Female Playwrights & Fate in Spanish Plays

The Spanish Golden Age and La Vida es Sueno

According to Wilson and Goldfarb, there were several recognized women playwrights during the Spanish Golden Age (p. 201. Of them, the works of six are fairly well known. Unfortunately, of these women playwrights, the only one of whom we know much about is Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Juana was a nun (Sor means sister in Spanish), a scholar, and a writer of many genres. It is said that she was unlimited by genre (Bio.

com). She was also a women’s rights activist, which was often reflected in her plays. She wrote one particular piece called Hombres Necios, which translates to Foolish Men, in which she points out the fallacious logic of men criticizing women (Bio.com).

While often women are overlooked historically, I love that Wilson and Goldfarb mentioned that some male playwrights borrowed from women’s works (p. 201). Acting in general has been looked down upon by the Church, with a significant disapproval for women acting.

Actresses in the Spanish Golden Age were no exception. According to Wilson and Goldfarb, the Church made an extra effort to dissuade and ban women from performing (p. 206). However, unlike during the English Renaissance, women in the Spanish Golden Age could join acting troupes (p. 206). In the English Renaissance women could not participate in acting troupes and female characters were generally performed by men (p. 180).

Was Segismundo’s Confinement Justified?

By today’s standards, we would consider locking Segismundo away from the world to be cruel.

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Given the time and the mindset of the people I would expect that they would believe that a prophecy cannot be broken, so I wonder if King Basil really believed that he could escape the prophecy or if it was simply an irrational act of desperation. It seemed the other characters in the play also thought it was unjustified since they were willing to go to war to gain Segismundo his throne.

While, in the play Segismundo forgave his father for the sake of doing the right thing, I don’t think I would be so willing. I wouldn’t necessarily kill or banish him, but I would want some kind of punishment. Segismundo was forced to live his entire life in solitude. I can’t imagine living like that throughout childhood and into adulthood. I would definitely go crazy if it was me. So, no, I don’t think his development into a fit ruler justifies his father forcing his son to live a life of solitude and imprisonment all those years.

Oedipus the Kinq v. La Vida es Sueno

I surprisingly recognized the contract of the treatment of fate in Oedipus the King and La Vida es Sueno while watching the latter. In Oedipus the main message was that you could not evade fate, while in La Vida es Sueno, the message was that we create our own fate. At the same time, however, we can see similarities in the plot.

Oedipus’ father tried to evade fate by having his son killed, which backfired because his son was never actually killed but was simply raised outside of the kingdom, only to unknowingly fulfill the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother. In La Vida es Sueno, King Basil tried evading fate by imprisoning his son so that he could not become a reckless monster, as the prophecy suggested. Though it seemed as though this would inadvertently lead to a fulfillment of the prophecy, Segismundo deliberately broke the prophecy by sparing his father.

1. Calderon de la Barca, Pedro. La vida es Sueno, Dover Publications, 2002.
2. “Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz Biography.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 26 July 2016, www.biograph.com/people/sor-juana-in®C3%A9s-de-la-cruz-38178.
3. Wilson, Edwin, and Alvin Goldfarb. Living Theatre: History of the Theatre. 6th ed. New York:McGraw Hill, 2012. Print.