Preview

Javier Miranda Essay

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
---------------Discuss the position of the character of Javier Miranda in relation to the social forces and the historical conflicts that surround him in La verdad sobre el caso Savolta The period of social, political and economic upheaval in which Barcelona finds itself in La verdad sobre el caso Savolta provides a framework that encircles the events and characters in the novel. Mendoza places the character of Javier Miranda in the centre of this turmoil in order to comment on the extreme corruption of the bourgeoisie and the resulting, seemingly endless, cycle of violence that faces early twentieth century Spain.
I will examine the social forces and historical conflicts that surround Miranda in order to highlight his character as a victim of the corrupt underbelly of Barcelona society and its allusions to Francoist Spain. I will also focus on
…show more content…

Not only does María Coral engage in sexual encounters with Lepprince, but Miranda is helpless under the threat of Max’s pistol: “No nos gustan los niños fisgones” (p. 368). This horrendous experience of betrayal forces Miranda’s imagination into a childlike state: “mi padre me llevaba por primera vez al colegio” (p. 368). The two images of childhood and adultery are juxtaposed to stress Miranda’s position as a victim of the sinister power of the wealthy.
Additionally, Miranda’s doubts about the existence and authenticity of love are revealed in his conversation with Perico Serramadriles: “A medida que pasa el tiempo más me convenzo de que el amor es pura teoría” (p. 285). This underlines the sad reality of the meticulous organisation of society in which disturbing ulterior motives drive the formation of relationships and love is a façade used for personal gain. This is particularly prominent in Lepprince’s callous pursuit of María Rosa Savolta for social power: “Lepprince me comunicó que se casaba” (p.


You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Mixing locations and time periods allowed Díaz to create a novel with high political and cultural significance. The characters challenge the social norms of their place and time, for example Lola presenting herself as a “Banshees-loving punk chick” to the dismay of her mother, and in a completely different time period Lola’s grandfather doing the unspeakable and challenging the rule of the Dominican dictator (54). For characters like Beli and Abelard, Oscar and Lola’s grandfather, their storylines draw on the impact that the government, especially the ruthless ruler, Trujillo, has on their lives. Further down the line though Oscar, Lola and Yunior do not have to live under a harsh dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, they do have to cope with the always-increasing social pressures of growing up in America as Hispanic immigrants, exhibiting the deviations in social and cultural aspects of life as time…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The characterization, in The House on Mango Street, of Esperanza’s great-grandmother and Rafaela is used to convey how women were inferior to men in Esperanza’s society. According to Esperanza, her great-grandmother was a very wild woman. That is why she refused to marry until a man “threw a sack over her head and carried her off” (Cisneros, 11). This shows how unimportant women are, of that time, that a man could kidnap a woman and she could do nothing, no matter how wild she was. Also, despite her wild personality, Esperanza’s great-grandmother shows how women could be forced into marriage without a say in who they marry. Like Esperanza’s great-grandmother, Rafaela has many hopes such as dancing at the dance hall or bar. However, she never…

    • 210 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rhetoric and Rodriguez

    • 374 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Answer the following questions as they pertain to Rodriguez’s “Aria”. This is a lengthy piece – I expect your responses to match the significance of the text.…

    • 374 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sigmund Freud said, “A woman should soften but not weaken a man.” This quote exemplifies the character Casilda from Isabel Allende’s short story “The Judge’s Wife”. Although not seen by all as a main character, Casilda is the strongest and most evolutionary character of the short story. “The Judge’s Wife” is an exceptional tale that follows the progression of characters as they fight against their predetermined destinies and how they are viewed in others’ eyes. Casilda is a catalyst for the evolution of almost every character in the story. Not only does her character grow in “The Judge’s Wife”, but she is also a medium for the growth of the two other main characters in the story, Judge Hidalgo and Nicolas Vidal.…

    • 1550 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    In El Laberinto del Fauno, Guillermo del Toro uses the theme of obedience to illustrate and condemn two repressive components of fascism: patriarchy and the coercion of free will. This essay will look at two examples of obedience in the film which reveal the abhorrent nature of these aspects of fascism and the importance of resisting them. These are, respectively, the relationship between Captain Vidal and Mercedes and Ofelia’s refusal to compromise her own integrity.…

    • 1537 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    In A Place Where the Sea Remembers, Sandra Benitez invites us into a mesmerizing world filled with love, anger, tragedy and hope. This rich and bewitching story is a bittersweet portrait of the people in Santiago, a Mexican village by the sea. Each character faces a conflict that affects the course of his or her life. The characters in this conflict are Remedios, la curandera of the small town who listens to people’s stories and gives them advice, Marta, a 16 year old teenage girl, who was raped and became pregnant. Chayo is Marta’s big sister and Calendario is Chayo’s husband. Justo Flores, his conflict is person vs. self. One of the most important conflicts in this story is person vs. person, then person vs. supernatural followed by person vs. self.…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” (Andre Gide) In the novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, written by Julia Alvarez, four sisters are led through a risk infested journey in which they must overcome hindrances with hollow consequences. This historical fiction novel takes us through a rollercoaster of events, incorporating everything from the partialities towards women, to life below the oppressive administration of the Dominican Republic’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The events painted by the four sisters give us some insight as to the positives and negatives of life in the Dominican Republic. As the novel progresses, we see the diversity in relation to the sisters’ personalities, each of whom is fueled by a different cause. Julia Alvarez uses reproving diction in the quote, “His own terror was a window that opened onto the rotten weakness at the heart of Trujillo’s system…” (Alvarez 278) to exemplify the major theme of authoritarianism; and specifically through the three phrases, “terror”, “weakness,” and “rotten system,” we are able to visualize Trujillo’s iniquitous use of fear, his exploitation of power, and the major flaws in his system, respectively, which all can be tied back to the principal theme of authoritarianism.…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Killing His Wife

    • 630 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the introduction of this chapter, we learn that on November 28th, 1595 Gaspar de Peralta, a judge for the Royal Audiencia of Charcas, answered a call from his next-door neighbor’s house. Once he entered the house, he found a domestic horror scene. Having entered the bedroom, Peralta found his chief scribe and the secretary of the audiencia (Fernando de Medina) standing over the bloody bodies of his wife and her lover, Beatriz Gonzalez. Fernando de Medina (the Husband) immediately confessed to murdering his wife and her love. He proceeded to tell the judge of his wife’s long- term affair with Beatriz Gonzalez. Fernando de Medina believed that it was his right to defend his honor. One of the first documents was a statement from Medina, saying that in no point in time in the twenty-seven years or so of marriage had he given his wife a reason to be unfaithful. In the document he explained that over the twenty-seven years he had moved from place to place and he always provided his wife with everything she’d ever needed. She provided him with two children and they all were all well taken care of. The last and final move though was she meets her “new suitor” in the garden. He goes on to say that Gonzalez and his wife would use any opportunity and location to be together. They used his (the husband) home, or the lovers, she would either wear her own clothes or try to hide their relationship and wear men’s clothing. In this passage the husband feels he has to defend his honor because he found out that all of his servants were aware of this affair.…

    • 630 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the novel the development of Cristina’s character has been effected because of her alienation from the community, making her feel lonely and helpless. The citizens of Valle de Sole despise and neglect Cristina because of her attitude and uniquely strong…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The play "Fuenteovejuna", written between 1612 and 1614 by Lope de Vega and published in Madrid in 1619, is a literary piece which presents a vast amount of information on life in the historical kingdom of Castile during the 15th century. It is evident that the play is far more than a dramatic series of events as it reflects on the political and social aspects of Spain in this period. However, underneath the political surface, we can deduce that the themes of love, morals and ethics have a far greater role in the piece than first meets the eye. Therefore, there is an argument that the play should not be set against a solely political background, but one in which the impact of the theme of love should not be understated amongst its political features. We can have no doubt as to the prominence of the theme of love in this play as a result of a declaration made by Frondoso. He states that Fuente Ovejuna revolts because of love, "Yo voy, señor ; que amor les ha movido". This is a direct statement which clarifies to the audience that love is the main theme of the play rather than any political or sociological aspects.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers. .... The theme of power is undeniably existent between the relationship of Miranda ...…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The House of Bernarda Alba

    • 1647 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Frederico Garcia Lorca is renowned for his tragedy plays. The House of Bernarda Alba is amongst the ones that helped him achieve his worldwide fame, representing remote and rural settings for the play. Throughout the production, several themes intertwine together to create the desired tragedy effect that Lorca aims for. For instance, Bernarda 's love of gossiping and desire to know everything that is going on with the neighbors in her village are contradictory to her fear of others finding out what goes on behind her closed doors. This brings up a contrast between her private and her public appearance. [Certainly, it is clear to the audience, that what she tries to portray to the public is false as many horrible things happen within her household.] Also, the theme of sex [[and love]] is apparent in Bernarda’s household, introducing society’s double standards and which to some extent, is inseparable with that of repression. Paralleling on the flip side is the notion of individuality that Adela frantically seeks to obtain, which ends in her death, a theme that begins and ends this play.…

    • 1647 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Later, she is babysitting a little boy named Rohin. Rohin is the son of a woman who has recently been dealing with her husband having an affair. On page 107, Rohin tells Miranda that she is sexy. She asks Rohin what he thinks sexy means. He says, “…it means loving someone you don’t know…that’s what my father did, he sat next to someone he didn’t know, someone sexy, and now he loves her instead of my mother.” This scene shifts Miranda’s perspective of their affair. She sees that when Dev called her sexy, he really told her that he does not love her; he loves the…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Miranda and Ferdinand fall in love with each other at first sight. This can cause many drawbacks in their relationship as husband and wife, since they know each other in the play for a very short time and have not yet learned about each other. They seem to be enamored about each other and each is willing to do almost anything for the other. For instance, being a prince, Ferdinand might not have done any physical labor in his life but happily obeys Miranda’s father’s orders to win his favor. Even Miranda becomes extremely upset on seeing Ferdinand’s plight. But these seeming acts of deep affection could be accounted for by other feelings. Ferdinand is taken by Miranda’s beauty and, since he had a near death experience when he believed, he might mistake his sexual attraction to her as true love. Miranda has never seen another man in her life except for her father and the ugly Caliban. She does not have anyone else to compare him to and not knowing what her feelings for him might be.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    These plots are the romance between Ferdinand and Miranda; the comedy of Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo and finally, the tragedy planned by Antonio and Sebastian. All three plots, however, follow a strict structure in the form of a shipwreck, a meeting, a temptation/test, a reward/ punishment and lastly the reconciliation. In each of these plots, there is a recurrent motif, which is intoxication.…

    • 2220 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays