Between Fertility and Sterility. Wife-Murder and Motherhood in Calderón's Serious Plays

Abstract

This paper analyses the different way violence against female characters is shown in some of the dramatic Calderón's comedies, depending on the genre of the plays and on whether the woman has been a mother or not. The sacrificial dimension of infertile women in the honour tragedies by Calderon will be described as a contrast to the female character when she is a mother, as violence against her acquires martyrdom hues. In other words, violence against women may have been dramatically described in a different way depending on the relationship between these characters and motherhood.