Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Sacrifice Theme in Cervantes' "Numancia"

1962; American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese; Volume: 45; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/336807

2153-6414

William M. Whitby,

Early Modern Spanish Literature

In his interpretation of Cervantes' Numancia, Joaquin Casalduero finds three themes expressed: triste, hambre, and muerte-vida, the latter being the principal one.' My purpose in this study is to investigate further, and in a somewhat different manner, the muerte-vida theme. I prefer, however, to argue that sacrifice is the principal of the Numancia and to consider the muerte-vida as subsidiary, in that the latter becomes the most adequate way of giving expression to the sacrifice theme. I shall not use the word theme only in the melodic sense, as Casalduero does, but also in the broader, conceptual sense. The words muerte and vida occur with great frequency in the play. This is not true of the word sacrificio, but the idea of sacrifice arises repeatedly from the action. Cervantes' work portrays Scipio's siege of Numantia and its final destruction, together with the death of every single one of its inhabitants, most of them by suicide or at the hands of their fellow Numantians. The first of the four acts lays the scene. Scipio determines to starve out the inhabitants of Numantia and gives orders to cut off the town's every means of communication with the outside. He refuses to come to terms with the Numantian ambassadors. The town's desperate plight is lamented by Espafia, and she is consoled by the River Duero, who promises that, although Numantia must fall, Spain will one day triumph over Rome. The second act opens with a council held by the Numantians. Several proposals are made as possible remedies to their situation: 1) that they invite the Romans to base the outcome of the war on a single combat between a Roman and a Numantian; 2) that the men of fighting age attack the Romans by night in the hope that some of them will be able to get through the besiegers' lines to their friends; 3) that their soothsayer, Marquino, try to discover what the future holds for them; and 4) that they make a sacrifice to Jupiter, so that he may be induced to reverse their cruel fate. The latter two of these proposals are put into effect, but with negative results. In the third act, the challenge to single combat is rejected by Scipio, and then the Numantian women dissuade the men from the night sally across the ditch. Te6genes, the Numantian leader, then orders all to bum their possessions in a bonfire, waming them that his next order will be harsher. Marandro, whose plans for happiness with his beloved Lira were first postponed by reason of the war and now are put to naught by the turn of events, determines to penetrate the Roman lines by night in the hope of bringing back bread to succour the starving girl. His friend Leonicio insists on going with him. In the final act, Marandro returns from his sally -with bread which has cost Leonicio his life and Marandro himself mortal wounds. After offering the bread to Lira, he dies in her arms. Following an interlude in which Guerra and her accomplices, Enfermedad and Hambre, comment on the success of their operations against the Numantians, Te6genes enters with his family and takes them to the temple of Diana to kill them before killing himself in suicidal combat with other Numantian warriors. He intends to be the first to implement the agreement just reached in the council, whereby, turning the sword inward upon their loved ones and then upon themselves, the Numantians hope to rob Scipio of