Representing Power: The Tragicomic Performance Of Private And Public Selves In Lope De Vega's El Castigo Sin Venganza

What happens when our public self is in opposition with our private self if duty demands the subjugation of the private to the public? Why and how does theater, and in particular tragicomedy, create a space to explore and reflect upon the multifaceted self and its construction? Lope de Vega's El castigo sin venganza delves into these questions, and by employing a series of repetitions, disguises, and substitutes, it effectively deconstructs the models of self-fashioning (both private and public) that were inherited from Renaissance humanism. By calling attention to some of the play's many moments of self-mirroring, this paper demonstrates that although in the end it is the performance of the powerful authority figure that prevails, championing the public over the private self, the violent subjection it imposes effectively shatters its crafted illusion of legitimacy.