Prompt Nine: House of Trials

We're taking a huuuge step back in time for this one: The House of Trials (in Spanish: Los empeños de una casa) by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (known generally as Sor Juana). Sor Juana (Sister Juana) was a nun living in what is now Mexico, aka colonial Spain. Of mixed native and Spanish ancestry, Sor Juana escaped poverty (and probable marriage) by joining a convent, where she was able to pursue her passion for learning and writing. Read about her here (or just Google her; she's really quite well known).

On the quiz, for extra credit, I'll ask you to share a fact about her that you picked up.

For this post, however, consider this: by now in this class we've come across some plays that seem to depart from familiar formula structures and conventions. Judith has ancient characters speaking in cockney slang. Love! Valour! Compassion! features an odd, non-linear mix of theatricality and naturalism. Eurydice is a kind of extended experiment in playing with theatre; it's hardly interested in realistic conventions at all.

Keep these styles in mind as you read House of Trials, which was written centuries before well-made plays became the norm. That said, House of Trials does adhere to a kind of play popular in seventeenth-century Spain, the comedia (originally the comedia nueva). Don't let the name fool you; although House of Trials is meant to be funny, comedia means play, not only comedy. The comedia is a very flexible form in terms of genre. It can be farcical, romantic, historical, mythical, religious, tragic--or some combination of all of them. But it does have some basic dramaturgical conventions, a set of norms for what plays should be like.

For example, well-made plays varied quite a bit, but all of them feature scenarios of dramatic irony where some characters have a secret known to the audience. Well-made plays also observed fourth-wall conventions, created self-contained worlds, used lots of props, preferred dialogue that resembled everyday language, etc. All of these are dramaturgical conventions of well-made plays.

For this post, I want you to identify and explain what you think might be two or three conventions for Spanish Golden Age comedias that you can find in House of Trials. That is, if you had only this play to judge what comedias were like, what might you conclude about comedia conventions? I'm not concerned here with whether or not you're "right" (we'll go over that in class); I'm just looking for you to think carefully about theatrical conventions beyond those you're familiar with.

I'll give you one: you'll notice that House of Trials begins with a couple of pretty long monologues that lay out the backstory. You might then conclude that comedias like to tell rather than show their exposition. As it turns out, this is accurate.  Spanish Golden Age comedias often (though not always) begin with long monologues that relate the backstory. It's just how they did things, and actors were supposed to be skillful enough to make the monologues riveting (remember, we talk about going to watch plays; Spanish audiences back then went to listen to plays).

So--aside from the long exposition at the start--what might you say are some of the conventions of Spanish Golden Age comedias?