Key Symbols in Buero Vallejo's El Tragaluz: Train, Skylight, Scissors

Symbolism of the Train

The train is a real element, but it also holds a specific symbolic purpose. For viewers, it symbolizes triumph and victory. It's an element tied to memory, particularly for Vicente. However, it also represents the triumph of oppression, the root of his ongoing anguish and eventual death. Getting on or off the train signifies taking or refusing to take sides in society's game. The sound of the train is more prevalent in the first part; in the second, its meaning prompts thought and meditation.

The Role of Light

The work features significant changes in lighting. One scene, featuring Él and Ella, is marked by clarity.

The Well and Warnings

Regarding the setting and foreshadowing:

• Mario tells Vicente:

  "And that's what I like about you."

  He also warns,

  "Down here is dangerous for you, don't you know?"

  (referring to Vicente's visits to his parents' home).
• Even the Mother tells Vicente:

  "You're driving me mad. You come so far."

• Vicente himself will say,

  "I must return,"

  after which the Father laughs.

Meaning of the Scissors

The Father cuts figures from postcards and says,

"I have to secure everything I can, keep it safe."

The Mother warns the Father:

"Be careful not to cause harm with those scissors!"

(This serves as tragic anticipation). At one point, the Father wants to cut the figures' fingers. Vicente warns of the danger. Mario says he must observe and not act. The Father, after the crime and stripped of the scissors, cuts the figures' fingers from the postcards. This serves to 'save' them—which is why he cuts people out of the postcards.

The Skylight (El Tragaluz) Symbol

It symbolizes defeat and failure. It can also represent a subhuman way of life, a form of escape enabling the creation of an imaginary reality. However, compared to the train, it symbolizes stagnation—a life rooted in the memory of a sad past. It represents a world of darkness that prevents humanity from reaching the truth. It can also be seen as representing fragmentary knowledge of reality, akin to Plato's cave allegory.

The skylight, an architectural component on the basement's fourth wall (visible only via its shadow projected onto the stage wall), is a symbolic element. It connects those inside, contemplating the exterior world, sometimes sitting as if before a stage—in their words,

"like in the movies."

Through its grids, all their obsessions are projected: the rival brothers, Mario and Vicente; Mario believes he imagines listening to Beltrán and a couple with problems similar to his own with Encarna; the confused Father mistakes the train and the skylight; he speaks to Elvira and discovers her in each child's voice.

Mario, like a demiurge (or an author), creates something that also serves as a means of knowledge. As with Plato's cave, intuitive knowledge is achieved. It acts as a mirror for Mario, reflecting him as he is reflected in the other (

"I feel... he..."

). The mirror reproduces my face; I feel it.