The Incest of Amnon and Tamar

Abstract

In the Spanish drama the most important role, next to that of the homosexually tinged motif of disguise, is that of the love of siblings. Particularly so with Lope de Vega, whose parents died when he was extremely young; since he grew up with his sister Isabel and one brother, it is understandable that the parental complex could be replaced in him to such a dominant degree by the sibling complex. It may be remarked that Lope's first wife was also named Isabel, which will not seem accidental in the light of name-determination, and we may point to the circumstance, certainly significant for the psychic life of the dramatist, that his brother, wounded in a sea fight in 1588, died in his arms.In Lope's play The Outrageous Saint (La fianza satisfecha) a young Sicilian named Leonido, whose every crime is committed out of the sheer love of sinning, attempts to rape his married sister.