Comparing Identity In Juana And Lope's Poetry

Juana is far from the ideal woman but Lope playfully writes that he finds her attractive even if she has some ugly parts to her. Lope parodies the Petrarchan ideal by crafting his poetry from a desire for an unideal lady. Unlike Garcilaso’s lady, Juana is given a name, however her common Spanish name, added to the fact that she is a washerwoman, seeks to parody the convention further and here ‘idealized female beauty is subverted through the glorification of a more commonplace feminine object.’ However, while Lope claims that he is different to other poets in presenting an honest portrayal of his lady, he is concerned with his personal identity too. The poets before him have crafted their identity through abiding by poetical conventions whereas Lope chooses to do so through parodying and testing the limits of these conventions. Both types of poetry are crafted from what appears to be desire for a lady, ideal or not, but in both cases this desire is just a pretext for a literary work and the greater concern is the poet’s personal identity. …show more content…
At the end of Act Two, we see Don Juan’s desire for female beauty as he flatters Leonor, thinking she is Estela, saying she would recognise her own beauty if she looked in the mirror;

Vos sois discreta, y sabéis que adoraros es fuerza si al cristal queréis miraros The reference to a mirror here highlights the Neoplatonic notion that the eyes emit rays of love which enter the soul of one’s lover, while the rhyming couplet emphasises the idea that love and vision are connected and that physical attraction is a part of love. However, both Leonor and the audience are sceptical of Don Juan’s declaration of love as Leonor responds,

Ahora, señor don Juan, yo no