Valle-Inclán's Bohemian Lights: Analysis and Structure

Valle-Inclán explained that there are "three ways of seeing the world, artistic or aesthetic: kneeling, standing, or built in the air." The first involves characters that are of a "superior status to the human condition." The second way "up" would be used by Shakespeare, which includes the characters "as if they were our own, like splitting the character of our self, with our own virtues and our own defects." The third way is "a very Spanish way, a way of the demiurge, who does not believe in any way made of the same clay as their puppets."

Bohemian Lights: A Closer Look

Bohemian Lights was serialized in a magazine in Spain. Its book version, published in 1924, shows very significant variations, as it added three scenes with a high content of political criticism.

Esperpento is a word drawn from popular speech, meaning ugly, ridiculous, or conspicuous, to escape from the norm towards the grotesque or monstrous.

Theme

The play tells the story of the last night in the life of Max Estrella, a miserable and blind poet, accompanied by Don Latino de Hispalis. They embark on a nighttime pilgrimage through various places in Madrid: bookstores, taverns, the police station, the Ministry of the Interior, and cafes.

As a starting point, Valle-Inclán was inspired by the figure and death of novelist Alejandro Sawa, the same person who inspired the character Villasuso in Baroja's The Tree of Knowledge. But Max's journey is a descent into hell, a metaphor for the impossibility of living in a deformed, unjust, oppressive, and absurd Spain.

Structure of Bohemian Lights

Bohemian Lights is composed of fifteen scenes, each taking place in a different location (except the third and final scenes, which take place in the Pica Lagartos tavern) in order to display different environments. However, the work maintains unity, apart from that given by the main characters. Certain elements are repeated, such as the presence of death from the first scene (invitation to suicide), anticipating the end of the work, and the lottery, the last hope of escaping poverty, which will be awarded following Max's death.

The work can be divided into two parts: the first twelve scenes and the latter three, which are an epilogue. At the same time, the opening scenes have a clear structure:

1. a) A "prelude" or presentation (Scene I). Max is at home, and his desire to die is shown. We begin our journey at night in Madrid.

2. b) The "main body" or development (Scenes II-XI). Max's pilgrimage through Madrid by night. It is divided into two symmetrical phases:

   • Scenes II-VI: Max Estrella's stay in the dungeon with the Catalan worker.
   • Scenes VII-XI: From his release from prison to the death of the Catalan worker.

3. c) Outcome (Scene XII). End of the pilgrimage. Max returns to his home, sets out the theory of the esperpento, and dies.

4. Epilogue (Scenes XIII-XV). Funeral of Max Estrella. The lottery ticket is awarded. Suicide of Max Estrella's wife and daughter.

Some critics believe the structural model of Bohemian Lights is a descent into hell, a parody of Dante's Divine Comedy. In fact, there are several references to this work, for example in Scene XI: "Latino, get me out of this vicious circle," and "Our life is a Dantean circle."