view of human nature and focuses on the confrontation between reason and passion, intellect and instinct, understanding and will.
The comic figure becomes more complex: serious works lose the ability to elicit laughter, and the comic element is offset by other characters. Lyrical elements, such as music, are inseparable from the action. His poetic language covers a wide range, from Petrarchan to loving and serious.
Key Plays by Calderón de la Barca
- Life is a Dream
The play explores the story of Prince Sigismund, imprisoned in a tower since childhood, unaware of his identity or the reason for his confinement. Upon awakening, he questions whether his experiences are reality or a dream. Released by a popular revolt, Sigismund forgives his father and resolves to be a righteous king.
The fundamental themes of the work include purpose, free will, life as a dream, self-control, power, and justice.
- The Mayor of Zalamea
This play dramatizes an alleged incident in 1580, during the Duke of Alba’s regiment’s march to Lisbon.
The Mayor of Zalamea explores the themes of justice and the impunity of the nobility.
- The Doctor in His Honor
The Doctor in His Honor is one of the honor dramas in which a husband, suspecting his wife’s fidelity, kills her to repair the perceived insult, leading to mutual destruction.
- La Dama Duende (The Phantom Lady)
This work exhibits the characteristics of a swashbuckling comedy: temporal and spatial restriction, a contemporary setting for the viewer, acts of love and jealousy, simulations, and entanglements.