A Critical Review of El medico de su honra as Tragedy

A CRITICAL REVIEW OF EL MEDICO DE SUHONRA AS TRAGEDY RaymondR. MacCurdy, The University of New Mexico Confronted by the task of finding a suitable generic classification for El médico de su honra, nineteenth-century historians of the Spanish theater generally opted to call it a tragedy. For the most part, however, they did not stop to examine its claims on the genre, but limited themselves to commenting on the repugnance of its subject matter and the excellence of its construction. The views expressed by Adolph von Schack and Menéndez Pelayo are representative of the criticism of their century.(1) The German critic wrote: «Esta es una tragedia horrible, repugnante y ofensiva a nuestras ideas. . . . [Pero] no es posible dejar de convenir en que este drama es una délas creaciones más extraordinarias, que se encuentran en los vastos dominios de la poesía.»(2) In similar vein Menéndez Pelayo, notwithstanding his abhorrence of honor slayings («son repugnantes y antiartísticos»), could not help admiring the artistry of El médico: «... es una obra tan perfecta en su línea, que, después de El alcade de Zalamea, quizá sea la mejor del poeta, mirada con el criterio del arte. Está perfectamente conducida, es de una sencillez sobria y severa, sin nada pegadizo ni extraño, con caracteres brillantísimos, aunque no profundos, y con una expresión a veces sencilla y natural. »(3) By and large recent critics have tended to take for granted that El médico is a tragedy, and have proceeded to examine the causes, generally rooted in the conventions of the honor code and in defects of character in its adherents (imprudence, pride, and distorted values), that produce the tragic conclusion .(4) However, a few critics have addressed themselves, directly or indirectly , to the question: Is El médico de su honra a tragedy? Such critics may be grouped into three categories: I) those who hold that the play is not a tragedy; II) those who consider it to be a tragedy of a special kind; ??) those who maintain that it meets all the essential requirements of tragedy and, therefore, should be acknowledged as such. In the following pages I propose to examine the arguments that are given in support of these differing critical views. I Most commentators who refuse to acceptEl médico and most other honor dramas as «true» tragedies base their rejection on one or more of the fol- 4 Bulletin ofthe Comediantes lowing reasons: 1) the function of honor in these plays is more moralistic than tragic (contrary to the opinion of those critics who have held that honor functions similarly to Greek Fate in that it serves as the catalyst of the catastrophe);(5) 2) the rigid adherence to the honor code denies the protagonist any freedom of choice and severs his acts from volition; moreover, the vindication of the protagonist permits him to escape the logical tragic consequences of his acts; 3) the protagonist lacks the human and heroic qualities of a tragic hero; 4) the conclusion is untragic because there is no recognition (anagnorisis), and there is no genuine catharsis. Let us review these arguments in order. Probably the most sweeping rejection of all honor plays as tragedies because oftheir treatment of honor is voiced by Clifford Leech: «It [honour] led to plays with violent endings, but these are rarely tragedies proper, because they are concerned more frequently with pointing a moral, the moral that at all costs honour is sacred, than with showing the individual at odds with fate. »(6) This view has been refuted by Alexander A. Parker,(7) whose defense of El médico as tragedy will be considered later. Parker also finds«misguided» a statement I made years ago concerning the untragic quality ofthe honor dramas because, in most instances, they deprive the protagonist of the opportunity of exercising his will and they absolve him of the ultimate consequences of his conduct. Parker's rejoinder will be treated in the context of his general argument. The most direct assault on El médico de su honra as tragedy is launched by Arnold Reichenberger in his «Thoughts about Tragedy in the...