The Honor of Fuente Ovenjuna - Essay Example

Top of Form “The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.” H.L Mencken The debate over men, honor and morality has percolated through the most tempestuous epochs in world history, and even more so in Spanish history. According to Spanish tradition, a man of honor is expected to uphold and carry forward the virtues of honor, etiquette and respect for authority. According to a research carried out by Agneta H. Fischer on a sample group of Spanish origin, it was discovered that honor related values held a great deal of importance in the Spanish culture and were projected in “the cultural prototypes of pride, shame and anger…. Content analysis of responses revealed systematic differences in the cultural prototypes of pride and shame; these differences can be seen as reflecting the influence of individualistic versus honor-based values on the way in which self-conscious emotions are conceptualized. (Fischer) The focus on the traditional values of respect to royalty and honor of women has been a part of the Spanish tradition and much of traditional Spanish literature uses honor-related themes as a conspicuous backdrop, even if in a diluted form in modern Spanish Drama. Lope de Vega’s play Fuente Ovenjuna, written sometime between 1612 and 1614 portrays the conflict of these values as interpreted by the various strata of the social structure. This play not only structures itself around the play of ‘pride, anger and shame’ between the hoi-polloi and the riff-raff, but allows the reader to take a macro view of the use of these emotions by the characters to project their sense of ethics and morality; and thus, safeguard their own honor. According to Alix Inger in ‘What is an honor play?’, an honor play essentially deals with the theme of conjugal honor; that is, the respect of a man threatened by the behavior of his wife. However, in the Golden Age, the preoccupation with conjugal honor came to acquire newer dimensions and the subject acquired larger proportions. Now, conflict of the type lay not only in gender but also in class, age, allegiance and a collective psyche. While one may largely agree with Inger’s inference of such development; it is pertinent to remark that in ‘Fuenteovejuna’, no matter where the conflict lay; the perpetration and the resolution of honor-conflicts lay mostly with the female protagonist of the play. As ascribed in the paper ‘Courtesy, Altruism and Honor’, there is a direct correlation between the interpretation of honor and the issues of courtesy, opinion, authority and respect. Whether it is the Comendador’s use of the age-advantage to disrespect Maestre who is younger and finally win his approval to be his aide, or it is Laurencia’s fiery appeal( using elements of reverse-psychology )to each elder amongst the peasantry to avenge her disrespect and thus, save their own honor; it is clearly understood how each character uses his/her opinion of honor and reacts to upkeep it. Ironically, there is both contrast and similarity between the two situations. Whereas, Comendador waxes eloquent on the subject, COMEND.   Debéisme honrar, 55 que he puesto por vos la vida    entre diferencias tantas, (You owe honor, I put for you life among many differences) and speaks of honor as an extension of courtesy and yet attempts to save his own, by extending a twisted version of the same by doing just the opposite. Laurencia on the other hand, uses the art of calling upon the manhood of each individual present and thus saving her own dignity. Both these acts rely on the response generated by the inherent pride of the object ( the person/s being spoken to) and plays it to the subject’s(the speaker) advantage. Even though the common consequence of both situations may have been the glorified consent of the object, however, one may infer that while the Comendador was driven by negative intent, Laurencia’s appeal was backed by the thought of stirring up a revolution and thus, a lesser mal-intent, if not a loftier objective. Laurencia: ¿Vosotros sois hombres nobles?(iii. 1755) ¿Vosotros padres y deudos? ¿Vosotros, que no se os rompen las entrañas de dolor,…. ….Y que os han de tirar piedras, hilanderas,maricones, amujerados, cobardes! ¡Y que mañana os adornen nuestras tocas y basquiñas, solimanes y colores! (iii.. 1768-1783) ("You are noble men? You, parents and relatives? You who will not break you the depths of pain…And you have to throw stones, spinners, queers, amujerados, cowards! And tomorrow you decorate your play and skirt, Solimano and colors!”) However, another perspective on Laurencia’s speech may be that she managed to awaken every man and woman’s self-esteem at the cost of having lost her own. Therefore, her suffering became a source of positive energy for an entire community. The consequence was thus not merely her honor avenged but also the peasantry finding their own self-pride. Hence her harangue may be given a positive connotation here. In Act 1 of the play , as Frondoso endeavors to protect his lady-love, he comes across as the complete man-of honor as he portrays a perfect amalgam of all the virtues. He displays valor in attempting to save the dignity of his woman, challenges , yet respects the Commander by not killing him, thus portraying respect for seniority as well as authority. FRONDOSO. Comendador generoso, dejad la moza, o creed que de mi agravio y enojo será blanco vuestro pecho, aunque la cruz me da asombro. 830 (“Commander generous! let the girl, or creed ; that my grievance and anger, your breast will be white, although the cross gives me wonder”)     In Act 2 again , the dialogue between the Comendador and Jacinta brings forth the discrepancy in opinion and interpretation due to gender and social class. The commander throws insinuations at Jacinta and rebukes her for having done a dishonorable act of fleeing. Jacinta on the other hand, considers seeking pardon and acceptance as a step towards saving her lost honor. Therefore, while the superior one calls upon propriety by using impropriety in words and action; the other one assumes a self-incriminating stance to save what is left of her honor, and ends up mollifying it further. COMEND.    Tú, villana, ¿por qué huyes? 1255 ¿Es mejor un labrador que un hombre de mi valor? (“You, villain, why did you flee? Is it better (to be) a peasant or (give yourself to) a man of my courage?”) JACINTA. ¡Harto bien me restituyes    el honor que me han quitado en llevarme para ti! (“Pretty well restored me the honor that I have removed on taking me for you!”)     1260 Bottom of Form Searching reference Reference The characteristic elements in the play vis-à-vis the plot are that of brute –force versus order, challenge versus reaction, and authority of class versus a mass-objective. In all of these depictions, the common thread that runs through the narrative is that of personal pride and self-esteem. To what extent an individual may be driven to protect these values and hence justify every vile act, comes across in each personal and social relationship. Honor that is bestowed upon an individual stems from rank, social class, gender, humane virtuosity and self-love. Barring the element of humane virtuosity; each of the other factors stands firmly in the structure of the play. However, the fact the justice is done in the end and the honor of a community is restored by using the force and strength of the masses and not that of an individual, leaves much to be debated. Whether such an end where the monarchy was helpless and was forced to submit to the milling crowd makes us wonder whether the restoration of one’s honor was not the loss of the other. An interesting observation made in the essay ‘Theme and Structure in Lope’s ‘Feunteovejuna’ is that the Comendador actions of instigating a Civil War against the monarchy and his ruthless treatment of the peasants as well as the act of disgracefully removing Esteban from Mayorship, are all “strongly linked by the duty of the nobleman towards the monarch and the society as a whole, as well as towards his own vassals”. This stance seems to ask for some repudiation. No matter the call of duty or whether one act is a “microcosm” of another villainous act; the fact remains that each individual is bestowed with the inherent judgment of righteous and immoral and higher the rank, the better such judgment is expected to be. That is the sign of a truly honorable man. One may thus summarily state that Mencken’s words in the beginning of the essay, hold true for any man, despite his gender, class or authority. In this regard, characters like Frondoso are the up keepers of the honor-tradition in the shifting sands of time. The stylistic devices used by Lope in this play, however draw one’s attention to the cause and effect theory that everything that is happening is a consequence of something that happened before it. Therefore, the characters in the play are merely playing to the ripples caused by someone else in concentric circles. Honor thus, becomes the horse on which evil chooses to ride. Somebody else’s actions become the whip with which the evil rider gallops forward, mercilessly stripping the ‘horse’ of its beauty and strength. Here it becomes easy to understand the following saying, both in content and context: Honor is simply the morality of superior men.----H.L.Mencken SOURCES Inger, Alex. Courtesy, Altruism, and Honor: A New Reading of Lope de Vegas Fuenteovejuna. NEMLA Annual Convention, Philadelphia, March, 1984. http://www.faculty.sbc.edu/ingber/Courtesy.html Fischer, Agneta H..The Role of Honor-related vs. Individualistic Values in Conceptualizing Pride, Shame, and Anger: Spanish and Dutch Cultural Prototypes  Cognition & Emotion, Volume 13, Issue 2 March 1999 , pp 149 - 179 Ford, J.D.M. Main Currents of Spanish Literature. New York: Henry Holt, 1919 Theme and structure in Lope’s Feunteovejuna http://fmls.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/X/1/57 Inger, Alex. What is an honor play? MLA Annual Convention, Division on Sixteenth- and Seventh-Century Spanish Drama, December , 1992. http://www.faculty.sbc.edu/ingber/honor.html Bottom of Form Read More