Serafin Alvarez Quintero and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero were Spanish dramatists. They began writing for the theatre at a young age. They were popularly known as the Golden Boys of the Madrid theatre. They collaborated in almost 200 dramas depicting the life, manners, and speech of Andalusia.
A Sunny Morning is a light romantic comedy that narrates the reunion of two lovers now in their 70s meeting at a park who in their youth were passionate lovers but torn apart by the cruelty of fate. The setting of the play is a sunny morning in Madrid, Spain on a bench in the park.
A Sunny Morning is a comic play by the Quinter brothers. The play consists of two stories. It begins in the park where the hero and heroine, Gonzalo and Laura meet and are old already. They had met long back in their youth and that is revealed by flashbacks during the conversation between them.
They both have the habit of visiting the park and one day they meet accidentally in the park. Laura feeds pigeons regularly with bread crumbs and watches them. On the other hand, Gonzalo sits on a park bench reading the poetry of his favorite poets. Both of them have servants to look after them as they are old. One day, while Laura was feeding the pigeons and watching them feed, Gonzalo finding his favorite park bench being occupied by three priests unwillingly comes and sits by the side of Laura.
Deliberately he comments on her feeding and starts reading his fond poems. After a while, he tells Laura that he belonged to Valencia, a city in Spain. Laura is surprised and tells that she too had spent her youth there in a villa called Maricela. Gonzalo asks Laura whether she remembered a beautiful young lady there by the name of Laura. She lies to him that she was a close friend of Laura. They share the story of Laura’s friend and Gonzalo’s cousin which was really their own love story.
Laura tells that, her friend waited for her lover for many years, and later was married forcibly to a merchant. Gonzalo replies that his cousin left Madrid and joined the army and met with a glorious death on the battlefield: So, both did not reveal their true identities and left the park with the hope of meeting there regularly.
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a. What makes Dona Laura think that Don Gonzalo is an ill-natured man? Why do neither Dona Laura nor Don Gonzalo reveal their true identities?
Gonzalo walked into the midst of pigeons while Laura was feeding them. When she questions his rude manners he replies that he did not care for the birds and asks her how she dares to talk to him. These rude actions of Gonzalo made Laura conclude that he was an ill-natured man.
Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo spin fictitious stories because they think that it was not a good idea to reveal their identities at old-age.
b. At what point of time, do you think, Laura and Gonzalo, begin to recognize each other?
When Laura and Gonzalo reveal their places and secrets they begin to recognize each other. When Gonzalo tells her he is from Valencia and when Laura tells him that she had memories of villa Maricela they recognize each other.
c. When does Dona Laura realize that Don Gonzalo was her former lover?
After taking a pinch of snuff both Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura sneeze alternately. Dona mutters to herself that the snuff has made peace between them. Gonzalo begins reading then. Dona sympathizes with him reading with all those glasses. Gonzalo tells her that he has been a great lover of poets and poetry. He further tells her that he is a native of Valencia. This provokes both of them to talk about their earlier identities. When Dona tells him about the villa in Maricela, Gonzalo discloses about the silver maiden and like a poet he describes her beauty. At this moment, Dona realizes that Gonzalo was her former lover.
d. Why do Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo spin fictitious stories about themselves?
Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo spin fictitious stories because they think that it was not a good idea to reveal their identities in old-age. Moreover, Dona Laura married subsequently and Gonzalo was suffering from gout. Thinking all these, they decided to hide their feelings for each other and wanted to spend their remaining life with the sweet memories of the past.
e. How do Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo feel about each other?
Laura and Gonzalo both are witty and intelligent. During their conversation, they identify each other but hide their true identities by telling fictitious stories. Their love story is excellent as Laura feels that she may die before Gonzalo and he should decorate her funeral and Gonzalo certainly knows she was Laura. They prefer to live in the past sweet memories rather than the present reality. In the beginning, they were resenting each other, but by the time the play ends, they know their true identities, and love again blossoms.
Reference to the context
a. Look at the extract below and answer the questions that follow:
“Yes, you are only twenty. (She sits down on the bench.) Oh, I feel more tired today than usual. (Noticing Petra, who seems impatient.) Go, if you wish to chat with your guard.”
i. Who is the speaker?
ii. Who does ‘you’ refer to?
iii. Who is the ‘guard’ the speaker is talking to?
The speaker referred to above is Dona Laura.
‘You’ refers to Dona Laura’s servant Petra.
The ‘guard’ speaker is referring to is Petra’s boyfriend who works as a guard in the public park.
b. Read the extract dialogue from the play and answer the questions that follow:
DONA LAURA: (Indignantly.) Look out!
DON GONZALO: Are you speaking to me, senora?
DONA LAURA: Yes, to you.
DON GONZALO: What do you wish?
DONA LAURA: You have scared away the birds who were feeding on my crumbs.
DON GONZALO: What do I care about the birds?
DONA LAURA: But I do.
DON GONZALO: This is a public park.
c. Who is Dona addressing by saying “Look out”?
Dona Laura is addressing Don Gonzalo by saying “Look out”
d. What was Dona doing?
A regular visitor to the park, Dona Laura was feeding bread crumbs to the pigeons.
e. Who scared the birds? Are they pet birds?
Dona Laura is annoyed with Don Gonzalo because despite her warning he scares away the birds which were feeding on her bread crumbs in the park. Don Gonzalo is annoyed too because she is complaining about some birds which were feeding in a public park.
They were not pet birds.
f. Where are the speakers at the time of the conversation?
The speakers are sitting on a bench in a public park in Madrid.
g. What is the effect of flashback in the play when Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo knew that they were lovers in the past?
The saying ‘all love is sad’ is applicable with reference to an imaginative love affair supposed to have taken place between two lovers who were in their prime of youth and it gets re-enacted dramatically as a flashback incident in the play during a conversation that takes place in a retired corner of a park in Madrid on a Sunday morning, between two old people, an old lady named Dona Laura and an old man named Don Gonzalo – who are now in their 70s. The dramatic technique used in the play is unique in its approach. The progression of events moves from the present to the past. The flashback technique highlights the intensity of love between the former lovers which exists between them even ‘now’ after a lapse of almost half a century.
h. Discuss how the play is built around humor and irony.
‘A Sunny Morning’ is a romantic comedy with only two main characters Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura who are in their seventies now. Their chance meeting on a sunny morning in a park in Madrid gives the characters an opportunity to relive the story of their love affair when they were living in Maricela. The whole story is built up through witty, humorous, lively, and spontaneous interaction between them. When the play opens, we find Dona Laura happily speaking to the pigeons which were feeding on the bread crumbs. When Don Gonzalo comes there looking for a bench, Dona Laura accuses him of scaring away her birds. In reply, Don Gonzalo tells her that it is a public park and he doesn’t care about the birds. Dona Laura asks him why then did he complain that the priests had taken his seat. Later, when Don Gonzalo comes back to the same place to sit, she asks him why he was seen there again. But, when he tries to put her off saying that they had not met, she tells him that she was only responding to his gesture. When he tells her that she ought to have only returned his greeting, she remarks that he should have taken her permission to sit on that bench. Finally, with her witty remarks, she makes him tongue-tied and helpless. When he mutters to himself, saying that she was a senile old lady and she ought to be at home knitting and counting her beads, she asks him not to grumble anymore. When she finds him cleaning his shoes with his handkerchief, she taunts him asking whether one uses a handkerchief as a shoe brush. In reply, when Gonzalo asks her what right she has to criticize his actions, she answers playfully that it was her right as a neighbor. When Gonzalo tries to put her off rudely saying that he does not care to listen to nonsense, she once again teases him remarking that he was very polite. When Gonzalo asks her apologetically not to interfere with what does not concern her, she again tells him stubbornly that she generally says what she thinks. From then on their spontaneous exchange takes a positive direction and soon they become friends.
In the same spirit, the irony is cleverly built into the play. After settling on her bench, Dona Laura sends her maidservant to chat with the guard. She glances towards the trees and expects the arrival of pigeons. Although she is waiting for the birds, we see soon Don Gonzalo enter with the help of his servant. This is an instance of irony. When he reads from Campoamor’s work he says ‘all love is sad’ which also hints at his sad affair with Dona in the past. He also reveals the description of the silver maiden and admits that he has been conversing with Dona Laura as if they were old friends. They were lovers in fact.
i. How is the title ‘A Sunny Morning’ justifiable? Discuss.
‘A Sunny Morning’ is a beautiful one-act romantic comedy. Serafin and Alvarez have spun the characters and situations so remarkably that they remain etched in our memories. This play which shuttles between past and present comes with the youthful romance of the lead characters’ past and romantic aspects of love in the guise of a new friendship for the veteran souls.
Here in this play, comedy takes precedence over romance which can be witnessed in the opening scene of the play. The comic sense of Laura is admirable when she quips at Gonzalo’s walking. “A carriage would not raise more dust than his feet.” Her words create such ringing laughter that they are delectable. When she asks him, “Do you use your handkerchief as a shoe brush?” adds to the perfect timing of comedy. The snuff bridges their rift; reading brings them yet closer; the poem takes them to their past love story. By now, they have a strong desire to get along well. They admire each other’s interests. The title is befitting considering a sunny morning contrasting their late evening years. They just want to relive the past romantic moments when Gonzalo stoops with great difficulty to pick up the violets Laura dropped while leaving the park.
Reference beyond the text
a. What do you predict will happen in the next meeting between Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo? Discuss.
The former lovers part that morning with a promise to see each other the next day in the morning. As they have realized they were fast lovers in their youth, I think they will get closer to each other with every passing day. However, they will certainly try to keep their true identities secret to create and sustain charm and fascination. The silver maiden has lost her youthful glow and is a crippled woman. So is Don Gonzalo who looks grotesque and old.
b. Was it wise for Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo to keep their identities secret? How might their secrets affect future meetings?
Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo, the protagonists in the play, accidentally meet at a park as two strangers throwing banters at each other and eventually making amends. It is universal to a larger extent than if secrets are kept, they sustain the interest, spirit, and excitement. Here again, on the same principle, the playwrights have anchored the protagonists from drifting towards each other with their true identities. The only deterrent perhaps is their age and looks. Both the characters fear revealing their true identities since they have lost their charming youth that had been their constant source of love.
If they would have revealed the identities, they would have missed the surprise, curiosity, and interest in each other. Both of them were not happy with the way they were looking at their old ages and felt that the other person may be put off seeing them like that. So they prefer to keep their sweet memories alive and conceal the bitter truth of old age. Of course, they knew the other’s identity.
c. Write the summary of the play.
Introduction
A Sunny Morning is a one-act play by Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero, brothers and celebrated Spanish playwrights of the early twentieth century. The story is centered on two old lovers now in their 70s meeting at a park and trying to recall their romantic past. The man is Don Gonzalo and the lady is Dona Laura.
Meeting of Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura / Background / Setting
The autumn season in the background presents the baldness of life coinciding with the entry of two key characters in the play Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura have also lost their prime youth and attraction. They meet at the park but they are not able to identify each other at the beginning. Don Gonzalo angers Dona Laura as he scares away the birds she was feeding. Laura picks up verbal combat attacking him with a barrage of words. He retorts though, gives up soon, and offers her a pinch of snuff and reconciles with her.
Flashback / The past
When Don Gonzalo reads from Campoamor’s, both feel that they were lovers in the past. But they choose to pretend to hide their identities. Don Gonzalo tells Laura that he was Gonzalo’s cousin and she says that she heard about Dona Laura’s story through her friend.
Their Love story - Dona Laura’s version
Dona Laura lived at Maricela in Valencia. She was known as ‘The Silver Maiden’ in her locality. Gonzalo would pass by on horseback every morning down the rose path under her window and would toss up to her balcony a bouquet of flowers. Later in the afternoon he would return by the same path and catch the bouquet of flowers she would toss him. Laura’s parents wanted to get her married to a merchant. A duel followed and the merchant was badly wounded by Gonzalo. He fled away fearing the consequences. Laura waited for days and months and not hearing from him for long she left her home one afternoon and went to the beach. While she was engrossed in his thoughts she was washed away by the waves.
Don Gonzalo’s version
Gonzalo loved her intensely too. After injuring the merchant seriously, fearing the consequences, he took refuge in Seville and Madrid. He wrote many letters to her but they were intercepted by her parents. As there was no reply, in despair, he joined the army and met his death in Africa.
Conclusion / Reality
Two years later Laura married someone and settled down in her life. Similarly, Gonzalo disappointed over his lost love, three months later married a ballet dancer and settled down in Paris. Though they were separated, in their hearts their yearning for romantic love continued. When they meet in the park after nearly 50 years, both of them were able to recall their intense romantic affair. Although they came to know about each other in reality, they did not want to reveal, for they had lost their charming youth.