Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Zayas’s Prose, a Feminine World
- 1 Women’s Alliances and the Frame ‘Sisterhood’
- 2 Women’s Perfidy and the Subversion of Sisterhood
- 3 The Intersection of Gender and Class in Zayas’s Feminine World
- 4 Absences/Presences: Mother-Daughter Relationships
- 5 Other ‘Mothers’: Surrogates and the Mother of God
- Conclusion: A Gynocentric Ending: ‘No es trágico fin’
- Appendix 1 Women’s Interrelationships in Zayas’s Novelas amorosas y ejemplares
- Appendix 2 Women’s Interrelationships in Zayas’s Desengaños amorosos
- Bibliography
- Index
Conclusion: A Gynocentric Ending: ‘No es trágico fin’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Zayas’s Prose, a Feminine World
- 1 Women’s Alliances and the Frame ‘Sisterhood’
- 2 Women’s Perfidy and the Subversion of Sisterhood
- 3 The Intersection of Gender and Class in Zayas’s Feminine World
- 4 Absences/Presences: Mother-Daughter Relationships
- 5 Other ‘Mothers’: Surrogates and the Mother of God
- Conclusion: A Gynocentric Ending: ‘No es trágico fin’
- Appendix 1 Women’s Interrelationships in Zayas’s Novelas amorosas y ejemplares
- Appendix 2 Women’s Interrelationships in Zayas’s Desengaños amorosos
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Ya, ilustrísimo Fabio, por cumplir lo que pedistes de que no diese trágico fin a esta historia, la hermosa Lisis queda en clausura, temerosa de que algún desengaño la desengañe, no escarmentada de desdichas propias. No es trágico fin, sino el más felice que se pudo dar, pues codiciosa y deseada de muchos, no se sujetó a ninguno. Si os duran los deseos de verla, buscadla con intento casto, que con ello la hallaréis tan vuestra y con la voluntad tan firme y honesta, como tiene prometido, y tan servidora vuestra como siempre, y como vos merecéis; y hasta en conocerlo ninguna le hace ventaja. (DA 510–11)
Thus, Zayas’s second prose work, the Desengaños amorosos, reaches its conclusion: in the closing paragraph, the narrator unexpectedly addresses Fabio, an inscribed reader, at the extradiegetic level. Within the novela cortesana genre, we can draw a parallel between Zayas’s Fabio and Lope de Vega’s titular Marcia Leonarda, whom his narrator addresses in the novellas, albeit with far greater frequency. This is the first clear indication of the extradiegetic Fabio’s existence.
Zayas’s narrator offers Fabio an open-ended invitation to seek out Lisis ‘con intento casto’ in the convent (DA 511). Written in the style of an oral address, its implication contrasts with that of the conclusion to Zayas’s extant comedia, La traición en la amistad, in which she uses the same technique. In the respective forms of Fenisa and Lisis, Zayas moves complex, multidimensional women to the forefront of both her dramatic and prose works. León, the play’s gracioso, jocosely invites the men in the audience to court Fenisa:
Señores míos, Fenisa,
cual ven sin amantes queda.
Si alguno la quiere, avise
para que su casa sepa.
His humorous remark serves to belittle the seductress, Fenisa, and also to foretell the probability that she will acquire more amantes after the play’s conclusion. During the comedia, Fenisa’s position deteriorates from that of having female friends and being sought after by several suitors to that of being abandoned by both friends and lovers. In contrast, Lisis convalesces from sickness and recovers from the disappointment of unrequited love, reaching an empowered status whereby she can reject unwanted marital prospects; instead of marrying, she forms emotional bonds and secures her future with the companionship of several other women.
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- Women in the Prose of María de Zayas , pp. 242 - 245Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2010