Romantic Theater: Structure, Themes, and Key Authors
Romantic Theater: Key Elements
Structure
The neoclassical rule of three units is abandoned. Dramas often have five acts, in verse or mixed prose and verse, with varied meter. Stage directions, not accepted in neoclassical works, become abundant. Monologues gain importance as a way to express characters’ internal struggles.
Scenarios
Theatrical action gains dynamism through a variety of locations within the same performance. Authors use typical romantic settings like cemeteries, ruins, lonely landscapes, and prisons. Nature reflects the characters’ feelings and moods.
Themes
Romantic theater favors legendary, adventurous, chivalrous, or national historical themes, with love and freedom as central. Night scenes, challenges, hidden characters, mysterious suicides, and displays of gallantry or cynicism are common. Events unfold rapidly. The aim is to move the audience, not to instruct as in neoclassical works.
Characters
The number of characters increases. The male hero is often mysterious and courageous, while the heroine is innocent and passionate, but both are marked for doom. Death is seen as liberation. The focus is more on the dynamism of actions than on the analysis of characters’ psychology.
Key Authors of Spanish Romantic Theater
Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas
Held important public office. Initially adopted the Neoclassical style in lyrical works (Poems, 1874) and drama (Lanuza, 1822). His transition to Romanticism is evident in poems like The Exile. His reputation rests on legends and especially on Don Alvaro or the Force of Fate, premiered in 1835, considered the first Spanish Romantic drama, combining prose and verse.
José Zorrilla
His poetry reached its peak with Legends, narrative dramas in verse. Notable legends include Tornera Margarita and A Good Judge, Best Witness. However, he is best known for his plays, including Don Juan Tenorio (1844).
Romanticismotardio
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Prose: His prose includes Legends, twenty-eight stories dominated by mystery. He also wrote Letters from My Room, chronicles from his time in the Veruela monastery.
Poetry: The Rimas are 79 short poems, usually with assonance and free verse.
Rosalía de Castro
Her prose work includes five novels, a story, and some essays. Notable works are The Daughter of the Sea and Flavio, both feminist novels, and The Knight of the Blue Boots, a satirical novel. Her poetry is more prominent, with early works like The Flower (1857) and My Mother (1863) showing Romantic characteristics.