Asymmetry and the Spectator's Experience in Calderóns El médico de su honra

Read as poetic text, El médico de su honra has always seemed an especially problematic comedia. As an alternate approach, this study focusses on two aspects which may have had a strong effect on an audience actually viewing the play: 1) the affinity felt with the individual characters and 2) the visual representation of the action on the level of the scenes or cuadros. In El médico, Calderón leads the spectator to an impasse where none of the initially most attractive characters justifies full sympathy. The visual patterns created by the characters' entrances and exits also draw attention to the drama of Gutierre and Mencía. At the same time, secondary patterns suggest the lesser characters, particularly Leonor, as an alternate perspective from which to view and interpret the horror of the main action. The spectator's alienation from the main characters and the resulting search for a new locus of values with which to identify provoke a process of introspection and self evaluation, which is seen here as the main point of the play. (RMJ)