SOURCE: Whitenack, Judith A. “‘Lo que ha menester’: Erotic Enchantment in ‘La inocencia castigada.’” In María de Zayas: The Dynamics of Discourse, edited by Amy R. Williamsen and Judith A. Whitenack, pp. 170-91. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995.

In the following essay, Whitenack offers an overview of “La inocencia castigada,” one of the tales in Zayas's Desengaños, focusing on the use of enchantment in the story.

The unspeakable horrors of Doña Inés's six-year “castigo” [punishment] have been the focus of most commentaries on María de Zayas's “La inocencia castigada” [Innocence punished]. This tale of a neglected wife who is brutally punished for committing adultery while under a magic spell has typically been seen as a straightforward feminist complaint: at the cruelty with which men avenge slights to their honor, with no regard for whether or not the woman involved is to...