Electra (Galdós)
| Data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Electra |
| Original title: | Electra |
| Genus: | Play in five acts |
| Original language: | Spanish |
| Author: | Benito Pérez Galdós |
| Premiere: | January 30, 1901 |
| Place of premiere: | Teatro Español de Madrid |
| Place and time of the action: | Madrid, present |
| people | |
|
|
Electra is a five-act play written in prose by the Spanish writer Benito Pérez Galdós . With its anti-clerical content, it drew strong reactions. The premiere on January 30, 1901 in Madrid is considered "a memorable day in the history of Spanish theater, comparable to the Hernani event in Paris in February 1830".
Content of the piece
.jpg)
first act
After the death of her mother Eleutaria, the young Electra was taken to a boarding school, but is now housed with Evarista, her mother's biological cousin. Electra's mother was notorious for her scandalous behavior between 1880 and 1885, but found her way back to a virtuous way of life before she died.
The playful, informal behavior of Electra arouses the interest of various men around her: The stock market agent Cuesta tells her that he will take care of her financially. The Marqués de Ronda also seeks them out, but both conversation is disturbed by the appearance of another man: The pious, strict Pantoja wants to protect Electra in his own way and strictly ensure that she is "en la virtud, en la pureza" "In virtue, in purity").
Electra confesses to the naturalist Máximo that she has no desire for all these expressions of interest: “Quieren anularme, esclavizarme, reducirme a una cosa” (“They want to destroy me, make me a slave, reduce me to one thing”). Máximo calls on them to maintain their independence, to dare emancipation and disobedience.
Second act
The Marqués, who is enthusiastic about Máximo's work in his electrotechnical laboratory, invites everyone to the opening of the new prayer house on behalf of his wife Virginia, Electra is also to come along. Meanwhile, she told Evarista that her dead mother appeared to her earlier in visions.
The word got around that Electra has many admirers who sneak under her window and send her letters. Electra told Cuesta that it had already picked one, but did not give its name.
Electra's latest trick is the kidnapping of Máximo's little son, whom she is hiding with her. When this comes out, Máximo is not at all sad about it, Electra takes the little one and leaves the scene. She does not keep her promise to come to the opening ceremony for the prayer house.
Third act
Electra is talking to Máximo in his laboratory. Máximo finds the offers made by Cuesta and Pantoja to Electra unspeakable, as they amount to an "authoritarian fatherhood". In order for Electra to escape the monastery, Máximo thinks about a solution: Electra should get married. Since - contrary to her previous statement - she has not yet selected a candidate, Máximo wants to find a suitable husband for her. The Marqués appears, coffee is served, he offers both Máximo and Electra das Du.
Then Pantoja appears to get Electra. She was not allowed to be alone with grown men and should come home now. Together, Máximo and the Marqués manage to sell Pantoja. They now want to bring Electra back to their foster parents together to protect them from their anger. As he leaves, Máximo promises that he will officially take Electra in as his wife.
Fourth act
The marriage seems to be settled, everyone is happy with it, first and foremost Electra and Máximo, but also Electra's foster parents. Only Pantoja doesn't like this development. In an interview with Evarista, he insinuates that he is Electra's biological father, he and Electra's mother Eleuteria sinned at the time, but returned repentant to the path of virtue. Evarista doesn't want to support Pantoja in his plan to put Electra in the monastery.
Pantoja therefore resorted to another means. He entangles Electra in a conversation and tells her that Máximo's father was her mother's first lover long before Electra was born - and that Electra's mother was also Máximo's birth mother - which would make them half-siblings and make their marriage impossible. Electra runs away, shows signs of madness and suddenly doesn't want to know anything more about a marriage with Máximo. Everyone else, including her future husband, does not understand what is going on.
Fifth act
Electra came to terms with her fate and went to the monastery. In the meantime Cuesta has died and has bequeathed half of his fortune to Electra, on the condition that she give up the monastic life.
The Marquis swears that he had received confirmation of her motherhood from Máximo's real mother, and that Máximo's father had not even been in Madrid at the time in question. Together with Máximo he wants to visit Electra in the monastery and convince her that nothing stands in the way of a marriage between her and Máximo.
Electra, meanwhile, appears the shadow of her dead mother, who speaks to her: she is not related to Máximo, this information was nothing but a lie. She should see her time in the monastery as a test of her strength of soul and now confidently throw herself into married life. Electra then reunites with Máximo and the Marqués, Pantoja loses out.
translation
- Benito Pérez Galdós: Electra. Play in five acts. Only authorized translation from Spanish by Rudolf Beer. Wiener Verlag 1901.
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans Hinterhäuser: “Benito Pérez Galdos: Electra .” In: Volker Roloff; Harald Wentzlaff-Eggebert (ed.): The Spanish theater from the Middle Ages to the present. Düsseldorf: Bagel 1988. pp. 274-286.
Web links
- the piece in the original Spanish on Wikisource