The Threat of Rape in Leonor de la Cueva's La firmeza en la ausencia

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY THE THREAT OF RAPE IN LEONOR DE LA CUEVA’S LA FIRMEZA EN LA AUSENCIA STACEY L. PARKER ARONSON RAPE is an all too common motif in the literature of the Golden Age. In many cases the rapist is someone of high socio-economic privilege, such as the Comendador in Lope de Vega’s Fuente Ovejuna or Don Juan Tenorio in Tirso de Molina’s El burlador de Sevilla. In addition, most potential rape victims do, in fact, become actual rape victims, although the rapes often take place offstage in the case of drama or while the female victim is unconscious (Miguel de Cervantes’s La fuerza de la sangre and María de Zayas’s La inocencia castigada and La esclava de su amante, to name but a few) in the case of narrative, likely for reasons of decorum and as a means to highlight the female rape victim’s innocence and noncompliance. What is unique about Leonor de la Cueva’s rendering of the topic in her drama La firmeza en la ausencia is the fact that the rapist is the king and the potential rape victim Armesinda is never actually raped, although the threat is omnipresent. Cueva allows her heroine Armesinda to successfully dissuade her rapist, the king Filiberto , for a time, by using her wit and her intelligence, thereby allowing her to appear to be the agent of her own defense, at least up to a point. It is precisely this point – the king’s threatened rape – and the questions it provokes that merit a more detailed analysis of the omnipresent menace that does not ultimately occur. A number of questions that warrant consideration are: III. Why does Leonor de la Cueva represent the king as the rapist? III. How would the drama unfold if the king actually raped Armesinda? III. Why does Leonor de la Cueva not allow Armesinda to be raped? YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY 141 While the potential answers to these questions call for some speculation on the part of the reader, it is precisely these questions that bring to light textual gaps and reveal much about the socio-historical and socio-political context surrounding the drama, particularly as regards gender relations. King Filiberto carries out a series of acts designed to physically isolate the object of his lascivious desires – Armesinda – and entice her to consent to his amorous attentions. His attempts to seduce her escalate from professions of affection to an offer of marriage to the threat of physical violence. First, in an act reminiscent of the Biblical story of David and Bathsheba (Samuel II: 11, 215-216), he sends her betrothed Juan away to war. Juan is not oblivious to the king’s ulterior motives but must nevertheless obey as the loyal servant that he is, the king’s licit need for military victory belying his illicit need for sexual release with Armesinda. Later, in the hope that Armesinda will emotionally renounce her betrothed, King Filiberto tells her that Juan has married someone else. He does consider actually murdering Juan as a means to physically remove him from her presence. The king tells her that he loves her and wants to marry her. Finally, when all else fails and he cannot have what he wants through persuasion, he threatens to obtain it by force through rape. Despite the fact that Armesinda’s efforts to dissuade the king are successful, it is made patently clear that she has no protection. The one who is supposed to be protecting her – the king – in the absence of her betrothed Juan is her greatest threat; she is vulnerable to his amorous attentions. She is trapped between two men – king and betrothed – both of whom believe that she will be unfaithful and consent to sexual relations . The other females present, Princess Celidaura and a female servant Leonora – two extremes of the socio-economic spectrum under the authority of the king –, similarly conspire against the hapless young woman and encourage her to succumb to the king’s advances. King Filiberto reveals his lascivious intentions on two previous occasions before he actually threatens to rape her. Puede mucho un rey amante, y como tal, mostrará, ya que tan cruel est...