An Analysis Of Miguel De Unamuno And San Manuel Bueno

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Religion, Greek Tragedy, and Heroism:
An analysis of Miguel de Unamuno & San Manuel Bueno, Martyr:
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 …show more content…

That is, Unamuno was a professor of Greek and would have been incredibly familiar with the patterns of Greek tragedy (LaRubia-Prado 223). LaRubia-Prado and Sigmund Freud would argue that while it is highly probable that Don Manuel is a parallel to Christ, Unamuno is mostly using Don Manuel’s struggle as another characteristic of the tragic hero. That is, as the tragic hero, Don Manuel couldn’t tell the villagers about his beliefs because his suffering was necessary in order to become “the redeemer of the chorus.” Moreover, according to LaRubia-Prado, Don Manuel’s tragic death has two effects: “it hides from the people the “crime” committed by their own birth, and second, it prevents them from committing the crime that Don Manuel himself committed – the crime that they would certainly commit, as humans, if they saw the face of God” (LaRubia-Prado

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