Moratín’s Didactism in His Book El Sí De Las Niñas: Critical and Contextualized Study

Abstract

We undertake this study on the Spanish Enlightenment Age book El sí de las niñas, in order to analyze the marriage of convenience or interest and its inconveniences in it, assess the issue in the current African context and propose solutions for the crises generated by this social phenomenon and for the safeguarding of the virtuous in our matchmaking customs. We do it through a socio-critical approach and through objective, comparative, aesthetic and analytical methods. From which the results stand out, according to which Leandro Fernández de Moratín denounces in his comedy the marriage arranged by the parents and advocates weddings with love and mutual consent of the couple. In addition, his theatrical piece is made according to the poetic regulations of the Enlightenment. What makes the work a prototype of a neoclassical genre comedy with a pedagogical setting. By contextualizing the theme of African matchmaking customs characterized by inequality, the predominance of material interest, and determining parental interference, we come to the conclusion that this social phenomenon is still in force to the present day and, therefore, constitutes a factor of stability in the lives of some homes, as a cause of many psychic and lethal damages in others. For what we suggest first, the relativization and moderation in the judgments towards this practice and, later and with perspective, the sanitation of cultural customs, an inclusive legislation on the regulation of parental interventions in the marriage of their kids, formal education and informal pro family.