The Call of the Natural World in Los Baños de Argel

As Daniel Eisenberg has shown in his examination of Las semanas del jardín and the whole of the Cervantine canon, Cervantes consistently promoted rural life over an urban existence. Not surprisingly, this preference guides the actions of the captives fleeing Los baños de Argel. The importance of landscape has been underestimated in scholarly appreciations of this comedia, especially regarding the role of Agimorato's garden, a setting which never appears on stage but which nonetheless offers a variety of symbolic and practical meanings. Francisco Nieva, the director of a rare production of Los baños, notes that the characters often take a back seat to the setting: "Los personajes son fugaces primeros planos, pronto fundidos en el barullo de las calles, con los ecos del mar, el viento del desierto, los vergeles de Argel." In contrast to the infidel and labyrinthine city of Algiers, the sea and garden represent the natural world wherein lies the possibility of freedom.