Scene Between Don Gutierre And Doa Leonor example essay topic

Honour was one of the prominent issues in the Spanish Golden Age dramas of which Caldern and Lope de Vega were the main exponents. Indeed, the play is called a "drama de honor". The very fact that Caldern chose to include the word 'honra' in the title of the play 'El Mdico de su Honra' indicates that indeed a certain element of honour must be present within. One must find out whether honour is the principal cause of the play or if other themes hold more importance.

In the "Diccionario de Autoridades" - the first dictionary of the Spanish language, "honor" is described as: "Se toma muchas veces por reputacin y lustre de alguna familia, accin u otra cosa... Se toma assi mismo por obsequio, aplus o o celebridad de alguna cosa. Significa tambien la honestidad y reca to en las mugres."Honra", while interchangeable with "honor" in many regards, has been said to impart honour with a more interior connotation, as in "respect for personal worth": "Referencia, acatamiento y veneracin que se hace la virt d, autori dad mayor a de alguna persona... Significa tambien pundonr, estimation y buena fama, que se hall a en el sujet o y debe conserva r... Se toma tambien por la integridad virgin en las mugres". Despite using "honra" in the title, Caldern uses "honor" far more frequently in the play.

In the first act, "honor" appears almost exclusively and mostly refers to the honours of the women Menca and Leonor. In Act Two, Gutierre addresses his honour as if it were a person: "Ay honor! Mucho tenemos que // hablar a solas los dos" (1401) In terms of the whole play however, "honra" is invoked with relative infrequent and usually as a synonym for "honor". It is safe to say that Caldern used the former for variety and for purposes of rhyme and rhythm since "honra" is stressed on the first syllable and "honor" on the second. Honour is often embodied, in 'El Mdico de su Honra' as social reputation by those involved in it.

The vast majority of the characters are of noble birth; the King Don Pedro I, the 'Infante' Don Enrique, Don Gutierre, Doa Menca and Doa Leonor. Perhaps it is Doa Leonor who, early on, sets the climate which indicates the importance that honour will acquire. She shows that she is a slave to public opinion and her reputation. Thus arises her obsession to regain her honour which was put in jeopardy when her lover, D. Gutierre, failed to marry her "Dio me palabra de que sera mi espoo" and thus dishonoured her because of his suspicions concerning her fidelity. Don Pedro, who is renowned for being just in matters concerning honour, knows that Doa Leonor's grievance must surely be true, for she dares to tell him of her dishonour in public: "Hablar agora, porque si venisteis // de parte del honor, como dijisteis, // indign a cosa fuera // que en publico el honor sus que jas dier a".

Yet, despite her private desire for his 'deshonra', in public she keeps up appearances and defends his name when confronted about him by Don Arias by stating that he is "Un caballero que en todas las ocasiones con obra r y con decir,'s abr muy bien cumplir en sus obligaciones". Importantly, it is seen via her actions and also through those of other characters, namely Don Gutierre and Doa Menca that a passion for honour is more important than love itself. Doa Menca is an interesting character. Throughout the play she struggles against her desire to restart her love affair with Don Enrique who clearly is very willing for this to happen. However, due to the fact that she is married, although this may have been against her will, she remains faithful: "Tuve amor y tengo honor". Ultimately perhaps she pays the price for her various acts of imprudence, as envisioned via various small yet vital things that she does, such as writing a letter to Don Enrique, only for Don Gutierre to find it as the play reaches its climax.

The letter appears to condemn her actions and thus fuel Don Gutierre's rage even more, whereas in fact, had she been given the chance to finish the letter, her actions would have been explained and Gutierre would have seen that she was indeed still faithful to him. Don Gutierre's actions are dictated by the need to uphold social reputation in the form of self-dignity; ultimately honour. He is the character which relies most on the supposed "injustice of dishonour" to justify his actions. He could be described as "la encarnacin la ms completa del sentimiento del honor en lo que tiene de irrational y also". Thus, his actions are controlled by honour / dishonour, and considering that ultimately his actions shape the play, namely in dishonoring Doa Leonor paving the way for her need to obtain justice and his suspicion in his wife Doa Menca being so great that he actually cold-heartedly murders her, honour can be seen as the sole force shaping the outcome of the play.

By the end of the segunda jornada, Don Gutierre's state of mind is such that he makes comments such as "Ay honor! Mucho tenemos // que hablar a solas los dos" and more vividly "A peligro est is, honor, // no hay hora en vos que no sea // critica; en vues tro sepulcro // vis... Os he de cura r, honor, // y pues al principi o muestra // este primero accident // tan grave peligro". He does not see that Menca is honouring him precisely because of her belief that " [As] es como ha de ser, porque me he de resolver a una temer aria accin". This again highlights the importance of honour above love and desire because social reputation and the form of honour, is more important. Don Pedro I endorses honour to a great extent, yet only where it is based on justice, as viewed in the scene between Don Gutierre and Doa Leonor.

Also, the insincere honour which is shown by Don Enrique towards Doa Menca is certainly worth mentioning; for he is an example of how often selfish motives can damage the good honour of others, namely Menca. Gutierre is also a culprit of this tendency. However, honour is not only embodied as social awareness in nobility. Coqun, who is the only main character who does not come from a noble background and who serves as a jester to King Don Pedro I, sheds light on situations and views honour, and subsequently, acts and reacts in a very different way from the others. His honour is more a moral one than a social one, as described in the previous characters. He cares little about the 'qu dirn' aspect that Doa Leonor in particular shows herself to be loyal to.

He states, after Don Gutierre was released from prison for the night on good faith, that he simply shouldn't return. This is simple, yet effective. "El honor de esa ley no se enti ende en el cria do", yet in fact, his honour is being saved for an action which deserves it, namely trying to save Doa Menca's life at the end: "sta es una hon rada accin de hombre bien nac ido, en fin". He will not risk his life just to "bien parece r". When compared to other characters, who go to such lengths precisely for what Coqun would see as the 'wrong reasons', a sense of ridicule ensues. Although honour is, undeniably, a vital force behind the development of plot, being the emotion from which other more minor themes emerge, perhaps it is not honour in itself that Caldern is examining, rather the degree of prudence with which characters such as Doa Menca and Don Enrique reacted to it.

The imprudence of many of the characters' actions feature largely in the play. That Arias should enter Leonor's house at night is an "atrevimiento" against the social standards of honour since she had not allowed him to enter. Nonetheless it is Leonor who admits that she must take the blame: "Yo tuve la culpa, yo // la pena sien to; y as // solo me queso de m, // y de mi estrella". Leonor places the question mark against her honour and must spend the rest of the play trying to have it removed. Leonor's second imprudence is when she goes to the king to ostensibly request the "dowry" that will enable her to enter and live in a convent. although an unhappy decision, in the circumstances it is the prudent one, and it is right to appeal to the royal bounty. Leonor states to her maid that justice, in effect, would be vengeance if the king heard her plea.

This plea is a disclosure of her grievances - a breach of promise and a denial of legal redress. Her imprudence lies in not accepting the verdict of the courts and in appealing to the highest judicial authority for an impossible reparation (since Gutierrez has married). At the end of the Act, Leonor even states that she seeks vengeance: .".. venganza me d el cielo!" The king's imprudence lies in him ignoring the practical solution of sending her to a convent and in offering her the false hope of a redress that is in fact impossible. In saying that the poor cannot expect justice in Pedro's kingdom, Leonor has injured the king's pride of being the "rey justiciero" which is why he personally takes up her cause. Gutierre's imprudence was to jump to the conclusion that Leonor had dishonoured him: "quien hilo al amor of ensa, // se le hace al honor en l... ".

But there is more than imprudence here, there is a rigid pride that does not shrink from injuring the woman he loves. The initial rashness of Arias and Leonor is turned into an unpardonable offence. This act of injustice sets the play in motion for a series of fateful events. Gutierre had thought he could shrug off this act of injustice but it rebounds to strike at his marriage, to affront his pride a second time and to make him repeat an injury to the woman he loves- this time by murdering her. At the end of the play, Gutierre must fulfil his promise of marriage that he should never have broken, but fulfilling it at the cost of a terrible injustice of a far greater kind. The different sub-themes which arise from honour in the general sense are all very important in contributing to the outcome of the play.

All of them, jealousy, disillusionment, loyalty, justice, guilt, revenge and ultimately tragedy resulting in death, are interlinked in arising from honour. As already seen, Doa Leonor, on behalf of her honour, calls for justice; as Don Gutierre proposes death he states "Mi honor per, mi muerte hall" for lack of honour is even worse than death, and this also links in with the theme of revenge which is what ultimately pushes Don Gutierre to kill Doa Menca, not as a result of a passionate row, but as a result of careful planning. However, having stated that there are indeed other themes in 'El Mdico de su Honra', do any of these surpass their creator (honour) and become fully-fledged themes in themselves The importance of jealousy is great, for Coqun, in his final act of honour in trying to protect the 'innocent' Doa Menca states "Gutierre mal informa do por apa rentes recelos, leg a tener vines cells de su honor" and thus he is suspected of wanting to kill Menca. Although therefore jealousy as felt by Gutierre is the immediate cause, fundamentally it is his need to protect his honour that drives him to this point.

The same occurs with other aspects of behaviour or provocations of behaviour: revenge, in Leonor's case because she feels that she has been wronged to the extent of her good reputation being scarred for life. If one is dishonoured publicly, the way in which the culprit should repay should be public too; hence Don Gutierre and Doa Leonor's marriage at the end of the play. By this stage, justice has been performed by Don Pedro, decreeing that they must marry, and whereas Leonor had previously stated "Pues es mejor que sin vida, sin opin in, sin honor viva, que no sin amor, de un mari do aborrecida", she now remains satisfied at the outcome, perhaps not so much due to the fact that they have married, but because he has been publicly humiliated as she was. In short, "El mdico de su honra" is a play fundamentally about honour.

It cannot be denied that other themes enter the play as it develops and that ultimately the climax of the play (Menca's death) is an act of betrayal and jealousy. But although there may be immediate reasons for certain actions in the play, the underlying, driving cause is honour itself.