From the Middle Ages to the late 1400s, when Fuente Ovejuna takes place, the concept of honor was accorded only to men of noble standing—commoners did not have honor. This prejudice survived into the Spanish Golden Age, the time in which Lope de Vega was writing. However, around this time in the early 16th century, attitudes began to change about what constituted honor, and the play reflects this shift in values. Throughout the play, the Commander, a man of noble birth, is often referred to as an “honorable man.” However, his actions are anything but honorable, as he assaults the women and men in the town without cause. By contrast, the Commander repeatedly claims that the villagers do not have honor (because they are not of noble birth), but they are shown to be morally upstanding—trying to protect the women’s virtue or respecting the King and Queen, for instance. In this way, the play reflects the idea—a rather radical one at the time—that honor does not derive from one’s social rank. Instead, honor derives from a person’s moral virtue.
The Commander is a member of the nobility, but his domineering behavior towards women and disregard towards peasants demonstrates that noble birth doesn’t necessarily make a person honorable. The play establishes that the Commander is a nobleman when Esteban thanks the Commander for allowing the peasants to sit at a council meeting. Esteban says, “It falls / To noblemen to grant true honour. Those / Who have no honour cannot grant it.” This statement highlights how, at the time, noblemen are the only ones who have honor and who can grant respect to others—peasants are not worthy of this treatment unless the nobility deem them so. And yet the peasants quickly critique the Commander because he abuses the women in the town: an alderman in the town tells the Commander, “There are doubtless some who wear the Cross [a sign of high social rank] / You place upon their breast whose blood / Is far less pure than ours.” When the Commander questions this statement, the alderman notes that “bad deeds” stain a person’s blood. In this way, the alderman suggests that despite having a higher social rank and noble bloodline, the Commander and others who wear the Cross may not necessarily be as honorable as the peasants in the town. The play also emphasizes how honor codes among nobles don’t necessarily align with moral virtue. Frondoso saves Laurencia from the Commander’s sexual assault by pointing a bow and arrow at the Commander. Attempting to back away, the Commander laments, “Am I, a man of worth, to turn / My back upon a peasant? / I shall not break the rules of chivalry.” The Commander’s statement is ironic, as he shows that he is more concerned with keeping up chivalry (the code of honor associated with nobility) than actually acting in a chivalrous manner—as his treatment of Laurencia is anything but honorable. Highlighting this irony illustrates socially dictated codes of conduct or rank do not necessarily equate to upstanding moral virtue.
The citizens of Fuente Ovejuna show themselves to be much more morally upstanding than the Commander, reinforcing that honor doesn’t necessarily derive from social rank, despite the prevailing attitudes. The Commander establishes the idea that peasants do not have honor because they are part of the lower class. When the peasants try to stick up for their worth, saying they deserve respect, the Commander states, “You believe / You have honour? You’ll be claiming next / You are knights of Calatrava!” In this way, the Commander illustrates that only those who have social rank—like the knights of Calatrava—can have honor, implying that it is ridiculous that the villagers believe they might have the same honor. Yet the peasants often have greater virtue than the Commander throughout the play. Frondoso is a clear example, as he saves Laurencia from the Commander’s assault, prompting her father Esteban to say that Frondoso is “an honourable boy.” While Frondoso is only a peasant in the town, his deeds reveal his integrity—unlike the Commander, whose “bad deeds” stain his high standing. Jacinta, a peasant woman whom the Commander abducts, also notes this distinction. She says, “My father is / An honourable man. Not of / Such noble birth as you, my lord, / But nobler in his deeds and actions.” The word “noble” is important, as it shows that just because a person isn’t a “noble,” they can still act more “nobly” than people like the Commander who are given honor at birth.
At the end of the play, the peasants restore their honor in the only way they feel they can: by killing the Commander to prevent him from abusing them further. As such, the play becomes a cautionary tale, warning those of high social rank that they have to bolster their socially accepted honor with true moral virtue; meanwhile, even peasants who act with virtue can earn greater respect and entitlement to life than corrupt noblemen.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Honor ThemeTracker
Honor Quotes in Fuente Ovejuna
Be constant and they call you boring,
Polite and you’re a flatterer;
Be kind and you’re a hypocrite,
A Christian’s someone seeking favour.
If you’ve got talent, that’s just lucky,
You tell the truth, that’s impudence;
Put up with things and you’re a coward,
When things go wrong, it’s your come-uppance.
A modest woman is a fool,
Pretty but chaste, she’s into seduction;
If she’s virtuous, she’s…no, no,
That’s it, end of demonstration!
COMMANDER: I’m talking to you, my pretty creature,
And to your friend. You belong to me,
Do you not?
PASCUALA: We do, my lord, but not
In the way you mean.
COMMANDER: Step inside. My men are there. Don’t be afraid.
LAURENCIA: I shall if the magistrates come too. One of them’s my father, but otherwise…
COMMANDER: Flores!
FLORES. Yes, sir?
COMMANDER: Why aren’t they doing what
I say?
FLORES: Get in there!
LAURENCIA: Get your hands
Off us!
FLORES: Come on, you stupid girls!
PASCUALA: Whoa now! For you to lock the stable-door?
FLORES: Inside! He wants to show you all
The spoils of war.
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!
COMMANDER: Am I, a man of worth, to turn
My back upon a peasant? I shall not break
The rules of chivalry!
FRONDOSO. I don’t
Intend to kill you. I know my place.
But since I need to stay alive,
I’ll keep the crossbow.
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.
FLORES: These village scum defy us!
You’d do well to raze their village to
The ground. They are nothing but trouble.
MENGO: My lord, I beg you. Punish these men
For what they try to do to us.
In your name they would take this girl
Away with them, despite the fact
She’s married and has honourable parents.
I ask for leave to take her home.
COMMANDER: I give them leave to take revenge
On you. Hand over the sling at once!
COMMANDER: Why run away? Would you prefer
A yokel to a man of my
Great rank?
JACINTA: They offended my honour.
To take me for yourself is not
The way to give it back to me.
COMMANDER: To take you for myself?
JACINTA: My father is
An honourable man. Not of
Such noble birth as you, my lord,
But nobler in his deeds and actions.
COMMANDER: You think these peasant insults will
Dispel my anger? Come!
FRONDOSO: Laurencia, I want
To know if you care for me at all;
If the loyalty I’ve shown has made
Me in the least deserving. The town
Already sees the two of us as one
And cannot understand why we
Are not. Why not forget all past
Disdain? I’m asking you to marry me?
LAURENCIA: Then you and all the village too
Had better know…that I agree.
FRONDOSO: I kiss your feet for such a favour.
I promise you it gives my life
New meaning.
The village-girl came down the path
From Fuente Ovejuna,
She was soon followed, by the knight
Who came from Calatrava.
She hid, amongst the branches there,
She felt such shame and fear;
Pretending she had not seen him,
She drew the leaves around her.
“Why try to hide yourself away?
You really are quite pretty.
My eyes can see through walls of stone
When someone takes my fancy.”
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.
What honourable rites indeed,
If there is not a single one
Of us whose life that criminal
Has not dishonoured? Tell me now if there
Is someone here whose honour is
Unscathed. You are as one, I think,
In your complaints. And so I say
To you: if you have common cause,
What are you waiting for?
JUAN ROJO: So what do you think
The town should do?
ALDERMAN. The town should die,
Or kill these tyrants. We are many, they
Are few.
BARRILDO: Take arms against our overlord?
ESTEBAN. In the eyes of God the King alone
Is our lord, not men like these,
No better than wild animals.
If God is on our side, why should we be
Afraid?
When Fernán Gómez took
Me off, you let him do it, just
As shepherds stand and watch the wolf
Which steals their sheep! They threatened me
With knives, abused me with their words,
Did everything they could to force
My chastity to their foul desires!
You see my hair? You see these marks,
These cuts and bruises? These stains of blood?
Do you believe thot you are men
Of honour? Do you believe you are
True fathers? How can you see me here
And not feel all the pain I feel pierce
Your very souls?
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.
I come to seek
Forgiveness, knowing that I was
Deceived and ill-advised in causing you
Displeasure. I was misled both by
Fernán Gómez and my self-interest.
I humbly beg that you forgive me.
If I am worthy of such favour,
I swear that from this moment on
I am your loyal and obedient servant.
The great campaign you plan against
Granada…I promise you you’ll see
The valour of my sword.
