SOURCE: “Death and Dying in En la ardiente oscuridad,” in Language Quarterly, Vol. XXVI, Nos. 1–2, Fall–Winter, 1987, pp. 13–16, 19.

In the following essay, Gabriele discusses the themes of life and death in Buero Vallejo's En la ardiente oscuridad.

Out of the very love one bears to life one should wish death to be free, deliberate, and a matter neither of chance or of surprise,

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Numerous analyses have convincingly illustrated that the dramatic structure of Antonio Buero Vallejo's plays is often supported by otherwise non-dramatic elements which the playwright ingeniously incorporates into his works. In Las meninas and El sueño de la razón, for example, paintings not only serve the playwright in the development of theme and plot, but also help to structure the play.¹ In El concierto de San Ovidio, El tragaluz and La doble historia del doctor Valmy, Buero employs yet...