Refashioning the Maze: The Interplay of Gender and Rank in Cervantes's El laberinto de amor

This article argues that identity itself is the labyrinth constructed in Cervantes's El laberinto de amor, wherein the signs of gender difference (costume and language) are subordinated in the perception of the observing characters to the signs of rank. Cervantes juxtaposes and recombines the roles appropriate to noble and commoner, with the result that discernment, strength of character and the power of free and artful speech are the property of all human beings, regardless of rank. Simultaneously, he plays with the speech and dress of male and female to suggest that the essence of humanity is not exclusively masculine or feminine, nor neither at all, but androgynous, that is, masculine-with-feminine. (EMA)