Unamuno's La venda: Short Story and Drama

Abstract

Miguel de Unamuno's short story, La venda, was published on January 22, 1900, in Los lunes del Imparcial, Madrid. His play, La venda, a one-act drama with two cuadros, appeared in libro popular, on June 17, 1913, in Madrid. Both works tell the story of a young woman, Maria, who was blind from birth and who, after an operation, recovers her sight. Shortly thereafter, her beloved father becomes ill and Maria feels the need to cover her eyes in order to find her way to him. In her father's house the blindfold is forcibly removed from her and she sees her father die. The short story, which contains the seed of the drama, is shorter and gives no superfluous description. The reader enters directly into the plot, for the story begins with these words: Y vi6 de pronto hombre venir una mujer despavorida, como un pdjaro herido, tropezando a cada paso, con los grandes ojos prefiados de espanto que parecian mirar el vacio y con los brazos extendidos. The shortest of dialogues causes the story to remain on a level of tension, where only the purest and most intense of emotions have a place. Even the use of paradox, not only in the d6nouement but also in the dialogue, seems credible. The words of Maria, although brief, perfectly express her intense emotional experience. The flashback technique enables the reader to penetrate and understand the appearance of Maria, who covers her eyes and asks for a cane. Even the narrative maintains the same level of intensity. One of Unamuno's favorite themes, the lack of humanism in science, receives brief attention in the short story: El doctor y sus compafieros tomaban notas de aquel caso curiosisimo, recogian con ansia datos para la ciencia psicol6gica, asaeteandola. a preguntas ... (S, 422). The brevity of the story permits only a minimum of characters. At the opening there appear a spectator, nuestro hombre, and a woman who explains Maria's attitude and past history. At Maria's house a few words are spoken by the doctor. When we return to the present, we are taken to the house of Maria's