The force of the romantic fate in Don Álvaro, Hernani and Antony

Abstract

Many romantic critics strove to separate Don Alvaro or the force of the fate from the two French dramas which served as indirect models: Victor Hugo’s Hernani and Alexandre Dumas’ Antony, for considering them corrupt and immoral. But it should not be forgotten that Rivas’ play was conceived in France, during the exile of the author; in full contact with the liberal and romantic revolution in Europe. This article aims, through a comparative study of these three fundamental dramas of European romanticism, to demonstrate their close relationship. These three plays surprise by the force of this nefarious fate, cause of misfortune and death, which is directly linked with the German Schicksalstragödie and evidence the overcoming of the old and rigid frontier between Order and Chaos; between the Apollonian and the Dionysian traditions.