Luces de Bohemia: A Literary Analysis of Valle-Inclán's Masterpiece
Characters and the Grotesque Reality
Max Estrella is a frustrated poet who has gone blind. His work does not succeed, and thus he does not earn enough to eat. It is tragic that, despite his blindness, he is the only character who truly sees reality—a reality captured by defining the grotesque. Don Latino is a frequent companion of Max. He takes advantage of Max's generosity, but by the end of the play, he is the only one who has realized that the world is a sham, a grotesque reality.
This work introduces and defines the concept of the esperpento, a term Valle-Inclán places in the mouth of the protagonist, Max Estrella, when he says: "The classic heroes. The tragic sense." He later states: "The images or... My current aesthetic."
The Absurd Journey of Max Estrella
The protagonist, Max Estrella, rises in the morning from his home with Don Latino, to claim he be paid more for the novel that Don Latino has sold. They fail to improve the price and end up in a bar getting drunk. Hours later, police on the street arrest him for causing a scandal with a group of young modernists, and he is driven to jail, where he has to spend the night. He gets out of jail thanks to the intervention of an editor from the newspaper El Popular. Upon his release, he goes to see the Minister of the Interior, a former classmate, to demand satisfaction for what has occurred.
The Minister promises him money each month but offers no true satisfaction. From there, he goes to a cafe, where he dines with Don Latino and Rubén Darío. Already on his way home, he has a vision of death, and the next morning, he is found dead by a few neighbors. The absurdity culminates with the burial of Max and how Don Latino gets drunk at a tavern. This pervasive absurdity is meant to highlight the decline and the impossibility of a dignified literary life in Spanish society. Valle-Inclán ironically and grotesquely stylizes reality through satire.
Valle-Inclán's Distinctive Literary Style
A distinctive literary characteristic of Valle-Inclán is the technique of fast-paced, show-like scenes that appear to have been cut. When one terminates and another begins, it seems that something is missing to conclude the previous one. He avoids deep psychological analysis of characters, who are mere symbols, a series of puppets subject to the will of the author. Thus, Max, a tragic character, turns out to be grotesque, appearing as a laughable caricature, a serial character. Another literary trait of Valle-Inclán is his profound knowledge of language. We also note his repeated use of irony.
The action begins in the morning and ends the next day evening. Max Estrella leaves in the morning from his home and spends half the night in jail. The next morning, he is found dead at the door of his house. He is buried at sunset, and the action ends at night when Don Latino is in the bar. All the action takes place in Madrid, and the time is real. Valle-Inclán has placed the work in an era of rioting in Spain, when Maura was the Minister of Governance in Madrid. The Madrid Valle-Inclán paints is foolish and hungry, with street fighting prevalent.