The theatrical subgenre of the religious spanish romanticism: Gertrudis Gómez of Avellaneda’s Baltasar

Abstract

This article offers an analysis and interpretation of the best Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s drama, Baltasar, written in 1858, based on the biblical episode of the Dinner of King Baltasar and the fall of the neo-babylonian empire. Author’s purpose —aforesaid in the piece’s preface— was to demonstrate how God’s Providence governs man’s destiny and his empires. The greatest attraction and novelty of this piece lies in showing Baltasar as a man ruined by Spleen —the nineteenth century’s literary disease—, confronting his lack of religious faith to the faith of two Jewish young people, Elda and Rubén, and two historical characters, King Joaquin and prophet Daniel. This drama would follow the wake of Don Juan Tenorio, and would contribute to a theatrical subgenre of religious conservative romanticism.