Divine words, work of transition in the dramaturgy of Valle-Inclan

Divinas palabras belongs to the transitional phase of Valle-Inclan's play-writing: still containing many elements of the symbolist aesthetics which characterised this Spanish playwright's drama until 1914, it already displays numerous features which will mark Valle-Inclan's expressionist plays and esperpentos from 1920 onwards. The analysis of the dialogue and of the various functions it performs in the play will show some indicators of this change: the replacement of epic and mythical fictitious worlds, which are typical of his early theatre, with a universe which is equally fictitious but closer to the reality of the time; the mixture of tragicomic elements which undermine the tragic sense of the terrible events taking place in the plot; etc. More importantly for our objectives, however, is the analysis - always through the dialogue-of the three main characters who make up the adulterous trio. In this analysis, their behaviour does not prove to be so unmotivated and absurd as the behaviour of other characters in the esperpento genre will be, nor does the grotesque deformation in them prove to be so extreme as it will be in later plays.