Las metáforas teatrales y el discurso de dignitas et miseria como fuentes de la mezcla jocoseria en El criticón

Abstract

The topics of the dignitas et miseria hominis tradition that emerge in all the works of Balthazar Gracián become a part of El Criticón not just as content or as simple juxtaposition, but integrated into the fiction and poetics of this account which shows human destiny under light and shadow. From the de dignitas tradition, in large part, Gracián built an answer to the miseries that beset humanity. The worthy man’s free will performs in the world as on a stage, among a number of theatrum mundi that appear in El Criticón. Gracián’s hero is able to answer to his own miserable situation, to change life’s tragedy into tragicomedy and therefore to arrive to a better place at the end of his life on earth. Two traditions, thus, work in this allegory to show the double dimension of man, joyous and suffering, which exemplified the Heraclitus’ and Democritus’ topos.