>Role Constraints versus Self-Identity in La tejedora de sueiios and Anillos para una dama

Abstract

In this study I would like to elaborate on this dilemma of role demands versus personal desires as it relates to two twentieth-century Spanish dramas. While both of these dramas are based on the mythic stories of legendary heroes, Ulysses and the Cid, the focus is nevertheless not on the heroes themselves, but rather on their wives, Penelope and Jimena. Both women have come to be prototype figures who represent the loyal, faithful, passive but supportive wife whose love for her husband is exemplary and unquestioned. In La tejedora de suenos (The Weaver of Dreams) (1952), Antonio Buero Vallejo asks what life might have been like for Penelope during Ulysses' twenty-year absence, whereas Antonio Gala in Anillos para una dama (Rings for a Lady) (1973) speculates on Jimena's life after the Cid's death.