Animal Symbolism and the Characterization of Mendo in Rojas Zorrilla's Del rey abajo, ninguno

Scholarship has explained how associations with religious and mythological figures play an important role in the characterization of the protagonists of Del rey abajo, ninguno, Blanca and García. It has not adequately discussed, however, how a like though inverse process involving associations with animals serves to define the moral character of the innocent couple's adversary, Mendo.

Mendo is symbolically linked with the bear, the wolf, and the boar, the animals hunted by García. Mendo's moral identity and the significance of García's hunting these animals rest with the beasts' traditional artistic role as symbols of lust. This symbolism identifies Mendo's actions as bestial and makes García's hunt a symbolic enactment of his struggle with Mendo. (RC)