While the Cross is usually a clear symbol for Christianity, in the play it more specifically represents the Master and the Commander’s false Christian values. The Cross is the emblem of the Military Orders in Spain, and the Master and Commander wear the Cross embroidered on their clothes (in Calatrava, the Cross is red). The Cross is a traditional symbol of Christianity, particularly in the context of the Order, because the Order was a Christian religious military organization founded to reconquer Spain from the Muslim Moors. Thus, the Cross seems like it would indicate the virtue and holiness of the Order’s endeavors. But in the play, characters only point out the Cross when the Master and Commander are being hypocritical, particularly when their actions do not align with the Christian values they claim to stand for. In the play’s opening scene, the Commander notes that the Master should conquer Ciudad Real and prove his bravery by turning his sword “red as the Cross” on his chest. Thus, the Cross is associated not with the Christian values of justice and mercy, but with vengeance and glory instead.
Later, many of the characters say that they would mistake the Commander for the devil if he weren’t wearing a Cross. The Cross thus points out the Commander’s hypocrisy—his violent, lustful actions (like sexually assaulting local women) do not align with the Christian teachings that the Cross represents. Esteban also notes that King Fernando and Queen Isabel are going to rid villages of dishonorable men like the Commander, “whose power comes from wearing crosses.” In this way, Esteban suggests that while the Cross is an indicator of power in Spain, it also highlights the Commander’s lack of virtue when wielding that power.
The Cross Quotes in Fuente Ovejuna
Take your sword, so far unstained
By blood, and turn it red as the Cross
Upon your breast. How else can I
Address you as Master of the Cross
If the one is red and not the other?
Let both of them be crimson, and you,
Worthy Girón, crown the immortal temple of
Your famous ancestors.
LAURENCIA: So God go with you
In the hunt, sir... I mean for deer.
If it weren’t for that cross upon
Your chest, I’d take you for the devil, such
Is your pursuit of me!
COMMANDER: Such language is
Offensive! I’ll put my bow aside
And let my hands overcome those airs
And graces!
ALDERMAN: You speak
Unjustly. To speak of us like that
Is to deny us honour.
COMMANDER: You believe
You have honour? You’ll be claiming next
You are knights of Calatrava!
ALDERMAN. There are doubtless some who wear the Cross
You place upon their breast whose blood
Is far less pure than ours.
COMMANDER: You think
My blood makes yours more impure?
ALDERMAN: Bad deeds have never cleansed, my lord.
They merely stain.
There are new rulers in
Castile who’ll introduce such laws
And orders as will put an end
To all disorder. When they have ceased
To be engaged in war, they would
Do well to rid their villages
And towns of men whose power comes
From wearing crosses. The King alone
Should be allowed to wear the cross.
The people there
Have mercilessly killed their lord
And master: Fernán Gómez murdered by
His faithless subjects, vassals who,
Believing they’d been wronged, rose up
Without good cause. These people called
Him tyrant, and on the strength of that
Committed this foul deed. They broke into
His house, and though he offered, as
An honourable man, to see
To their complaints, not only did
They fail to heed his words but rained
Upon the Cross upon his breast
A thousand cruel blows.
The Cross Symbol Timeline in Fuente Ovejuna
