Puertas cerradas y cuartos a oscuras en las tragedias calderonianas (con algunas excursiones en las comedias)

Abstract

In many Calderon’s tragic plays, a room or a hall can turn into a space of violence, if locked or opened against the will of the character (mostly a woman) who lives in it. That is what we can observe in La gran Cenobia, El medico de su honra, El pintor de su deshonra, El mayor monstruo del mundo, La vida es sueno . In comic plays, on the contrary, dramatic situations like these use to turn out well, thanks to ingenious solutions or favorable chance: it is what happens in Amor, honor y poder and La dama duende ; whereas the case of No hay cosa como callar confirms the generic ambiguity of this play.