During the Siglo de Oro, the Golden Age of Spanish drama (1580–1680), the Spanish court sponsored many types of theatrical entertainments. The kings and queens of Spain enjoyed re-enactments of battles, processions using triumphal arches and cars, invenciones (scenic charades), ballets, and máscaras (masques). In addition to these theatrical forms, two major types of drama developed at court towards the end of the sixteenth century. N.D. Shergold refers to these forms as particulares, or command performances of plays from the public repertory, and festival plays: elaborate productions involving machines and Italianate scenery, which were performed on special occasions.
A close analysis of the heroines in Las paredes oyen, La prueba de las promesas , and La verdad sospechosa proves that Alarcón's female protagonists are not as selfish, unfeeling, and hypocritical as traditional scholarship has described them. The heroines of these plays are independent, active, and decisive women, making choices and determining not only their own destinies but the heroes' destinies as well. Traditional scholarship also criticizes Alarcón's female characters as "undistinguished and undistinguishable," but each of the heroines in the three plays chosen for analysis is clearly drawn and well-differentiated from the others. Alarcón, long noted for his characterizations of men, also created interesting, well-drawn, and independent female characters in Las paredes oyen, La prueba de las promesas , and La verdad sospechosa . (DJP)
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