THE MOCLADOR DE SEVILLA
Introduction
The mocker of Seville, is a work that highlights the importance of justice and honor in people’s lives. Without justice, life did not have an order and all people did what they wanted even if they caused others and without honor people would not have any value because it is this that makes us feel valuable. That is why justice always fights in favor of honor in this work. Also in this work Don Juan shows us several characteristics of that time.
Developing
Don Juan personifies a Sevillian legend that inspired many authors. He is a libertine who believes in divine justice (there is no term that is not fulfilled or debt that is not paid) but that trusts that He can repent and be forgiven before appearing before God (how long do you trust me!). If we also remember that the mocker of Seville was published in 1630 we can conclude that it is a work whose vocation is moralizing, and could have been conceived in response to the theory of Don Juan’s predestination, according to which salvation and entry into the kingdom Of the heavens it has already been determined by God since the birth of one, given by grace through Christ and received only by faith, so that the acts are not decisive for the salvation of souls.
A lot has been speculated about the possible inspiration in a real character, and Miguel Mañara has been pointed out as the main candidate. However, if we accept the majority opinion regarding authorship and the date you will not be able to consider Don Juan’s character inspired by Mañara’s life, since he was born in 1627 and the work was edited only three years later. Moreover, a preceding version of the mocking.
Splendor and advertising that accompany honor in the seventeenth century are an effective social mechanism that shows the way in which the individual and society are related. Their actions are permanently questioned and subject to public opinion, honor, good fame, collective estimation does not have a definitive character. They can be increased or losing depending on how society assesses, at that precise moment, a specific situation or fact.
Each individual is responsible for his own reputation, for the image that others have in a private basis, but, as a member of a community, he is also responsible for the maintenance and defense of the group’s collective honor. His honor or dishonor extends to his social environment. Therefore maintaining honor, and increasing prestige as far as possible, is a matter of utmost importance. This interdependence of the group, the fact that the dishonor of one of its members means the dishonor of all becomes an excellent pressure and social control system.
Men have to practice an active defense of honor and women are assigned a passive defense of it. In women the activity consists in the transmission of the social values of honor to their children, in the teaching of honorable behaviors and in the maintenance of virtues. When honor is associated with women and their virtue, it becomes a passive element that requires them not to be, not to do: not to speak, not mean, do not get attention. The woman is condemned to inaction if she does not want to call into question the honor of the entire family group with her acts. She must be subjected and quiet, she must go unnoticed, be socially invisible despite the difficulties she represents.
In the Golden Age the woman basically had three functions: ordering domestic work, perpetuating the human species and satisfying her husband’s emotional needs. That is why marriage would be an end for women. To marry the females had to contribute a dowry whose value varied depending on the economic conditions of the future wife. The dowry would be an important problem for some parents so institutions that endowed the poor girls. In the numerous marriages Hidalgas classes were concerted in advance, so this phenomenon would produce marriage failure and abundance of extramarital relationships.
Singlery had a pejorative sense among women in the middle classes. That is why women prepared almost exclusively for marriage, becoming maiden. It was expected that she was obedient, caste, retracted, shameful and modest. She had to be quiet and be locked at home. The woman went from depending on her father to depend on her husband.
In the seventeenth century, Lope de Vega, had the genius to succeed with a successful theatrical formula followed by all the authors thereafter. He was called the new comedy to distinguish himself from the classical play. This comedy combined literary quality with the ability to attract the public, an objective that achieved as no one.
In 1609 Lope composed his new art of making comedies, brief and ironic work in which he intends to explain his theatrical conception and defend himself from those who criticize him for departing from the classic models. Throughout his treaty he shows the characteristics that the works they write have: number of acts, proposes the mixture of the tragic and the comic. Classic theater proposed the respect of the three units -action, time and place-. Theatrical works are written in verse. Taste: Lope admits that the rules of classical theater are fine, but each era is different and the tastes of the public diversity. So you have to adapt to them, since the public is the one who pays. The end of comedy is to cause the enjoyment of the public.
This work is a new comedy. This movement, which happened to the Renaissance between the end of the 16th and end of the 17th century, impregnated all European cultural and artistic manifestations and also extended to Latin American countries.
The seventeenth century testifies the end of the political hegemony of Spain in Europe and the beginning of a long political and social decline. Felipe III and IV occurred. With Carlos II, a sick and weak king, the decay began. At the end of the century the situation was such that, preventing the king would die soon and without offspring, the European Foreign Ministry began to secretly schedule the distribution of the Spanish Empire.
The population stagnated or decreased both in cities and in the countryside. The economic crisis especially affected artisans, peasants and merchants. A society was configured in which who could be an idle hidalgo, and who did not arrive was in danger of becoming a rogue.
It is not surprising that this situation full of difficulties that lead to a mood that oscillated between resignation and disappointment. Baroque culture reflects a restless, contradictory and distressed way, away from optimism and balance of Renaissance ideals, that is, baroque culture was born as a result of decay, crisis and discomfort.
Due to the crisis suffered during this period, man adopts a skeptical, distrustful and pessimistic attitude. You have a very negative vision of the world.
The reality of arts or literature is very complicated. It is recharged, full of contrasts, contradictions and dynamism.
Baroque man sees the world as a chaotic place and is obsessed with the brevity of life and with the passage of time. This is due to pessimism and disappointment they feel before the world.
This is a play divided into three acts. Characteristics: The rules of the 3 units are broken (1 place, 1 action, 1 day). The tragic is mixed with the comic, there is a funny (Catalinon), use of polymetry (different verses for different situations / characters).
conclusion
We can conclude that Don Juan is a legend that inspired many authors for their actions throughout this work. This work is a new comedy that is a literary movement formulated by Lope de Vega in the seventeenth century. This work reflects several characteristics of that time.
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