Natalina Popat

Commentary on Don Gutierre

This excerpt in question occurs towards the end of Calderón de La Barca’s El Médico de su
honra. At this stage in the play, Don Gutierre has been pardoned by the King and returns home yet
due to his suspicion of his wife’s infidelity, he sneaks in to the garden and pretends to be someone
else to fool her. Don Gutierre’s deceptive nature may be interpreted by twenty-first century readers
as an example of toxic masculinity and machismo. The character’s tendency to hide his emotions is
interlinked with the theme of honour and control which are present throughout the extract and play.
The description by Don Gutierre of the environment around him during his soliloquy contributes to
this uncomfortable and sinister atmosphere for the audience. The extract could be seen as an
expression of the playwright’s social criticism of this intense patriarchy during this time period
through this extreme example of Don Gutierre’s mania with honour.

The excerpt illustrates Don Gutierre’s male chauvinism in the way he undertakes his pre-
empted plan to set a trap for his wife and seek revenge instead of conversing with Mencía about his
doubts and suspicions. A modern day audience may interpret his behaviour as a symptom of toxic
masculinity; Bryant W. Sculos explains how this includes ‘hyper-competitiveness, individualistic
self-sufficiency…paternalism towards women…and the infantilisation of women.’1 This
comportment would have been more normalised in the 17th century and can be clearly identified
within Don Gutierre and other male characters in the text. The need to repress emotions is
manifested in the line ‘¡ sentir y callar!.’2 The harshness of this line illustrates the denial of feelings
men force upon themselves which is intensified by the use of exclamatives that imply Don Gutierre
is almost shouting a order to himself and reminding his emotions to ‘callar.’ 3 It is clear he is
emotionally hurting in his reference to ‘el dolor mis intentos facilite.’4 He briefly refers to his pain
in these attempts to confront his suspicions and jealously yet he is not able to cope with his
sentiments in a calm manner. The need to repress emotions is repeated in the final lines: ‘estas
ocasiones / tienen los celos pasos de ladrones.’5 It is clear that jealously is the overriding sentiment
as he feels he is taking the same steps as thieves: those who he fears are the paramours of his wife.
Yet by only allowing himself to feel this destructive emotion it fuels his anger and suspensions thus
exacerbating his lack of rational in this situation. Calderón de La Barca’s intention with this
soliloquy could be to portray how this patriarchal society negatively affects men which leads them
to feel a need to control women as result of their insecurity to discuss emotions.

The principal theme of honour is manifested in this extract through its interrelation to
control which translates into an obsession in Don Gutierre. He adopts the role of a ‘sombra
aborrecida, / como sepulcro de la humana vida’ in order to spy on his wife. This highlights how his
need to feed his suspicions is so intense that it reduces him to a shell of a person. This self-
descriptive metaphors demonstrates how Don Gutierre is aware of the feelings of hatred and

1 BW Sculos - Class, Race and Corporate Power, Article 6, pg 3, 2017 - academia.edu

2 De La Barca, C. El Médico de su honra, line 1890
3 Ibid
4 De La Barca, C. El Médico de su honra, line 1878
5 De La Barca, C. El Médico de su honra, lines 1894-1895
 Natalina Popat
emptiness that have absorbed him. He is revengeful not only due to his doubts of his control over
Mencía's loyalty yet also due to his resentment towards this sense of inferiority. This seek of
vengeance and power is illustrated in the lines : ‘Médico de mi honra / me llamo, pues procuro mi
deshonra / curar: y así he venido / a visitar mi enfermo’.6 The reference to his wife as a sick person
or a patient is unsettling and creates an uncomfortable atmosphere as it could foreshadow how he
will take on the role of a surgeon when he later kills her. This title used to describe Mencía may
also imply that in Don Gutierre’s mind she must be ill to betray him hence illustrating his
infantilisation of women. Wardropper explains that due to Don Gutierre mistakenly suspecting that
his wife has stained his name ‘se ve a sí mismo como un médico metafórico.’7 The idea of Don
Gutierre as metaphorically ‘médico de mi honra’8 demonstrates that he is blinded by this obsession
with his repute that the potential idea of murder is seen as justifiable. Honour is even personified
‘vamos pasito, honor, que ya llegamos’9 thus manifesting the extreme significance of this trait to the
protagonist. The use of the nosotros form in ‘llegamos’ 10 highlights how Don Gutierre feels that
honour is an inherent part of his personality; it seems that this mission to expose the wrongdoings of
his wife is shared with this persona ‘honor’.The soliloquy is written in silvas: consisting of
hendecasyllables and heptasyllables with occasional yet not fixed rhyme. This is normally used by
people of high rank in soliloquies and it evokes a highly emotional narration; thus the horror effect
of Don Gutierre’s words on the audience is emphasised and makes it difficult to overlook the
downward spiral this scene foreshadows. This extract illustrates the power that honour holds on the
protagonist which leads him to seek control and revenge as a way to cling onto his uprightness.

Within this soliloquy, Don Gutierre describes an eerie and ominous atmosphere by focusing
on the silence of the night. The passage opens with the description of ‘el mudo silencio / de la
noche’11 thus emphasising the quietude within the scene which is disturbed by Don Gutierre’s
tension and need for answers. The succession of the adjectives in this phrase, both of which can be
translated as silence or silent highlights Calderón de La Barca’s intention to stress that Don Gutierre
is alone in this decision and thus must be held as responsible for the following actions. ‘Aun no
responde / el eco entre estos ramos’12 further strengthens this idea of a still atmosphere as there is no
responding echo between the branches. This has the repeated stress on the soundless environment
around Don Gutierre hence implying the audience is alone in watching him access his most
personal and private thoughts prior to the start of his horrific actions.

In conclusion, Calderón de La Barca’s intention in this soliloquy could be horrify the

audience with these extreme actions undertaken by Don Gutierre, such as tricking his wife to prove
her infidelity, to demonstrate the extreme power honour has on the protagonist’s reasoning. The
negative portrayal of the consequences of a male chauvinistic society are illustrated through the
protagonist with his inability to cope with his emotions instead opting for control. This is

6 De La Barca, C. El Médico de su honra, lines 1871-1874

7 Amezcua, Mujer y enfermedad en El Médico de su honra
8 De La Barca, C. El Médico de su honra, line 1871
9 De La Barca, C. El Médico de su honra, lines 1895-1896
10 Ibid
11 De La Barca, C. El Médico de su honra, lines 1861-1862
12 De La Barca, C. El Médico de su honra, lines 1892-1893
 Natalina Popat
interlinked with the obsession with honour which seems to be almost an extension of Don
Gutierre’s character as takes priority over every aspect in his life and dictates his morals.