In The Trickster of Seville and His Guest of Stone, Tirso de Molina, a catholic monk, writes a play set in the 15th century in order to critique the aristocratic and patriarchal social order of the Golden Age of Spain. Molina focuses his play on the life of a sinner and the inescapable consequence that comes from living a sinful life. The protagonist of the play is Don Juan, a nobleman and womanizer who gets pleasure from dishonouring women by seducing them through trickery. Don Juan freely leaves multiple women in dishonour including the duchess Isabel, Thisbe, Amnita, a bride to be, and Ana. Being part of the nobility allows him to pleasure himself in taking women’s virtue without fearing punishments or lack of assistance from his lackey …show more content…
The injustice that occurs in the play depicts a corrupted society in which power feeds into corruption while religion gives civilians a sense of hope in justice. While Don Juan attempts to seduce Thisbe she repeatedly asks “god to not let it be a lie” (Ruiz 250). As she turns to God for honesty Molina shows how religion was perceived as a powerful channel in which people believed that their faith in God would grant them with blessings. Additionally, by Thisbe questioning Don Juan’s intentions Molina suggests that nobility was not the most honest or noble class in the social order. As Thisbe looks towards God to grant her a good life she also looks towards him for justice. Thisbe as well as Don Diego claim that Don Juan will be lead into damnation for his trickery. By both Thisbe, a common woman, and Don Diego, a noble, believing in the power of God Molina emphasizes how religion crossed the boundaries of social order and how people from both social groups strongly believed in His power to grant damnation or salvation. Molina ends the play with Don Juan being punished by God and being sent to hell for his sins while his lackey was spared his life. By ending the play in this manner Molina makes a statement that religion is powerful enough to trump corruption created by society, and the free will to make decisions will shape everyone’s destination after death regardless of their social standing on
Mattie is a woman who owns the Jesus Is Lord Used Tire shop and houses illegal immigrants in her home. Esperanza is in the hospital because she tried to commit suicide and Estevan is at Taylor’s house explaining why things are like this for him and his wife. He talks about their life in Guatemala and explains, “‘In Guatemala you are careful. If you want to change something you can find yourself dead’” (143). This quote from Estevan gives both Taylor and the readers a glimpse of what life was like for them in Guatemala. Mattie taking in Estevan and Esperanza puts an end to their suffering and looming death that was always present in Guatemala, even if her decision was not “right” in the eyes of law. Kingsolver further proves that morality comes over legality by showing how much better their lives have become in Mattie’s care. When Taylor and Estevan are sitting together at their picnic, they start talking about life now. Estevan explains how Mattie has created an amazing life for him and Esperanza here and how he enjoys his job. This shows that through Mattie’s morality, Estevan and Esperanza were able to live better lives. If Mattie had never brought them in and instead followed the law, they would have most likely been captured and killed in Guatemala because of the political corruption
The naiveté of the main characters actions parallel the types of people that exist in society today. Such people strive for much more than they can realistically aspire to be with the belief of the possibility of success obscuring their perspective. On the other hand, people erring on the side of caution, or rather, pessimism, have a less biased opinion and thus mold their actions to better accommodate the possible adverse aftermath. Unfortunately for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel, they had more in common with Don Quixote than the “Debbie Downers” of the world. Miguel de Cervantes alludes to the beginning of the gradual decline of Spain to point out that such optimism is prevalent in the everyday workings of society. During the late 1400s, the Spanish Monarchy, with the goal of spreading Christianity, outlawed the practice of Islam and Judaism, forcing followers of these “abominations” to flee. The grandeur of the aftereffects concealed the extent to which the so-called “Heretics” aided and catapulted Spain’s
In the plays female sexuality is not expressed variously through courtship, pregnancy, childbearing, and remarriage, as it is in the period. Instead it is narrowly defined and contained by the conventions of Petrarchan love and cuckoldry. The first idealizes women as a catalyst to male virtue, insisting on their absolute purity. The second fears and mistrusts them for their (usually fantasized) infidelity, an infidelity that requires their actual or temporary elimination from the world of men, which then re-forms [sic] itself around the certainty of men’s shared victimization (Neely 127).
In addition, this relationship illustrates the "cuckold" fear that is very pertinent during Shakespeare's time. Claudio is easily wooed into believing Don John's fabrication about Hero's infidelity. Since women were considered possessions, this infidelity is the ultimate betrayal and a mortal wound to Claudio's self esteem. In reality, Hero had remained the chaste and virtuous model of the Elizabethan woman. Source: Hays, Janice. "Those "soft and delicate desires": Much Ado and the Distrust of Women". Lenz, Carolyn Ruth Swift, Greene, Gayle, and Neely, Carol Thomas Ed., The Woman's Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. University of Illinois Press: Chicago, 1980.
One way in which Medieval women were undermined and subjugated to men was by being painted as untrustworthy temptresses, and the lady in Laustic, the unnamed lover in Lanval, and the Queen in Lanval are all portrayed as temptresses. For instance, the lady in Laustic spends all night looking over at her lover. She cannot go to the castle next door to see her lover, so instead, all night “The lady, at her window, higher,/Speaks, and looks, only desire.” From this passage we can see the sexual undertones of the story, with lady looking with desire at her lover. Elsewhere it explains that “They had all they wanted, at their leisure,/Except coming together alone, you know,/And going as far as they'd like to go,” clearly indicating the overt sexual nature of the woman’s desire for her lover and his for her. Lanval’s unnamed lover is even more overtly sexual, appearing scantily clad. The first time we meet her, the story tells, “In just ...
"The House of Bernarda Alba" is set in Spain in the 1940's. It is definitely a very dramatic and very tragic play. Bernarda Alba is the tyrannical mother of five girls: Angustias, Magdalena, Amelia, Martitio, and Adela. At the opening of the play, we find out that Bernarda's husband has died, and the family is supposed to be in mourning for eight years. The trouble is that only Magdalena actually loved her father. The main focus of this play is to show just how unfair and unjust life was for Women in Spain during this time. Of the five daughters there is only one man who fit the bill according to Bernarda. His name is Pepe el Romano. He is supposed to marry Angustias, simply because she is the oldest and that's the way things are supposed to be. She is also the one to inherit her father's money. Pepe would come to the house and meet with Angustias, but we soon find out that he had something going on with another sister. He would meet with Angustias for a little while and then go and spend time with Adela, the youngest and most attractive of the sisters. This comes out when the other sisters say they hear Pepe leave at four in the morning, but Angustias insists that she only talked with him unt...
Antonio’s dream of Rosie’s house, a local brothel, reveals his conflicting thoughts in becoming a priest and forebodes the sinful ways of his brothers. From the beginning of the novel, there has always been a certain assumption that Antonio will become a priest and follow in the footsteps of his mother’s family. His mother, who is a continual source of guidance and support, relentlessly reminds him that his future lies in priesthood. “You will be like my brothers. You will be a Luna, Antonio. You will be a man of the people, and perhaps a priest” (9). Furthermore, when the family goes to visit El Puerto, the town of his mother’s relatives, Antonio is reminded again of this family duty. Uncle Juan comments...
In the time of William Shakespeare where courtship and romance were often overshadowed by the need to marry for social betterment and to ensure inheritance, emerges a couple from Much Ado About Nothing, Hero and Claudio, who must not only grow as a couple, who faces deception and slander, but as individuals. Out of the couple, Claudio, a brave soldier respected by some of the highest ranked men during his time, Prince Don Pedro and the Governor of Messina, Leonato, has the most growing to do. Throughout the play, Claudio’s transformation from an immature, love-struck boy who believes gossip and allows himself to easily be manipulated is seen when he blossoms into a mature young man who admits to his mistakes and actually has the capacity to love the girl he has longed for.
...eying his influence, not necessarily love. Dignity was also a centralized theme in which the entire plot was based upon. Angela striped her family’s integrity from them when she slept with Santiago and her brothers regained it by killing the criminal. Garcia also used magical realism as the literary style to help conceive why the supernatural was perceived as the norm for the characters. An allegory, Garcia wove the crucifixion story into the novel. Santiago clothed in white linen, was killed in front of an unsupportive crowd, as well as stabbed in the hands first, exactly as Christ was. The presentation, in depth, enriched ,my understanding of the novel through knowledge of the Columbian culture, the novel’s time period, central themes, and magical realism.
In the play, Everyman, A.C. Cawley incorporates his view of belief regarding what happens to a person after death. The prime character, Everyman, runs into an angel from God, who reports to Everyman that he must go before God and account for all of the things that he has done on Earth. On Earth, though, Everyman lived as the world did and participated in secular things which are displeasing to God. Because of the way in which he ran his life, Everyman pled with the angel to let him stay on Earth for a lit...
Lope de Vega’s play touches upon several key components and ideas that were brought up in many of the other stories read throughout the semester. This included the role of gender and how men and women are viewed differently in the Spaniard town of Fuenteovejuna. Another topic included the importance of family, love, and relationships and their connection on loyalty, trust, and personal beliefs. The last major influence found in other literature and in Fuenteovejuna, were the political and religious references made throughout the play. Even though Lope de Vega didn’t make these views obvious, the reader could still pick up on their connotation and the references made towards these specific ideas. With all of this in mind, each of these components played an important role in each civilization read, and even over 1,000 years later it continues to be a social topic as well as a large part of the culture. The only difference a reader or scholar could make for this particular piece of literature is its authenticity and how it was based on a true event. Regardless, new views on power and how one obtain it become apparent through the dialogue between characters like Laurencia and the Commander.
In Miguel de Unamuno’s novella San Manuel Bueno, Martyr, readers learn about the life of Don Manuel, a Catholic priest secretly holding atheist beliefs and doubts in the afterlife. Despite these disbeliefs, Don Manuel works tirelessly to help his community and is regarded as a saint by all who meet him, hence the handle “San Manuel,” which literally translates to “Saint Manuel.” Don Manuel’s struggle and affiliation with sainthood receives further analysis and context from Francisco LaRubia-Prado, who parallels Unamuno’s novella to elements of Greek Tragedy and heroism. Drawing from Unamuno’s background with Ancient Greek playwriting and Sigmund Freud’s Totem and Taboo, LaRubia-Prado argues that Don Manuel should be seen as a representation of Christ and must suffer in silence in order to play the role of the dying, tragic hero that saves the
The play, set in the 1600’s during the witch hunt that sought to rid villages of presumed followers and bidders of the devil is a parallel story to the situation in the US in the 1950’s: McCarthyism, seeking the riddance of communist ideologists. Miller sets this story more particularly in a village called Salem, where the theocratic power governed by strict puritan rules require the people to be strong believers and forbid them to sin at risk of ending up in hell. However, the audience notices that despite this strong superficial belief in God, faith is not what truly motivates them, but it is rather money and reputation.
The play is so well written and the unknown author is given a unique name to its main lead Everyman to symbolize the simple human being. In this play the death is personified in a way which grabs the attention of the audiences and it attracts them to think it’s real instead of being fiction and the superb writing of the unknown author. The author talks about God’s (Jesus) death and g...
The elements of pastoral comedy in The Tempest are also linked to those of the masque. A natural man, Caliban, exists. So do a pair of noble young lovers, Ferdinand and Miranda, who are brought together in the pastoral setting of an island, unaffected by the corruptive influenc...