The Symbolism In The Theater

The symbolism in the theater

Introduction

Symbolism is a “poetic current and, in general, artistic, appeared in France at the end of the 19th century, which tends to avoid the names of objects and feelings and prefers to suggest or evoke these through images.”(RAE) According to Lluís, in his work, symbolism: the birth of modern poetry is very likely that all poetry be symbolic or that obviously, the resource to resort to symbols to convey emotions, feelings, sensations. 

Developing

This movement is much older than the symbolist school, and very frequent in Western literary history. This movement appears thanks to Charles Baudelaire, a well -known 19th -century French poet, with his work entitled Las Flores del Evil. From that moment, it was only a matter of time for this new current to be extended by the rest of Europe. In Spain, the first symbolist trends appear at the end of the 19th century for two reasons: the good relationship that the country maintained with France.

Which allowed us to have access to the works of Baudelaire, as well as its continuators and, on the other hand, thanks to the Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario, who was one of the biggest diffusers. According to César Oliva, Azorín, another of the great writers of this era, said how the symbolist theater had to be: «The new theatrical piece must give expression to dialectical tension between two chains of images: direct, conscious, clear images, clear, clear,determined, and the images that come from the back of our spirit »

From that statement, we can see that this theater will be characterized mainly by the superiority of the spirit to man, rejecting all objective reality, unlike realism, and deepening the mind of man. Also, the historical content is going to be scarce, highlighting the mythical stories or legends, hence many authors dedicate themselves to study religious or magical phenomena. The theme by antonomasia will be death and characters 

conclusion

In conclusion, they will receive the name of metamorphic characters in order to highlight the various faces they may have. Although the list of writers who have chosen to create works where symbolism is an indisputable protagonist is infinite, we can highlight: Miguel de Unamuno with Soledad, Azorín with Angelita, Alberti with the uninhabited man, Valle-Inclán with Lights of Bohemia and LorcaWith the house of Bernarda Alba, being these last two novels that we are going to analyze below.