One scene from “Valor, agravio y mujer” by Ana Caro Mallén de Soto
Alejandra Rodríguez
Last scene, from verse 2481 to verse 2694 in the Spanish Version. A critical perspective.
This scene starts with the statements from don Leonardo and don Juan of their intentions to kill each
other. This responds to a very classic resolution with a duel between characters but in this case it is a
very interesting scene because there is a real disparity between protagonist and antagonist, though they
are balanced in appearance. First of all, there is a disparity between information. On one hand we have
1. 1-Don Juan, who mistakenly thinks that
a. Don Leonardo and doña Leonor are two different people.
b. Don Leonardo is the suitor of doña Estela and doña Leonor.
c. But has a clear and true interest: to kill don Leonardo
2. 2-Doña Leonor, who correctly knows that
a. Don Leonardo and doña Leonor are not two different people as she is don Leonardo.
b. Don Juan is suitor to doña Estela but is married by promise to doña Leonor.
c. But has a hidden interest under the alleged interest of killing don Juan: to get him to
admit that he loves doña Leonor.
On the other hand we have the motivations of both characters that take place in two different
directions.
1. 1-Doña Leonor claims for the legality of the promised word, what leads her to a series of
emotions and feelings.
2. 2-Don Juan is driven by a series of emotions and feelings to claim for the legal validity of his
word and the legal consequences derived from it.
VAM Position Paper - Alejandra Juno Rodríguez Villar
These two different paths are related to the consideration that both characters give to the situation.
While Lenor/Leonardo calls it “infamia”, don Juan prefers to qualify it as “desdicha”. “Infamia” is related
with a negative public notion of fame, while “desdicha” belongs to the realm of private feelings. In her
speech, Leonardo/Leonor talks about the main problem, the infamia, and relates it to the desired
output: the possibility of getting married with whom “he” wants to (vv. 2509-2513). So,
Leonardo/Leonor tries to keep the problem into a legal/public sphere. On the opposite, don Juan, in his
first speech about the problem, his main focus is on the happiness/unhappiness feelings of the situation
brought by the legal circumstance. This is the reason why he emphasizes the problems of
dicha/desdicha and tormento grave derived from the legal situation. The paths from infamia to desdicha
and the opposite are used in different ways for both characters. Leonardo wants to solve the legal
situation and he invokes his love for Leonor; Juan wants to solve his personal honor situation. For this
reason, he invokes the legal situation.
The real interest of don Juan is killing don Leonardo because of the jealousy that his love interest has
raised. Don Juan doesn’t care about doña Leonor until he learns that don Leonardo wants to marry her.
Is in this moment, confronted to this threat, that the promised word gains value to don Juan. The real
interest of Leonor/Leonardo is to get don Juan to admit that he loves doña Leonor, but for this, she
needs to awake his passion for doña Leonor, what he/she makes through a legal proposition, not
invoking the graces in doña Leonor.
In the same vein, Leonardo tends to talk about doña Leonor in her explanation of the quarrel, setting
her as the focus of his speeches (vv. 2539-2540 “de aquel objeto divino/ser el venturoso empleo), while
don Juan tends to talk about himself, and to present himself as the core of the situation (v. 2535) Un
tormento en mí tan grave.) So, while Leonardo/Leonor presents the problem as a public legal incident,
for don Juan it is an emotional problem which only solution is death: death of Leonardo or his own
VAM Position Paper - Alejandra Juno Rodríguez Villar
death. It is worthy also to notice that Fernando also will suggest death as the solution to the problem (v.
2681), showing a poor imagination from the male characters of the play. This is not new, since in the
comedia, male characters tend to behave following very strict public patterns, but it is the realm of the
female characters, particularly in comedy, to come up with creative solutions, often very far from the
usual formulas, in a soft (comedic) version of the Machiavellian precept: “the end justifies the means”.
And that is the point of the whole plot and of the genre in a sense: the availability of means to reach the
desired end. To get Juan to honor his promise, Leonor has different possibilities
1. Claim as a woman the fulfillment of his promise.
2. Claim as a man the fulfillment of his promise.
3. Arise the very own claim of don Juan about his marriage with Leonor.
This last seems to be the cleverest possibility as the direction of the claim shifts this way changing the
agency and makes it for susceptible of success. When Leonor/Leonardo utters the (the audience knows)
metaphor: “Don juan, mataros deseo” (v. 2537)”, she is summarizing her whole goal, as she wants to kill
don Juan, not physically, but morally, and wants to kill the illusion of don Leonardo as well. To kill the
don Juan that doesn’t want Leonor, and to kill the Leonardo that wants her, to allow entrance to the
Leonor that loves herself and to the don Juan that wants to marry her in a perfect ending. The
changeable don Juan must die, to yield way to a committed don Juan. As it seems impossible to reach
this through the invocation of external rules, Leonor has to force an inner change.
To attain this is much easier being a man, because it involves the competition between similar
protagonist and antagonist towards a same desired object, making it a way simple and straight quarrel,
very suitable for a comedy. This balances the plot in the most external level, and pays tribute to a classic
scheme. What should make Leonor if there is not another man who would awake love feelings in Juan?
Invent him. With this move:
VAM Position Paper - Alejandra Juno Rodríguez Villar
1. The playwright has her enredo, and gets to present a cross-dressed woman on stage, a popular
topos in this type of theater.
2. Leonor gets what she wants without depending on anyone and remains the protagonist (and at
the same time she places herself as the object of desire, that is exactly the status that she has
lost).
I think that the way presents her as the agent and the object of desire is very interesting, as there are
several utterances from don Leonardo that would also perfectly work on Leonor. For instance, vv. 25772579:
2630
2635
2640
2645
2650
2655
mas dejóla, ingrato, a tiempo
que yo la amaba, Fernando,
con tan notables efectos,
que el alma dudó tal vez
respiraciones y alientos
en el pecho, y animaba
la vida en el dulce incendio
de la beldad de Leonor
corrida en los escarmientos
de la traición de don Juan.
Y obligándome primero
con juramentos -que amando
todos hacen juramentosme declaró de su historia
el lastimoso suceso
con más perlas que palabras;
mas yo, amante verdadero,
la prometí de vengar
su agravio, y dando al silencio
con la muerte de don Juan
la ley forzosa del duelo,
ser su esposo y lo he de ser,
don Fernando, si no muero
a manos de mi enemigo.
A Flandes vine, sabiendo
que estaba en Bruselas. Soy
noble, honor sólo profeso.
Ved si es forzoso que vengue
este agravio, pues soy dueño
de él y de Leonor también.
VAM Position Paper - Alejandra Juno Rodríguez Villar
While “he” is talking about “her” in reality is doña Leonor talking about herself and embodying full
agency. So, while being Leonardo is a performance that includes all the expected actions of a galán in a
comedy (seducing a dama, get into a fencing with the antagonist and so on), it is also a total denial of
performance as being a man enables her to express the real herself. She is noble, she has honor, she
truly loves herself. Being a man enables her to express a truly self-love and allows her to be herself in a
very efficient way, in relationship with the reactions arisen in others, and in relationship with the status
that she is able to give herself from a third person status.
And this is very interesting, because while don Juan is the factual object of desire, she is able to reverse
this situation, highlighting at the same time how the value of women usually come from the outside,
while value on men often relies in their very own “essence”. This could be the reason why Leonor has to
place all the conflict on the “outside” (public sphere, legal situation, external consideration), while don
Juan can afford to be totally devoted to himself as the center of the whole conflict, and express the
problem in more emotional terms.
VAM Position Paper - Alejandra Juno Rodríguez Villar