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  • The Didactic Humor of Alarcón's El sombrero de tres picos
  • Ronald J. Quirk

Pedro Antonio de Alarcón's short novel El sombrero de tres picos is among the most read works of nineteenth-century Spain.1 It narrates the attempted seduction of a beautiful woman by a corrupt official, the revenge of the offended husband, and the punishment meted out by the wronged spouses, all of which occurs with lethal weapons at hand. Such is the matter of tragedy. It is humor that transforms this potential tale of violence and woe into a comedy, but the humor also has a deeper message in the novel.

The comic element of El sombrero de tres picos is prominent and has drawn critical attention (Basanta Folgueira 55). Edmund de Chasca devotes an entire article to "La forma cómica" of the novel, and most critics give the topic at least some commentary. Nevertheless, there is no consensus on the role of humor in the work. Judgment of its purpose ranges all the way from Peter Bush, who says "the irony is sharp at the expense both of Church and State" (x) to Sergio Beser, who concludes that the work is "independizado de intencionalidades externas al texto" (Florensa xxiii). A fresh look is needed.

The humor in El sombrero is pervasive and multifaceted. Its clearest function is to create a jocular, light-hearted tone in order to engage, entertain, and retain the reader. When the story veers perilously close to tragedy, the narrator pointedly recoils: "Pero ¿a qué estas notas lúgubres en una tonadilla alegre? ¿A qué estos relámpagos fatídicos en una atmósfera tan serena? ¿A qué estas actitudes melodramáticas en un cuadro de género?" (Alarcón 449). [End Page 397]

Alarcón's comic arsenal includes plays on words, exaggeration, farce, slapstick, caricature, satire, and parody. A survey of the wide variety of techniques used in El sombrero de tres picos will give a sense of the range of humor in the work.

Word play is a feature of the repartee between Lucas and his wife. Frasquita says ". . . dirían que éramos un mono y una mona" with the meaning "monkey," and Lucas retorts with the double meaning of "cute" as well as "monkey": "Y acertarían; porque tú eres muy mona y muy rebonita, y yo parezco un mono con esta joroba" (Alarcón 451).

Comic exaggeration often builds gradually from simple statements. The enumeration of Lucas' skills begins with praise for his abilities in growing flowers and channeling water to the mill. But it then proceeds to less credible feats and ends with an outlandish impossibility:

. . . el tío Lucas . . . era floricultor tan consumado que había conseguido producir ejemplares nuevos por medio de laboriosas combinaciones. Tenía algo de Ingeniero natural, y lo había demostrado construyendo una presa, un sifón y un acueducto que triplicaron el agua del Molino. Había enseñado a bailar a un perro, domesticado una culebra, y hecho que un loro diese la hora por medio de gritos, según las iba marcando un reloj de sol que el molinero había trazado en una pared; de cuyas resultas, el loro daba ya la hora con toda precisión, hasta en los días nublados y durante la noche

(Alarcón 449).

One must wonder how a parrot can read a sundial in the darkness of the night!

The action of the novel is that of a rollicking comedy. A major climax in the plot is farcical and degenerates into slapstick as the Corregidor, the mayor, Frasquita, and servants all pummel each other in the dark (Alarcón 470-71). In addition, Arcadio López Casanova has demonstrated how even the structure of the narrative presents a "conflicto cómico" (42-45).

The characters of El sombrero are almost grotesquely comical. Caricature is the most common technique. The Corregidor is painted as the quintessential malicious but ridiculous villain: "En cuanto al . . . grotesco donaire del señor Corregidor, consistía (dicen) en que era cargado de espaldas . . . , casi jorobado, por decirlo de una vez: de estatura menos que mediana; endeblillo; de mala salud; con las...

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