Historia de una escalera

Critical Assessment of Historia de una escalera

History of a ladder is a play written by Antonio Buero Vallejo premiered in 1949. This work was the first play written by the author and the most important thing was. Historia de una escalera gives a twist to the Spanish theater of the time in introducing social issues, breaking with the inertia of the theater that had so far.

Antonio Buero Vallejo tells the story of a series of humble social class families who live at home around a staircase. This work is divided into three acts, three scenes representing the life of these characters. Between the first and second act there is a gap of ten years between the second and third act is a twenty years. The work also shows a relationship between the first and the third act, which Fernando Carmina son daughter makes the same promise he made to Carmina Fernando in the first act. This promise is repeated between Urban and Carmina.

The repetitive occurrence of the promises of the characters represents the possibility of progress and that everything remains the same over time and even generations, demonstrates the impossibility of improvement and progress of the lower classes of the time. Because of this, in Historia de una escalera shown from the beginning a reality to be imposed on all the characters, resulting in projects such as Urban collective or individual projects such as Fernando, a total failure, thus remaining in the same situation of which left the characters. The time it takes the work is long, but the action is done in one place, a ladder (which gives its name to the work), giving a sense of lack of progress (symbolism) on the site.

Consequently, History of a ladder is a work that shows the lack of outlets of the Spanish society of the time, creating an existential drama so far related to the literature of realism