A Note on the Criticism of Alarcón's La verdad sospechosa

Abstract

Traditionally, most critics', interpretations of Alarcón's La verdad sospechosa has focused on the question of whether the play stresses moral worth, social criticism or mere aesthetic principles because of García's behavior which goes against the grain of social morality, and leads to the undesired marriage of the denouement.

It is clear that Alarcón constructed his dramatic plot according to the demands of the Spanish Baroque drama as we witness the unfolding of the action, which relies on the principal character's scheming, and the moral, social and aesthetic elements revealed therein.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest, in addition, that Alarcón's original plan was possibly to insist on the primacy of the main theme as the character's lies over action, and simultaneously to emphasize social criticism and moral meaning in order both to offer a social environment and to attract the spectators' attention. However, shortly after the play commences, García's initial unintentional error—his mistake over a name—constitutes a cardinal stratagem to tangle the plot of the drama instead of García's lies, which would verge on mere dramatic components for entertainment, and that in the ending, Alarcón elucidated moral and social meaning as a main theme again. It would thus seem that the spectators enjoyed the justicia poétiica alarconiana, but it is unclear if Alarcón's intentions toward the public were specifically didactic.