JUICIO SOBRE DON JUAN TENORIO:
Dear Students,
On the day of the trial (Friday, 8 February), please sit
in the following manner (below) and follow the protocol that ensues:
I. Defenders of Don Juan:
JUDGE II. Proesecutors
of Don Juan:
| A: Doña Inés de Ulloa |
A. Don Gonzalo de Ulloa & Don
Diego Tenorio
|
| B. Brígida & Ciutti (his partners in crime); |
B. Don Luis Mejía & Doña
Ana de Pantoja, Don Rafael de Avellaneda, el Capitán Centellas,
Gaston
|
| C. El dramaturgo (Zorrilla) himself, brought back from
Wherever to defend his dramatic character; also, el escultor, Christófano
Buttarelli, Miguel |
C. Don Juan Tenorio himself (in Limbo
at the time of the trial, but ready to pack his bags and go elsewhere [Paraíso,
Purgatorio, Infierno] at the end of the trial)
|
This is an ecclesiastical trial. The accused (Don
Juan Tenorio) is dead already. Don Juan's soul is now in Limbo (a
half-way place at the entrance of Hell, but not in Hell, for those in a
difficult case [the unbaptized, pagans before the First Coming of Christ,
etc.]). By civil law everybody knows where his soul belongs; but
by the Grace of God he might be relocated, as it were. Devils and
angels are fighting for his soul. The devils don't want to be cheated
out of their most eminent soul; the angels are appealing to the accused's
last act of contrition. It's a mess. The author himself, Zorrilla,
probably wrote some sort of religious allegory; so if Don Juan goes down
the moral lesson of divine clemency sort of goes out the window.
On the other hand, can someone that deserving of Hades be spared because
of a little act of contrition at the very last second? It doesn't
sound fair, does it? We are not too sure of Doña Inés's
moral character either (where is she at the end of the play anyway?).
And what could Don Juan possibly say in his defense? "The Devil made
me do it?" or "It's all my father's fault." Really! But
then, where in Heck's name is the good Comendador himself, Don Gonzalo?
And, since Don Diego Tenorio is dead too, where would he have gone?
Sure, he gives up all his money to build a cemetery to bury all of his
son's victims, but, for tooth's sake, that's the least he can do.
Should he be as innocent as Jeffrey Dahmer's father? Does not the Good
Book say that the sins of the parents will be visited on their sons?
What exactly did he do for his son, besides abandoning him in the end,
like everybody else? And then you have accusers like Don Luis &
Doña Ana, people morally tainted and the first almost as bad as
DJ himself. And are Brígida and Ciutti deserving of our attention,
having being auxiliaries to Don Juan's evil deeds (which would include
corruption of the innocent)? Messy. Anyway, since there are
religious matters involved (profanation of sacred places or holy ground
[convents, cemeteries], desecration of corpses, etc.), the trial has to
be ecclesiastic. But as the good Books says (St. Mark's Gospel, I
believe), whatever is bound in this vale of tears is bound in Heaven, so
there you have it. Whom are you going to call in cases like these?
Father Bob will oblige.
Protocol:
-
Strategy planning (group discussion: 5 minutes).
-
Defenders and accusers will sit where designated (all defenders
to the Inquisitor's right; all accusers to his left, in the order suggested).
-
No group should occupy a middle position.
-
Accusers (fiscales) must present all their charges
[cargos] (moral, social, religious, etc.) first (5 minutes per group;
1 minute per person: 15 minutes total).
-
Defenders must answer the charges and make a defense (5 minutes
per group; 1 minute per person: 15 minutes total).
-
When presenting charges, each person must stand up, address
him/herself to the judge, and identify him/herself as the character in
question using the following formula: «Yo, don Juan Tenorio . . .
»; «Yo, Doña Inés de Ulloa, . . . », etc.
Accusers may also address themselves to the accused afterwards, or to any
other individual in those groups. If five persons are doing the same
character, each of them must identify him/herself as already stated here.
-
The judge should be addressed using the following formula:
«Su reverencia».
-
Feel free to dress up as you would normally (capes, gowns,
swords, etc.). The judge will do likewise.
-
Feel free to be as eloquent and persuasive in your accusations
or defenses, using not only the appropriate verbal tactics, but also non-verbal
tactics (pointed fingers, etc.) And tone of voice (angry, sad, shocked,
commiserating, etc.). Father Bob is easily moved by tears.
-
Do not lie. The Inquisitor has already seen the written
statement of Zorrilla. Any departure from the truth, if it cannot
be textually substantiated, would not please «Su reverencia».
Likewise, rumor or hearsay would not do. In Roman Law, the accusers
would be countercharged and punished accordingly. The Holy Office
likes confiscation of property.
-
After the first round of accusations (15 minutes) and defenses
(15 minutes), 5 minutes will be given to each side (of three groups each)
to answer charges and countercharges (10 minutes). This tends to
be the most heated part of any trial. Enjoy.
-
If time allows it, all groups will disband immediately after
the trial and occupy their normal places. They are now jury members.
They will vote: «Sentencia» (guilty on all grounds, down you
go), «Clemencia» (innocent on all grounds, up you go), or «Purgación»
(severe punishment for an indefinite period of time but with the eventual
hope of redemption). This should take 5 minutes. The vote will
be by secret ballot. Execution of the sentence will follow immediately
afterwards. Ideally this should take place coldly the next day and be based
entirely on the presentation of the evidence and the defense made.
Obviously, it would be much easier to condemn than to defend.
Keep that in mind. The prosecutors have lots of proof on their side
(women deceived, men killed, religious sites profaned, etc.). To
accuse, however, the accusers must be morally clean (so that their word
have weight). The defenders can only do two things: appeal to a higher
power (the Law of God [Moral Law]), clemency, etc., applied here on the
grounds of a change in character, etc.; sharing the guilt around, e.g.,
if Don Juan was evil, so was the society around him which willingly helped
him [the acceptance of acts of subornation; moral corruption of the naïve
and innocent, improper moral training, vengeance and hatred, etc.]).
Needless to say, the defenders would have to accept responsibility for
aiding their master in the past. To do so without incrimination,
they should have made a convincing move towards the straight and narrow
(they might have become persons of the cloth, whatever).
Purpose of the trial: since this is a postmortem trial
(not unusual in the Middle Ages), the trial attempts to do one of three
things: 1) exonerate Don Juan Tenorio's soul from guilt in the same way
that, e.g., at the Nuremberg trials, common soldiers were exonerated on
the grounds that they had limited choices in an Unrechtstadt (a
legal albeit unjust state) [in other words, on moral grounds] {hence, only
officials were tried and condemned}]); 2) Condemn Don Juan's soul (throw
the book at him) on all grounds (forget clemency or Christian pity; go
back to classical or non-Christian legal sources, which gave society the
right to avenge offences [the Eichmanns of the world are beyond clemency
or hope on account of the magnitude of their offenses; in Don Juan's case
not only against humanity at large but even against God by his acts of
profanation]); 3) Negotiate, e.g., reason things through coldly and analytically
and charge Don Juan only on what he can be charged justly (e.g., Don Juan's
killing of Don Luis and Don Gonzalo seem to be are acts of self-defense,
not murder, no? Don Juan does not violate or force Doña Inés;
even Doña Ana may not be the purest woman in town, for by allowing
a man into her bedchamber [regardless of whether he is Don Juan or Don
Luis], she is in effect putting at risk her father's honor, etc.).
At the end (the day after the trial), students, now jury members, will
cast a ballot coldy, based on the evidence heard from group members.
Three ballots are possible: 1) Clemencia 2) Castigo 3) Purgación.
The first choice would exonerate Don Juan on all grounds here on earth
and his soul would be expected to reach Heaven, God willing . The
second choice would throw the book at him on positive law grounds (the
only true legal grounds) and forget sentimentalism, clemency, and other
exceptional and wishy-washy "moral" law grounds which simply serve to obfuscate
true absolute justice. If one breaks the law one ought to pay for
it. Where is the ambiguity? Don Juan's soul is tarnished to
the core and he ought to go straight down to Hades. That would show
an example to others that, as the good book says, "the wages of sin is
death." Sure, Inés tries to save him, but we can't be sure that
she is entirely pure or stable. After all, didn't she betray her
father by wishing to marry his murderer (where is filial charity?); didn't
she betray her eternal Father by giving Him up for a sinner often compared
to the Prince of Darkness himself? (Where is Christian love?). Didn't
she choose Don Juan and not the other way around? If one has free
choice (as Catholic doctrine teaches), she too is responsible for her moral
choices, especially if she has spent her entire life in God's service.
She should have known better. Frankly, I think she is just as guilty
as Don Juan. That or the poor girl is hysterical, a form of depression
(after all, didn't she faint once?) and probably needs to have a lifetime
of psychoanalysis with Dr. Freud. The third choice would exonerate
Don Juan, but only after a zillion years of purgation for sins in good
old Purgatory. After all, there is no such thing as a free lunch,
is there?
Should there be a tie, Father Bob will break it (otherwise
he will not vote [deep down he empathizes with Pontius Pilate]). It's hard
to tell how he would break it, though. On the one hand he is an ecclesiastic
and the clemency bit might work on him, provided it's persuasively presented.
On the other hand, he likes to play with matches.
Pax,
Fray Roberto del Santo Oficio |
JUICIO SOBRE DOÑA
PERFECTA:
Dear Students,
Your third composition for SPAN 4163 is due on Monday,
8 April (the day
of the trial). It will be like any other (at least three
pages long, in
Spanish, have personal information on the upper left
corner, be
double-spaced, have a bibliography, a title, etc.). However,
it will be a
formal letter written in first person narration taking
the identity of one of
the characters of Doña Perfecta and addressed
to only one addressee, Coronel de caballería Pinzón. He should
be addressed at all times by his civilian
and military title: Estimado Sr. Coronel. In the letter
you must identify
yourself («Yo, Doña Perfecta, . . . »)
and give a brief description of who
you are. Afterwards give an opinion of the murder that
has taken place in
Orbajosa (Pepe Rey, apparently, died under ambiguous
circumstances; some say it was a suicide, although two shots were heard)
and give an opinion about
who should be blamed for the murder (and hanged). Don't
be wishy washy. Be
assertive and choose only one of the many likely candidates
(heck, even the
murdered person himself, who is probably the most guilty
anyway, no?). End
the letter with a pleasant farewell to catch the good
will of Cavalry Colonel
Pinzón (a military man, one not given to much
emotion; he does not like
civilians too much ["too undisciplined"]). Also, sign
the letter,
mechanically and by hand. What you are submitting to
Col. Pinzón is a legal
tract. Follow protocol.
Pinzón has been appointed by H.M. the King to pacify
rebellious lands that seem to forget they belong to a realm and insist
on doing things their
way, including taking justice in their own hands, as
seems to have happened
recently. Pinzón has seen a lot of internal fighting
throughout the years
("too many civil conflicts"), precisely in small villages
and towns that want
to be decentralized and independent of the crown. Pinzón
is a liberal. He
wants, like the monarchy, to do away with this kind of
feudalistic small-town
mentality and have a strong central government that would
be in a better
position to serve the needs of its vassals. He is also
a man of action with
a task to do: to find the assassin and garrote him or
her (unless he be an
ecclesiastic, in which case he will be exiled to Rome
[since there is no
longer an Inquisition, thanks to the liberals]). Since
Orbajosa has rebelled
against the King's army (hence the villagers are all
tainted with treason
against the realm), Pinzón will establish a military
tribunal. All he wants
are the facts. Who did what to whom and who should pay
for it. He will hear
from all the principals and then a jury of his peers
(also military
personnel) will determine who should be penalized (by
garrote, the standard
form of capital punishment in Spain). Since one of the
persons is dead, he
will speak through a medium or intermediary (if he is
to be found guilty, he
will only be charged with opprobrium). Pinzón,
of course, does not believe
in this hocus pocus (he is, after all, a positivist),
but if it works that's
fine with him. All he wants is swift justice. Heck, as
far as he is
concerned, the entire village is guilty, but his instructions
were,
specifically, to find only one guilty person. King's
orders ("heck, in the
bad old days entires villages were razed to the ground
on the grounds of
treason; I tell you, there's too much burocracy nowadays;
one of these days
the military might well have to take over the realm,
but not yet" [a private
thought of Col. Pinzón, the product of private
frustration with civilian
misrule, no doubt]).
TRIAL (8 April):
Each (of the six) group is to take one of the following
personae:
-
Doña Perfecta
-
José (Pepe) Rey
-
Don Inocencio
-
Cristóbal Ramos («Caballuco»)
-
Rosarito
-
Others: María Remedios, Jacinto, Pedro Lucas (el «Tío
Licurgo»), don Cayetano, Juan Rey.
Each person must defend him/herself and put the blame on
the right person
(and of course, everybody knows who that would be). Needless
to say,
everybody knows (it seems) who pulled the trigger, but
when a society is
corrupt or has bonded so well with each other, that person
may well be the
least guilty ("he was just following orders"). Also,
some people seem to do
nothing and may well be the most conniving and guilty
of individuals even
though they would never throw the first stone (but will
tell you where the
target is and where you can get the stones). Some people
may also betray
others and claim insanity (poor Rosarito). Some people
may well have to act
in self-defense to protect their property and children.
Some people think
they are doing the right thing, fighting a just cause,
and not realize they
are the most guilty of all. Others do nothing at all
and their silence
allows crimes to happen (the Church recognizes this as
a sin of omission).
(In the long run everybody is probably guilty, but society
likes to scapegoat
individuals; otherwise, well, you might have to raze
the entire village of
Orbajosa to the ground, as Pinzón seems to have
pondered at one time).
Have fun!
ARL
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