Bécquer's Late Romantic Period: Poetry, Prose, and Theater

Bécquer's Late Romantic Works

Poetry

Rimas

Bécquer's most famous work, Rimas, is a collection of 79 short poems characterized by their intimate tone, simple vocabulary, and assonant rhyme. These poems explore themes of love, inspiration, disillusionment, and loneliness. They are grouped into four series that trace the arc of a love story:

1. The Mystery of Poetry (1-11)
2. Hopeful and Joyous Love (12-29)
3. Love's Disillusionment (30-51)
4. Loneliness and Emptiness (52-79)

Bécquer's style avoids the loudness and effects of earlier Romantic poetry, favoring a soft rhythm and evocative language.

Characteristics

• Influence of popular poetry: Short, direct verses with assonance and repetition.
• Influence of Symbolism: Exploration of interior experiences and the ineffable through symbols like wind, harps, and light.

Prose

Bécquer's prose work includes From My Cell, a collection of miscellaneous writings on art, life, and landscapes, and Legends, a set of short narratives with exotic and Romantic themes. From My Cell was written during Bécquer's stay at Veruela Monastery. Legends transport the reader to a world of mystery, exploring themes of love, death, terror, lyricism, and the supernatural. Some notable Legends include:

• Mount of Souls
• The Miserere
• Maese Pérez, the Organist
• The Kiss
• The Moonlight
• Green Eyes

Characteristics of Legends

• Short stories with exotic and strange settings.
• Vague locations and time periods, often set in the Middle Ages.
• Idyllic scenery.
• Narrative often develops on two levels: the legendary story and the chronicle that testifies to it.
• Ambiguity between historical fact and fiction.

Theater

Bécquer's theater work coincided with a period when Spanish audiences were rejecting Neoclassicism and embracing Romanticism. Key plays of this era include:

• The Conspiracy of Venice (Francisco Martínez de la Rosa)
• The Troubadour (Antonio García Gutiérrez)
• The Lovers of Teruel (Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch)
• Don Álvaro, or the Force of Destiny (Duke of Rivas)

Characteristics of Romantic Theater

• Rejection of the three unities (action, time, and place).
• Use of asides and monologues.
• Typical Romantic settings: ruins, cemeteries, prisons, solitary landscapes.
• Themes based on legends, history, adventure, or chivalry.
• Emphasis on emotion over reason.
• Tragic characters often marked by fate.
• Mixing of comic and tragic elements.
• Use of both verse and prose.