The Dramatic Endings in The Playboy of Seville and Don Juan Tenorio Essay

The Dramatic Endings in The Playboy of Seville and Don Juan Tenorio - Essay Example Despite that fact that both plays are constructed on a similar foundation of themes, there are still many major differences between them which can be due to the fact that both were written in very different times. Social conventions and cultural norms became quite different in the 19th century than how they were in the 17th century. Years of difference not only transformed societal structures around the world, but they also significantly influenced the shape of literature. Following discussion will explore how the ending scenes in both plays are different from each other and how those differences at the end of the plays reflect different attitudes of the two societies towards the character of DJ. In the early 17th century at the time when the Playboy of Seville by Tirso de Molina came into existence in the world of literature, the way DJ is explored in the story is intended to reflect on the Spanish Golden Age which was the early modern Spanish society. The play is set in this time period and abides by the popular social, religious, and cultural conventions of that time. This is why in contrast to the 19th century version of Zorrilla, Tirso de Molina’s play is staunchly Catholic. It is the staggering difference between the nature of these two eras that there is such difference to be seen in the plays also particularly in context of their ending scenes. The early 17th century version focuses on the relationship between actions and their consequences, while the modern version appears to question the Christian philosophy related to actions and their effects. The later version has a different ending from that in the original play because writers of that time stopped feeli ng the need to remain strictly loyal to the Catholic philosophy. Religion was beginning to become abstract at that point as more and more people began to question its validity in certain matters in life. In old times like in the early 17th century strictly