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Conflicts In Lope De Vega’s Fuenteovejuna Essay

Lope de Vega is a Spanish playwright and was one of the important figures in the Spanish Golden Century of Baroque literature. He wrote a historical play named Fuenteovejuna and it was based on an uprising in the village of Fuenteovejuna in the year 1476; although this play was written in 1612 to 1614. Lope de Vega themes in playwrights were love and honor code, conflicts to be resolved and he always wanted to have a happy ending. It has been said that his female characters were amongst the best.

One of the main focus on this playwright was that he had Spanish history and the cultural values. In this essay I will be discussing how he has interwoven history, elements and the honor code to develop conflicts and relationships within the play. This playwright was based on an actual event that occurred in the village of Fuenteobejuna. I believe it was 150 years before the play was written. In this village there was Frondoso and Laurencie who loved each other and were on their way to marriage. This is mentioned because the author is known for writing about love.

This comes to a halt when Fernan Gomes a commander of the army enters their village and acts as if he is better than everyone who lives in this village. The commander takes Laurencia away from her wedding to do what he wishes with her and has her soon to be husband imprisoned. As her father and the men in the village were speaking amongst themselves she walks in the room all battered and bruised up. Laurencia starts a huge fit saying that everyone needs to stand up and get the commander back for what he has done.

With her being all riled up she got the village to unite all together to fight the commander. She struck a nerve in the women and they too participated with this fight to make it known that what has happened is not right and they will not let this go. They arrived at the palace and freed Frondoso and then the villagers were on their way to slay the commandor. This act of togetherness and bravery from the villagers to stand up is an example of honor code. With this play being based off actual events there’s room for a little exaggeration to spice up the story.

Within this play there was more of a historical theme and that it is likely that with the characters individual stories might be a little false or it could have been a little exaggerated. We really do not know what each character was like. It is possible that Lope could have exaggerated the commandor and his villain ways to make this character more of the bad guy in the story. There might have not been a wedding between the two lovers but the author could have made that up to make it more of a love story.

Lope could have exaggerated each and every character but as an audience we seem to love this drama that has been taken place within this playwright so does it really make a difference? Lope used the honor code to develop conflict. I believe when the commandor walked in on the wedding he used language that was disrespectful (offending ones honor) and he used his power to imprison a lesser equal than himself. This developing a conflict when he imprisons the soon to be husband and takes the wife away to do as he pleases.

Laurencia’s honor has been hurt so she stands up to the town and calls them names trying to get everyone on board for payback. Laurencia resolved her conflict by slaying the commandor and she wanted to involve the villagers to come along to seek revenge because he thought so poorly of them. The Golden Age honor was extremely important. One could be dishonored by actions happening to him or towards his family and it was considered dishonored until it is restored. This could mean by killing the person who offended his honor.

It was believed that honor was seen as something that normally belonged to the nobility. This can be seen in this play with the acts of the commander, who thinks that every woman belongs to him and that his social status allows him these women. This play was about abuse of political power. But not only about the abuse of power it had a happy ending. This play was centered around a historical even but there is more to the play. The author made a dramatic love story and there was a tremendous amount of honor between multiple characters. This play lived up to what the author is known for a happy ending.

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