Plot Overview
Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega is a three-act play which was written in the 1600s, and published in 1619 with other works by the author. The story was based on historical events that took place in Fuenteovejuna around 1476. The play is about Fernan Gomez de Guzman who was the commander and a senior member of Order of Calatrava in charge of his village. According to the author, Guzman was known for mistreating people, and thus, they decided to work together to kill him which was the only way they would have overthrown him. However, King Ferdinand II of Aragon who was higher in command compared to Guzman decided to get to the bottom of the matter by sending a magistrate to go investigate the matter. During the investigation, people were tortured and threatened but the only thing they would say Fuenteovejuna killed the commander because they did not want to leave any single individual to suffer for the sake of the entire village.
On the other hand, Hamlet by William Shakespeare is a story of the murder of Hamlet father which resulted to the downfall of Claudius who succeeded the king after killing him and the death of Hamlet and among other characters. Throughout the play, suicide is used as the means of escape where different characters commit suicide as a way of ensuring they no longer continue seeing the evil things taking place in the society. After his father’s spirit appeared in the palace and claimed that Claudius who killed Helmet father, the author has depicted Hamlet as the best plotter of revenge in the history where he tried all means to revenge the death of his father regardless of what the authority though about it.
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Opposition to Authority
Fuenteovejuna plays start at Rodrigo Tellez Giron home where Rodrigo Tellez Giron who is the master of the Order of Calatrava is meeting with Fernan Gomez de Guzman who is trying to convince the master of the Order of Calatrava the reason they should attack Ciudad Real which is a town of Spain for Portugal (Aronson, 2015). After agreeing that they will launch the attack, they decided that Guzman will be made the new leader of the Ciudad Real town. However, during the attack, we can see the first opposition against the authority where Guzman is trying to capture two women Laurencia and Pascuala against their will, but they decide to resist and manages to escape which was a major blow on Guzman ability to exercise his power in the town. Also, the attack resulted in a new type of opposition where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who were from Spain decided to take the city back hence creating conflict between territories.
During the first act, the play shows characters that are ready to participate in acts which can be claimed to be morally wrong for a good cause. After Laurencia and Pascuala managed to escape, the play shows her trying to come back and meet with his lover in woods but while Guzman is trying to follow Frondoso, Laurencia lover but he manages to escape. Laurencia refused to accept Guzman proposal to be her lover regardless of the authority, power, and influence he had in the village because she was against her evil actions where he was torturing innocent people (Aronson, 2015). Laurencia neglected the crossbow which he was carrying allowing Frondoso to steal the crossbow which has a significant meaning in the village authority and they managed to run away with Laurencia. Regardless of the consequences of their action, including being cursed by the commander, Frondoso and Laurencia were ready to fight for what they believed was a good cause.
The second act starts at the village where the commander and Estaban who was Laurencia father are talking. Using his force and influence, Guzman was trying to force Laurencia father to give her daughter t the commander, but he refuses hence earning anger from the commander. However, as they were arguing, a soldier brought a message about the attack on Ciudad Real by forces of Ferdinand and Isabella who had already surrounded the town (Aronson, 2015). The commander decides to leave Estaban to deal with the new issue. This allowed Laurencia and Pascuala to free the city with the help of Mengo who was a peasant. As they were trying to escape, they met Jacinta who was a peasant girl, but although Mengo tried to protect her, she was captured by Guzman soldiers who threatened her with rape and torture by the commander and his men.
However, regardless of the anger and threats from commander to Estaban, he went ahead to allow Frondoso to marry Laurencia. However, the commander reappeared during their wedding and arrested Frondoso and accused him of threatening the commander with a crossbow. Laurencia and his father Esteban started demonstrating the arrest of Frondoso even though they were aware of the danger this would put them in. the commander ordered the arrest of both characters (Johnson, 1967). To sway the audience sympathy, the author showed Laurencia defeating the commander who was trying to have sex with her and his solder, hence escaping to go back to Fuenteovejuna. While in the village, he managed to convince men to kill the commander and while the commander was preparing to hang Frondoso, the village men attacked his palace killing the commander and his servants.
On the other hand, the main theme of Hamlet by Shakespeare is revenge where some characters decide to act ethically rather meekly submitting to power regardless of the consequences. According to Peter Leithart (2006), Shakespeare has depicted two types of characters in regard to loyalty to authority. The first group is showing the characters of human nature where they compromise their own value for the sake of pleasing those in authority hence resulting in emotional and physical pain to the other people in the society. In the play, this is seen where Polonius is eager to use Ophelia his daughter like a horse, while in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are coerced into investigating his good friend and others.
In the play, Hamlet is a perfect example of characters who decided to act ethically rather meekly submitting to power where he was engaged in massive revenge against Claudius. When Claudius was killed, the people of Denmark including Hamlet showed loyalty to the new King without knowing what caused the death of their former king. Leithart says, “The crime of Claudius looks to him as one more link in an already long chain, and his own revenge will look like still another link, perfectly identical to all the other links” (Leithart, 2006). However once the news about the Hamlet father was broken by the ghost, it triggers major conflict against the authority where Hamlet was trying to revenge his father’s death but on the other side, there were characters who were not willing to do what was right in their eyes, but they always wanted to please the loyal court. For example, Claudius and Gertrude managed to convince Rosencrantz and Guildenstern how Hamlet was suffering. In his critique text, Leithart quoted Claudius where he says, “[Their] visitation shall receive such thanks as fits a king's remembrance.” Instead of standing on the loyalty of the friendship, they had with Hamlet before making the decision to betray him. This is seen where they indicated, "we both obey, and here give ourselves to be commanded.” According to the text, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were not just friends to Hamlet but “excellent good friends” (Leithart, 2006). This means that they decided to act meekly hence submitting to power. They did seem to care when they used their friendship with Hamlet to please the king and the queen even though they were aware of the evil deeds. However, Shakespeare managed to sway audience sympathy by showing that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were killed the same time others were dying.
In conclusion, the analysis of the theme of opposition against authority has depicted a clear difference between the characters in Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega and those in Hamlet by Shakespeare. Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega characters including Laurencia, Mengo, Frondoso and others choose to act ethically rather than meekly submit to the evil power of the commander, while in Hamlet by Shakespeare, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern choose to meekly submit to Claudius and Gertrude power instead of acting ethically and protecting Hamlet who was their good friends to revenge the death of his father who was killed by Claudius.
References
Aronson, S. L. P. (2015). They Said, She Said: Making the Case for Rape in Fuenteovejuna. Bulletin of the Comediantes , 67 (2), 33-47
Johnson, J. (1967). The Concept of the" King's Two Bodies" in Hamlet. Shakespeare Quarterly , 18 (4), 430-434.
Leithart, P. (2006). Final Word on Hamlet. Retrieved from http://www.patheos.com/blogs/leithart/2006/02/final-word-on-hamlet/ on 18/11/2017
