1.1 Conde Lucanor, Exemplo XXXV – Don Juan Manuel
5 min read•march 15, 2023
Kashvi Panjolia
Kashvi Panjolia
AP Spanish Literature 💃🏽
24 resourcesSee Units
Summary
El Conde Lucanor (1335) by Don Juan Manuel is an anthology of various didactic stories, meaning that each story aims to teach a lesson. In each "Exemplo" — note that modern Spanish spelling hadn't yet formed — the fictional Count Lucanor asks advice from his wise and worldly right-hand man, Patronio. Patronio references both Muslim and Christian stories that help Count Lucanor make good decisions and provide good advice to other nobles.
Excerpt from El Conde Lucanor, an anonymous manuscript reproduced in the 15th or 16th century. Image courtesy of Wikimedia.
In “Exemplo XXXV (35),” often known by the title of the entire book, El Conde Lucanor, Count Lucanor starts a conversation with Patronio in which he explains that a man he knows wants to marry a very strong-willed woman, but he doesn't know if it's the right decision. Patronio, like all the chapters of El Conde Lucanor, shares the fable of a young man without much money who found that if he married a woman from a wealthy family, he could earn her dowry and get rich. 💰
The only problem was that this woman was very strong-willed ✊ and seemed "untameable," to the point that her father was desperate for someone who "might take her out of my house." The man was of good character and always helped his father make ends meet.
When the man gets married to the woman, both his family and the woman's family anticipate that they will find the man dead the next morning because of how aggressive and strong-willed his new wife is. However, on the night of the wedding when the couple is finally alone, the man orders his dog to bring water to wash his hands, a Muslim practice at the time. The woman has not said anything yet, so this is the first impression the woman is getting of the man.
When the dog doesn't bring the water, the man kills him using his sword in a bloody scene. After sitting back down and leaving the woman shocked, the man also orders that the cat and the horse bring water for his hands. These, of course, do not bring the water either. In a rage, the man takes the cat, "throws it against the wall and tears him to pieces," and then decapitated his only horse and "tore it to pieces." In medieval times, a horse was a man's most prized possession, so the man killing his only horse shows how much importance he placed on this scene.
When the man finally addresses his new wife, ordering her to bring water for his hands, she does it immediately, totally submissive and the opposite of her bold character from before the marriage. The woman thinks the man is a very violent person and is afraid that the man will kill her, too, so she obediently gets the water for him. By establishing his dominance over her from the first time they are together, the man earns the dowry and has a submissive wife.
The next morning, the couple's relatives visit the house to find out how the first night as a married couple went, which was Muslim tradition. They apprehensively entered the house, expecting to find the groom killed by his new wife. Instead, the family finds the woman at the door, fearfully begging them not to wake the man.
The newly submissive woman's father is inspired by how she was tamed, but when he tries to do the same to his wife — the strong woman's mother — his wife sees right through his actions because she has known him for too long. In the end, the parallel between the two couples points to the moral at the end of the story:
"If you don't show who you are at the beginning, you will never be able to later when you want.”
Analysis
Don Juan Manuel was a member of the Castilian royal family and had an interest in the military and politics. His works show the values of the Castilian royals in this time period. El Conde Lucanor ends with a philosophical proverb, which was common in other medieval Spanish literature at the time. The proverb explains the importance of first impressions. The man in the story was of excellent character, but by creating such a violent first impression on the woman, he was able to scare the women into believing that he was a dangerous man. The woman will never forget what the consequences of not obeying the man are, so she will be obedient to him.
Connections to the Themes
- 🔀 Sociedades en contacto / Societies in Contact: El Conde Lucanor is comprised of different "Exemplos" narrated by Patronio, who only knows of them given his connections to Muslim culture. Count Lucanor himself is Christian, so the work demonstrates how much Christians learned from Muslims during the period of Convivencia (coexistence).
- 💕 Las relaciones interpersonales y el manejo del poder / Interpersonal Relationships and the Balance of Power: The work highlights the concept of power in the era: violence, status, something to gain or lose. The people of Spain lived under a set hierarchy of power.
- 👨 El machismo / Male Chauvinism: Patronio advises Count Lucanor to share the story of the strong-willed woman with his friend because it reinforced the expectations of the age that noble and educated men were to make their wives submissive to them, as though they were property. The purpose of including this "Exemplo" is to serve as a teaching tool for young men.
Literary Devices
- 💡 The story is didactic because its purpose is to teach — its moral at the end highlights the importance of first impressions.
- 🎁 The story exemplifies metafiction because it contains one story within another — Don Juan Manuel narrates the situation of Count Lucanor and Patronio, and Patronio is narrating the situation of the young man and the strong-willed woman.
- ❗️The use of hyperbole increases the tension in the story leading up to its climax: “ensangrentando toda la casa,” “si hubiera en casa más caballos, hombres o mujeres que lo desobedecieran, los mataría a todos.”
- 💬 The waiter also personifies the animals at home by addressing them: "Don falso traidor" (to the cat), "Don caballo" (to the horse).
“¡Ah, cómo agradezco a Dios que hayas hecho lo que te mandé!” The young man highlights that he would have torn the brave woman to pieces as he did to the animals if she did not obey. Maybe he wouldn't have, but he didn't want her to believe that. Now that the woman has seen what the man is capable of, she will not disobey him for fear of being torn apart.
“Si al comienzo no muestras quién eres, nunca podrás después cuando quisieres.” The lesson of the story, revealing that Patronio's greatest advice to Count Lucanor's friend who is getting married is to consider first impressions. 🤝
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