The Butterfly's Evil Spell

The Playtext: The Butterfly’s Evil Spell
Synopsis
The story begins with a prologue, declaring the story as ‘of no great consequence, and yet, disturbing’. The prologue sets the scene where the insects of the story live, a peaceful green meadow as seen through a magnifier. A peaceful pond is nearby, shaded by lillies. The peacefulness of the glade may be influenced by the peaceful life that Lorca lived as a child, sheltered from most hardships by being the son of a wealthy family. This might also be a reference to the shelter that Spain enjoyed during the First World War as it was neutral. The prologue declares the story as one of love, and tragedy. Similarly, the fact that the story takes place in a world of bugs is a clear sign of the influence
A garden of small flowers. Two Beetles, Saint Beetle and a Field Beetle, enter discussing Poet Beetle’s plight. Saint Beetle’s sympathy is with the boy, but the Field Beetle is less so. She sees him as a worthless vagrant who will not work for his food (“[he] doesn’t work and apply himself” 2.1). Saint Beetle retires to her cave to pray for Poet Beetle. Sylvia’s mother, Dona Proudbeetle, enters with Witch Beetle and the Butterfly. They prepare the ground where the Butterfly will be placed into a midnight pool. Witch Beetle pledges to keep the Butterfly safe by putting one of the strongest beetles on guard (“Stay here in the flowers, guarding over the dreams of the sleeping white butterfly.” 2.2). Slowly, the Butterfly awakes and in her soliloquy remarks how she is “death and loveliness.” She is beauty and death joined. But even when she awakes, her wing will not let her fly and she falls back into sleep. Scorpy arrives, seeing the opportunity of prey, but is dissuaded by the Guard Beetle who cries out for help (“Watch out or I’ll scream! Go away!” 2.4). With Scorpy gone, three old fireflies enter the scene. They too are in search of love. The butterfly, hearing their words, begins to speak to them. She reveals their ignorance in the way they search for love, as they seek not a lover but something to love, like an object. In the next scene, Poet Beetle kneels beside the Butterfly. However, his words and his poetry do not touch the
At the time Lorca was an inexperienced playwright, and this was his first play. When it first premiered on the night of March the 22nd, 1920, it was received quite poorly. At the time, the audience was not used to something like what Lorca had created. The story of the Butterfly’s Evil Spell was not something new or revolutionary at the time that it was first performed, but the way in which it was presented was. The story is relatively simple. A tragic love story between a boy who yearned for more than could be found within the confines of his home and the woman who represented all that he had searched for. However, the story ends in tragedy as the boy realises that his dream can never be realised and he so dies of a broken heart. The themes of the play had been addressed before in other pieces of romantic literature. However, it was simply the way that it was presented. It was too surreal, audiences were not yet ready to see poetic-theatre from an untested playwright involving the secret love lives of