On Espronceda's Personality

Abstract

Two schools of thought exist today concerning the Byronic attitude revealed in Espronceda's works: the traditional school declares that it is a reflection of the rebellious, irreligious, Bohemian character of the poet, while the new school believes that Espronceda deliberately acted and wrote in such a way as to make the public think that he was a dangerous rebel, merely to cast an aura of romanticism about his own person. According to the latter critics, Espronceda was playing a part or maintaining a pose. They claim that his friends knowingly contributed to the false portrait and that their accounts of Espronceda's disdain for conventionality—which are taken quite literally by the traditional school—are but fabrications intended to foster a legend. Hence the new critics give no credence to Ferrer del Río's statement that Espronceda was depicting himself in the hero of El estudiante de Salamanca or Escosura's implication that Byron's romantic adventures and disordered existence influenced profoundly Espronceda's fiery soul, “not less naturally rebellious against the common rules of life.”