Jerónima's Divided Self: Role-play in El amor médico

Abstract

Jerónima's Divided Self:Role-play in El amor médico Robert L. Turner III El amor médico is a self-contradictory play about a self-contradictory dama that simultaneously promotes Jerónima's independence and mocks her behavior. On one hand, Jerónima proves to the world that she is an intelligent and independent woman whose learning is the equal to that of any man. On the other, Jerónima chooses to marry a man whom she has only fitfully chased and in marrying him, relinquishes her freedom. The tension between her desire for autonomy and her love of Gaspar is emblematic of the internal division she embodies. Historically, this text has lacked attention. Little scholarship exists on El amor médico, and what scholarship there is tends towards either comparative, historical, or reception studies. For example, Yvonne David-Peyre discusses Tirso's use of medical texts and his medical knowledge while in "Del vergonzoso en palacio a El amor médico: El camino hacia la ironía de Tirso de Molina frente a Lope de Vega," and "Tirso contra Lope: Imitación irónica de La portuguesa y Dicha del amor forastero en El amor médico" Elvezio Canónica argues that both El vergonzoso en palacio and El amor médico have multiple points of contact with Lope's La portuguesa y Dicha del amor forastero. Blanca Oteiza explores how this play was presented and received in the nineteenth century and Ruth Kennedy deals with the historical aspects of the text, but not its literary content. Likewise, a recent article by Henry Sullivan and Luciana de Cunha Monteiro delves deeply into Tirso's family tree and Portuguese connections, but only touches upon the text lightly. These articles exemplify the common tone of the research dedicated to the play. Much of the remaining criticism focuses on the debate surrounding the date of the play's composition. The earliest extant version of the play comes from the Cuarta parte de las comedias del maestro Tirso de Molina in 1635 (Bushee 93); there is no manuscript copy. There are several proposed composition dates, including 1619 (Oteiza 23–29), 1621 (Blanca de los Ríos in Obras dramáticas completas 961), and 1625–26 (Kennedy 11–33). Some few studies address the theme of cross-dressing and disguise. Henry Sullivan's, "Tirso de Molina: Dramaturgo andrógino," is an exploration of lesbian tendencies in the play, where he argues that Jerónima's use of cross-dressing can be read as the manifestation of her inclinations. In Robert Ter Horst's "Aspects of Love and Learning in El amor médico," he presents the play as a confirmation of feminine rights, asserting, "The feminism of El [End Page 2] amor médico is authentic; it is profound" (297). With the article, "Do Clothes Make the Man?" Anita K. Stoll addresses the use of disguise in this play, as well as in Don Gil de las calzas verdes, and La celosa de sí misma. The article begins and ends with a Lacanian reading (through Stroud) of cross-dressing from a gendered perspective, in which Stoll discusses the use of disguise, with cross-dressing presented as a secondary element. Later in "Cross-dressing in Tirso's El amor médico [Love, the Doctor] and El Aquiles [Achilles]," Stoll uses this text, in conjunction with El Aquiles, to discuss the arbitrary nature of gender as a societal and personal construction. The most detailed analysis of the text in the last few decades belongs to Melveena McKendrick, in her 1974 monograph Woman and Society in the Spanish Drama of the Golden Age: A Study of the Mujer Varonil. McKendrick views Jerónima's actions in feminist terms, while explicitly rejecting a sexualized reading (316). She bases her views on the assertiveness of Jerónima's character and active pursuit of her goal. "[L]ike so many of Tirso's heroines, she translates her desires into immediate action" (236). This text laid the ground for much of the criticism that followed and for the purposes of this article, McKendrick's reading is still the most pertinent, since I wish to examine how the use...