Elements of Greek Fatalism in Rivas Don lvaro - Essay Example

Elements of Greek Fatalism in Rivas’ Don Álvaro Ángel de Saveedra y Ramírez, duque de Rivas’ Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino broke sharply with the norms of contemporary Spanish theatre, and forged a new direction toward which his national literature would move – the direction of Romanticism. As critic E. E. Norton (2005) expressed, ‘the play is a veritable repository of all the characteristics of Spanish Romanticism. Its impact in Spain was comparable to that of Victor Hugos Hernani in France five years earlier-which is to say, enormous’ (298). The play, which even to this day is ‘considered the height of the romantic manifestation with regard to the [Spanish] stage,’ explicitly references its central theme of Destiny in the title – ‘la fuerza del sino’ as it applies to the struggle and ultimate defeat of the protagonist (Young 1933, 278). Within the typical Sturm und Drang Romantic expression, Rivas utilises a conception of ‘fate’ to explore and undermine the obsolescing social hierarchy that dominated contemporary Spanish life. Yet the question remains unclear: what exactly is the nature, the driving force of this conceived destiny? Does this demonstrate the movement of divine providence, or is this more akin to the fatalistic destiny of the Greeks? As the story progresses, the thread of fate that propels the action reveals itself to be profoundly fatalistic, not the orchestration of an omnipotent God but the engine of the myriad unseen forces that surround and enshround Don Álvaro in his journey through despair. This fatalism draws its roots most profoundly from the tradition of Greek tragedy in which destiny always played a primary role. Yet Rivas develops advances on this fatalistic tradition, showing through the random twists delivered by destiny’s hand the massively destructive forces of the familial Spanish hierarchy, which from the beginning envelop the protagonist in the shackles of old custom. It is these, Rivas declares audaciously through his play, that make up the very essence of destiny. It is these, the forces of society, which create the fatalistic reality in which all his characters, and by extension the whole of Spanish populiation, are doomed to their allotted existence. The fatalistic concept fundamental to Greek tragedy is the act of transgression, the fatal flaw caused by hubris, or believing oneself to be above divine law, which transgression in the protagonist’s own demise. This act of transgression could be something as active as Prometheus’ theft of divine fire, for which he was savagely punished, or something as helplessly passive as King Oedipus’ plight, having been ordained by the gods to the fate of killing his father and sleeping with his mother, and having been powerless over the course of his own life. Yet these pagan gods played no part in the worldview of the Duque; instead he considers that the effects of the gods inhere in the bounds of social custom, and that the central act of transgression lies in an individual’s attempt to transcend those bounds. Doña Leonor’s father took efforts to warn don Álvaro of his inability to overcome these societal norms, denying his request for the doña’s hand and then hiding Leonor away to protect them both from the impending fate. Yet don Álvaro does not succumb to this denial; rather, he reaches out even more, making plans to violate the fatal laws of the Spanish family custom and elope with Leonor. It is in this very same mise en scène, in the act of transgression, that the hand of fate first begins to strike out. Though attempting to create the false appearance that he meant no harm, Álvaro’s threat to the strength of society meets with the fated discharging of his gun, which is the fatalistic movement allotted to him for his hubris in believing himself above his own fate: Sí, he cegado en el punto en que apuntaba el más risueño día. Me sacarán difunto de aquí, cuando inmortal salir creía ... ¡Pérfida! ¿Te complaces en levantarme al trono del Eterno para después hundirme en el infierno? (Act 1 scene 7) It is here that he realises the results of his own transgressive act; having attempted to reach a forbidden realm of reality, the throne of the Eternal as he articulates it, don Álvaro invokes the wrath of destiny whose forces reside in the walls of the society around him, and the rest of his life becomes only an excruciating descent, a long slide down into oblivion. However, despite his own part in the creation of his destiny, Rivas suggests that don Álvaro’s fate was already predetermined by his own background and its dictated place in the Spanish hierarchy. Rivas describes the conditions of the Don’s birth which have produced and defined his situation: Para engalanar mi frente, allá en la abrasada zona, con la espléndida corona del imperio de Occidente, amor y ambición ardiente me engendraron de concierto, pero con tal desacierto, con tal contraria fortuna, que una cárcel fue mi cuna y fue me escuela el desierto (act 3 scene 3). In this first revelation of don Álvaro’s origins, his birth in a prison cell shows wider resonance with his allotted fate, as he remains metaphorically in the imprisoning quarters of destiny. As his birthplace was a prison cell, so will his life be made to be endured in agony as retribution for his act of transgression: Éste mundo, ¡qué calabozo profundo para el hombre desdichado a quien mira el cielo airado con su ceño furibundo! (act 3 scene 3) Because of the repercussions of his hubris, don Álvaro remains inescapably in the position of his birth, in the ‘calabozo profundo’ of his miserable world. Yet this dictated fate does not carry the same causal traits as the Greek fatalism. Rivas carefully ensures to connect don Álvaro’s condition and its causes to the forces of Spanish society, the ‘imperio de Occidente,’ the ‘amor y ambición ardiente’ that engendered him (act 3 scene 3). It is this specifically that is the source, the fountain of all fate – the social system in which Álvaro was born and which he brashly attempted to defy, which swallows him into a prison of loneliness, violence and death. As the series of fatalistic catalysts moves forward in the play, the remaining members of doña Leonor’s family all converge fatefully to the final scenes to arrive at the inevitable result of Don Álvaro’s transgression. Don Alfonso, attempting to defend his family’s honour by the dictates of Spanish mores, cries out ‘Eres un mestizo, / fruto de traiciones’, and in despair don Álvaro lashes out from his own anguish at his socially disapproved birth, taking his sword and mortally wounding don Alfonso (Rivas 1835, 176, act 5, scene 9). This act of violence signals the start of the final chain reaction, the final swing of fortune’s wheel, leading rapidly to the death of both don Alfonso and doña Leonor in the last scenes of the play. Thus, because of don Álvaro’s violent rage at the incongruity of his past with the Spanish family order, because of his brash defiance of his allotted fate, Álvaro strikes against the last force maintaining that fatalistic order – doña Leonor’s brother. In doing so, don Álvaro enacts the complete destruction of the family into which he was attempting to enter, and in this dissolution don Álvaro embraces his fate, crying ‘¡Infierno, abre tu boca y trágame!’ and throwing himself into the abyss (act 5, scene 11). His fatal flaw has encoded his life within a path of catastrophe from the very beginning, as can be seen in Valero and Zighelboim’s criticism: ‘don Álvaro no sólo marcha inexorablemente hacia su autodestrucción, sino que además, de paso, siembra el caos entre las instituciones del viejo orden con que se topa en su camino’ (2006, 54). Thus, his final suicide becomes the ultimate result of don Álvaro’s actions – like Creon of Sophocles’ Antigone he is forced to witness the destruction of an entire family as the result of his one fatal error – attempting to defy the divine law of Spanish patriarchal rule. Toward the beginning of the play, Tío Paco states that ‘cada uno es hijo de sus obras’ (act 1 scene 2). This statement reveals the strong overlap of Rivas’ conception of fate with that of Greek drama. ‘In spite of its romantic nature,’ critic Beatrice Young notes, ‘Don Álvaro has traces of classic ancestry. The element of fate, destiny – relentless, inescapable – harks back to the Greek tragedy’ (1933, 279). In the Greek sensibility Rivas demonstrates this thematic thread, that each human being is the child of his own actions, able to choose whether to abide by the divine laws that permeate the social order around them, or violate them and enact their own self-destruction. In this, there is no evidence of any benevolent God at work, as destiny leads don Álvaro not to salvation, but to the type of damnation to which Greek nobility were fated, his entrance into Hades. Yet Rivas advances on the Greek form, making use of Romantic expression to enact a subtle critique of the universal condition of Spain, showing dramatically how Don Álvaro, like so many in Spanish society, is born into a system in which he has no path to happiness, no route to the desideratum of his soul. Even in his transgressive act he is kept away from doña Leonor, united only in the death his fate has permitted him. In the meantime must suffer in the ‘prison’ of the world, the bars of godlike custom which pervades Spanish existence, and which allow for no transcendence. Works Cited Jóse, Valero & Zighelboim, S. 2006, ‘Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino’, Decimonónica vol. 3 no. 1, pp. 53-71. Norden, E. E. 2005, ‘Don Álvaro, or, The force of fate, (1835): a play by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas’, Choice, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 298. Saavedra, Ángel de, Duque de Rivas 1835, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino, Textos Hispánicos Modernos, Barcelona. Young, Beatrice 1933, ‘Romanticism in Spain with Special Reference to the Drama’, The Modern Language Journal, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 275-283. Read More