Echoing Desire, Mirroring Disdain: Moreto's El desdén con el desdén

Moreto's El desdén con el desdén seems a typical love comedy wherein three noble men vie for the attentions of a noble lady. Diana, however, is haughty, disdainful, intellectually opposed to marriage, and, if we judge by Carlos's initial reaction, not particularly good-looking. Unless we attribute greed to Carlos as his prime motive, we must ask why he so passionately pursues the Conde de Barcelona's only child.

Multifaceted desire lies at the heart of this, and perhaps of all, comedia. Carlos desires Diana because his friend, the Príncipe de Bearne and the Conde de Fox, do. His desire, therefore, is inauthentic, vain, based on a model. Frustrated and frustrating desire, whose archetypal presentation is in the Echo and Narcissus story, is the central motivator of the action.

Disdain, the sword Carlos turns against Diana to win her, is but the other face of desire's coin. Desire and disdain, like all signs, carry the trace of their radical other inscribed in their essence, and both, again like all signs, are unstable. That resultant instability, then, must be projected into the end of the play, and will produce at least two possible futures for the newly betrothed couple.