Literary and Film Examples

A Cinematic Example

Lope Director: Andrucha Waddington Year: 2010

Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio (Madrid, 1562–1635) was one of the most important poets and playwrights of the Spanish Golden Age, as well as one of the most prolific authors in universal literature. His life was intense and passionate. He was not only a famous literary figure during his lifetime but also a soldier and a notorious womanizer.

In the film Lope, director Andrucha Waddington presents an ambitious and passionate young man who defies moral rules and is torn between two women (though in real life, there were many more). The film begins with Lope returning from the war, having participated in the Battle of Terceira Island. He is shown lying on the ground, battered, ragged, and with a bloody face. In contrast, a voice reads an optimistic letter to his mother, describing his success and victory in battle, as well as the great booty he has acquired.

Lope soon arrives in Madrid, where a man from the crowd calls out to him in a defiant and threatening tone, suspecting Lope of having been with his wife. This suspicion arises from a poem Lope wrote about her, commissioned by the cuckolded husband. At the time, it was customary to commission poems to seduce women, and Lope took full advantage of this. The film demonstrates Lope's ability to avoid uncomfortable situations. Faced with the husband's accusations, he not only escapes with puns but also manages to trick the man into laughing.

The film emphasizes Lope's seduction techniques, not only through words but also with his body, hand, and gaze. Lope, a master of dialectics, avoids revealing whether or not he has been with the woman. Instead, he turns the situation around, dazzling the mocked man with his charm.

In another scene, Lope, before visiting his beloved mother, asks a friend to lend him a suit belonging to the Marquis he works for, along with a horse, to appear successful. He also gives his mother a handkerchief and shakes a bag so it sounds full of coins. However, his brother discovers that the bag contains nails. When he comments, "I see that you were not exaggerating in your letters," Lope's trickery and his ability to suggest a different reality become evident.

Shortly after his mother's death, Lope, an arrogant man with noble pretensions and no money to afford a proper funeral, asks a moneylender for a loan, intending not to appear poor. He even invents a family coat of arms. His sister uncovers the deception, but Lope

hires actors to attend the funeral, making it seem as though many people mourned her. Soon, he is forced to sell his mother's belongings to pay off the loan. Living beyond his means, Lope is already thinking of the next woman to seduce.

Lope decides not to return to the army, as life in Madrid excites him much more than military life. Although he is unsure which direction to take, he is fascinated by the flourishing theater scene. He decides to write a play and present it to Jerónimo Velázquez, the leading theater impresario of the time.

When Lope arrives at Velázquez's house, he meets other writers waiting to be received. After making them wait, Velázquez's secretary informs them that the works cannot be reviewed and asks everyone to leave their manuscripts. Everyone except Lope leaves, but he resists. Insolently, he confronts the secretary and, in an even more hurtful manner, Elena, Velázquez's daughter. However, at the last moment, Lope turns the situation around, dazzling Elena with his verses. This scene clearly highlights Lope's rebellious, persuasive, and narcissistic character, as well as his lack of boundaries. His opportunism is evident when he takes advantage of his interaction with Elena to further his goal, using both charm and manipulation.

Velázquez hires Lope, not as a writer, but as a copyist, assigning him to copy someone else's work. However, Lope not only completes the task but also makes significant changes to the works, even to those of Cervantes, achieving great success and gaining the favor of both the director and the audience, including Elena.

Despite his success, Lope still struggles with the debt from his mother's funeral. Velázquez, lending him money, saves him from the thugs sent to collect the debt and offers him a deal: Lope must write five quality works for him. By this time, Lope has already become famous in Madrid, and his verses are widely known, benefiting the businessman.

Some time later, Lope has already delivered the work he was assigned to copy. Velázquez and the actors are rehearsing the play, but Lope is upset because some unauthorized changes have been made to the text. He threatens to cancel the rehearsal, but when Velázquez confronts him, Lope persists, arguing that the changes have improved the work. Gradually, through persuasion and insistence, Lope convinces both the actors and Velázquez of the value of his work. Eventually, Velázquez admits, grudgingly, that Lope has significantly altered the work, and agrees to have it performed according to Lope's vision.

This scene highlights Lope's rebelliousness, audacity, and lack of respect for authority. His impudence and irreverence are evident in his interactions with Velázquez, as he interrupts and dominates the conversation. Lope's persuasive skills, combined with his optimism and physical charisma, help him achieve his goals with minimal scruples. He effectively usurps

Velázquez's work, making it his own. Not long ago, he couldn't enter Velázquez's house, but now he has succeeded in having the master perform his work.

The blending of drama and humor in this scene is notable. One characteristic of the Sexual 7 personality is viewing life as a tragicomedy. Lope de Vega may have debts and conflicts, but he writes the best comedies, bringing smiles to a world full of pain. Revolutionary in his writing, Lope transformed the theater of his time by mixing the tragic and the comic.

Following the customs of the time, Lope writes verses for the Marquis de las Navas, who wishes to seduce Isabel de Urbina and marry her. Coincidentally, Isabel and Lope are childhood friends, and they meet again in a hospital where they both engage in Christian charity. Lope realizes that the verses he sells to the Marquis are meant for Isabel, though she remains unaware.

The Marquis de las Navas recites the verses to Isabel. As he does so, Lope, positioned in such a way that Isabel is aware of his presence, silently vocalizes the same verses, since he wrote them himself. After the Marquis finishes, Isabel asks Lope to recite a sonnet. Initially hesitant, Lope eventually improvises an ingenious one, so much so that Perrenot, a friend of the Marquis, accuses Lope of being a seductive charlatan. Defiantly, Lope draws his sword, but does so while composing another clever verse to mock Perrenot.

In this scene, Lope's ingenuity, mental agility, and insolence are clearly demonstrated. His ability to persuade through words (such as his creative and brilliant sonnets) and his engaging physical performance are evident. He initially shows respect for the Marquis but soon takes the opportunity to ignore him, interacting with the audience as he recites and making them smile. His anger, when accused of being a charlatan, is quickly transformed into a fascinating defense, highlighted by his surprising and threatening way of unsheathing his sword, and his final act of writing Perrenot's name with the sword as he recites the closing verses. Lope is a master of suggestion and enchantment!

Elena, Velázquez's daughter, with whom Lope is having an affair, learns that Lope has another lover in Isabel. Lope denies it, despite Elena's description of her own illusions. Eventually, Lope invites Elena to join him in his fantasy, and though she initially refuses, he admits that he wants it all.

Lope confronts Velázquez, Elena's father, defending his love for her. However, Velázquez refuses to let them go, and the two men have a bitter argument. Elena sides with her father, deciding to stay with him. Lope, disappointed, realizes that Elena rejects him to marry the aristocratic Perrenot for money. He becomes bitter and begins writing satirical verses about Elena. Velázquez, outraged, breaks off their relationship, though he continues with plans to perform Lope's work.

Although his work is banned, Lope secretly enjoys watching the success of his play from behind the scenes. His innovative stage direction and witty dialogue bring him great acclaim. Eventually, before the entire audience, Lope publicly humiliates Velázquez and his daughter, denouncing their manipulations with great audacity.

After being denounced by Velázquez and pursued by bailiffs, Lope prepares to flee with Isabel, his new love, to Portugal, hoping to escape justice. However, he is stopped before reaching the sea. Tried for tarnishing the honor of the Velázquez family, Lope faces a harsh sentence, but Elena intervenes in court, behind her father's back, securing a light sentence: exile from Castile and the court. Lope will also have the company of Isabel.

A Literary Example Aureliano Segundo

(One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez)

Gabriel García Márquez gave humanity a wonderful story about the Buendía family and the hidden land of Macondo, creating a magical world that has fascinated readers worldwide. In the city of Macondo, far removed from the rest of the world, the patriarch of the Buendía family founded a unique dynasty with his wife, Úrsula. Gabo intertwines the family’s life with the history of 20th-century South America, a history marked by periods of peace and war, the agricultural exploitation of the United States, dictatorships, and the disappeared.

Among the wide array of characters, we encounter Aureliano Segundo halfway through the novel. He is the twin brother of José Arcadio, both sons of Arcadio Buendía and Santa Sofía de la Piedad, and great-grandchildren of the family patriarch. Aureliano Segundo is a severe and authoritarian father, a characteristic often found in individuals of a sexual nature. Even as a child, his head was filled with fantastic ideas that had no connection to reality, which he would quickly abandon. At the age of twelve, he discovers, with fascination, the room of Melquiades, a gypsy alchemist and friend of his great-grandfather, long dead. Aureliano Segundo sees him in visions and speaks with him. He immerses himself in Melquiades's books, desperately trying to decipher them, driven by curiosity, much like a sexually shy, slightly schizoid E7, with extravagant and esoteric interests.

As time passes, Aureliano Segundo becomes more boisterous and jovial, increasingly filled with fantasies. He attempts to dedicate himself to fishing for gold, just as his great-uncle, Colonel Aureliano Buendía, once did, but he quickly loses interest because it is too labor-intensive—a classic trait of the Sexual 7, who enthusiastically starts new activities only to be discouraged by the effort required.

As is often the case with men of his character, it is a woman who pulls him out of his imaginary world inside Melquiades’s room. By a fortunate coincidence, he becomes

attracted to Petra Cotes, who mistakes him for his twin brother, José Arcadio. Aureliano Segundo pretends to be José Arcadio in order to have her as a lover, behaving dishonestly by not correcting her mistake. He continues the deception to maintain his affair until the truth is revealed. Afterward, he decides to stay with Petra until the end of his life, and she brings out his most vital, expansive side—the joy of living in constant search of pleasure, in a world where everything is exaggerated.

From that point onward, by Petra’s side, Aureliano Segundo begins to experience extraordinary luck. His rabbits multiply, his cows breed triplets, and his hens and sows reproduce faster than any in the county. Soon, he becomes wealthy. He organizes extravagant parties where excess is the norm, bringing in musicians and spending lavishly, much to the chagrin of his great-grandmother Úrsula. He indulges in fantasies, such as dressing as a tiger for a carnival he organizes himself, because for him, nothing is impossible. His greed for experiences, driven by suggestion and money, becomes insatiable. On one occasion, as an act of rebellion against Úrsula’s complaints, he covers the family mansion in bills.

At one of his famous parties, Aureliano Segundo meets Fernanda del Carpio, whom he carries in his arms after an accident. He falls madly in love with her, and she eventually gives in to his charms. However, when Fernanda learns that Aureliano continues to visit Petra Cotes, she flees back to her father’s house. Aureliano does not give up, and he searches the country for her. This determination is another typical trait of the Sexual 7: falling in love and being willing to do anything to win the object of their affection.

After marrying Fernanda, Aureliano Segundo leads a double life, supporting two women. With Fernanda, he lives an orderly and formal life, raising their children and engaging in a monotonous sexual relationship, providing care and security, like a child who seeks a generous mother in a partner. Meanwhile, he continues his affair with Petra Cotes, indulging in a life of excess—parties, meals, and sex—all with Fernanda’s full knowledge. On one occasion, Fernanda tries to embarrass him by sending his clothes in trunks down the main street, hoping all of Macondo will learn of his disrespect. But Aureliano Segundo’s self-indulgence allows him to live this situation with ease, without any sense of shame. The cost, however, is not insignificant. His double life and excesses take a toll on his physical health, and he gains considerable weight due to his overeating.

Another significant aspect is Aureliano Segundo’s relationship with his eldest daughter, Meme, whom he protects from his wife’s harshness. He allows her to go out with American boys, covering for her late-night outings and laughing along with her. This represents the typical indulgence of a Sexual 7, who encourages rebellion in those around him to feel more at peace with his own actions, creating bonds of secrecy that protect his indulgence and fantasies. After the flood that devastates Macondo, Aureliano loses all his wealth, just

as Úrsula had feared, and his lack of foresight leads to his ruin. Yet Aureliano does not embrace failure. Instead, he creates another narcissistic fantasy of wealth and success, never accepting the reality of his loss. He dedicates himself to searching for the treasure buried by his great-grandmother across the estate, though he never succeeds.

His new fantasy does not work for him, and reality becomes harsher and more overwhelming than his imaginary world. Eventually, he is forced to sell the few remaining animals to pay for his other daughter’s education. It is a sad ending, typical of a Sexual 7, for whom living without awareness of the risks often leads to desperate situations and, most importantly, harms others. They advance through life based on their imaginary plans, without considering the consequences they create.

Additionally, a key aspect of the story is that Aureliano Segundo and his brother José Arcadio were switched at birth. This represents the idea of a split, fraudulent existence, which ties into the mythical theme of the "double" (or doppelgänger: the ghostly double of a living person). This concept has fascinating implications. The philosopher Julian Baggini tells us:

"The idea that meeting your doppelgänger predicts something fatal is interesting because it means that you are your worst enemy... Seeing ourselves from the outside would allow us to really get to know each other, but to think that we could see ourselves as others see us is terrifying."

The double confronts us with our denied parts, or with the aspects of ourselves that complete us, or with our own egoic condition as captors and stewards of our most essential self. This is the case with a Sexual 7, where procrastination, denial of pain, fanciful distancing from reality, fraudulence, and other traits clearly indicate a replacement of essence by ego.

This duality haunts Aureliano Segundo throughout his life. His wife and lover meet and agree to share him, and he also leads a completely separate life with each of them. Which life is better for Aureliano? With Fernanda, he loses weight; with Petra, he gains it. With Fernanda, he experiences sobriety, even depression; with Petra, everything is a manic waste. Aureliano Segundo dies on the same day as his twin brother, José Arcadio. The undertakers confuse their bodies, and the entanglement from childhood is restored on the day of the burial. In the end, it is death that re-establishes the confusion in which Aureliano had been trapped during his life. We could say that the Goic deception makes it very difficult for a Sexual 7 to know who they are, and, of course, for those around them to know as well.