Captain Alatriste Within The Golden Age

Captain Alatriste within the Golden Age

Captain Alatriste inspired by the seventeenth century, within the Golden Age. It is narrated through the voice of Iñigo Balboa, a young man who is in the care of the main character Diego Alatriste and Tenorio when his father dies and his mother does not have to keep him. Alatriste is a salary swordsman who is spoiled in the streets of Madrid. One day, running some luck, Captain Alatriste is invited to participate in the commission of murdering two English travelers. The words "You have to win the bread, Zagal.’? Mentioned by the same Alatriste they understand that the work is accepted and that it must comply with it. But one thing leads to another and the work was not done, the heretics are left alive and now the protagonist Diego Alatriste will have to take care of cape and sword to evade the sentence of those who now want it dead for not following the rules that areThey imposed.

This book written by Arturo and Carlota Pérez-Reverte in 1996, represented in the Baroque era, allows an interesting and adventurous exploration about the important events of those years of those years. With an adventure, comedy and narrative, it is considered how it was lived in the seventeenth century, in the middle of the golden century boom. This work will consist of a comparative analysis of the text of Captain Alatriste and some of the characteristics about the context represented within the Baroque.

"He was not the most honest or most pious man, but he was a brave man" (Arturo Pérez, P.

1). This is how the main character and name of the novel are presented. Diego Alatriste and Tenorio, a man who was a soldier in the wars of Flanders, an expert in weapons management and who must make a living like swordsman for salary. “ – You have a certain propensity to be injured, for what I see. –And to hurt, excellence.”(Arturo Pérez, P. 197), this demonstrates how it fits with the dangerous Madrid in which history develops, being a time of wars and extreme poverty, injustice and corruption. However, he can be compared to a gentleman, taking into account his knowledge of the aristocratic code, his compassion, resistance, honesty and temperance.

From the above, the idea that Alatriste can play the role of a gentleman in decline can be detached. It detected a stop of fatalism, pessimism and resignation, it is mostly thinking of death instead of the escape: “His eyes when the brandy appeared to them all the devils who twisted his soul […] The nausea was sointense that he was surprised by looking with excessive interest the black hole of his guns.”(Arturo Pérez, P. 71). He looks lonely, tired and without the vitality that characterized the gentlemen at that time, does not intend to follow Carpe Diem, but in some way wishes eternal rest.

Another character of which Iñigo Balboa is mentioned, who plays at the same time the role of the narrator. An omnipresent being who knows all of them all, the feelings, thoughts and situations through which the other characters pass. At the same time, the further narration is presented, since Iñigo tells the whole story when it is over, the events date back to him being the one who says it: “Even today, so many years after that, I take my handTo the crown and I feel there the contact of the affectionate fingers of the Phoenix of the mills ”. (Pérez-Reverte p. 171).

On the other hand, one of the historical characters in the story is found in the circle of the main characters, Mr. Francisco de Quevedo. The poet dressed in black, the friend of Captain Alatriste, shows himself within the novel as a man who frequently gets into trouble by his poems and sonnets who are not even attacked to important people. “He was stubborn, proud, and never scaled […] was, however, excellent table partner and good friend for his friends, among whom was Captain Alatriste.”(Pérez-Reverte, P. twenty-one).

It should also be mentioned that the character itself makes a perfect allusion to the Quevedo who lived his days in the Madrid of the seventeenth century, giving detail of true events such as his bitter and satirical humorism for which he was several times in prison. It also demonstrates the deep enmity that he felt before Luis de Góngora: "I will spread my verses with bacon because you do not bite them, gongorilla …" (Quevedo cited by Arturo Pérez, P. 22). Likewise, he mentions of the Mexican Juan Ruíz de Alarcón who also attacked for his physique.

On the other hand, the space presented by the author is a vast geographical and social scenario of Madrid from the Golden Age. Captain Alatriste is located in a decadent Spain full of poverty and corruption, specifically in the Golden Age and throughout the novel it is responsible for remembering it: “Almost half a century of reign of our good and useless monarch Don Felipe IV […]. At that time they call it Golden Age. More the truth is that, who lived and suffered, of gold we saw little;and silver, the fair.”(Arturo Pérez-Reverte, P.103-104).

The situation in Spain is described exactly, this is reigned by King Felipe IV faced a political, economic and social crisis. Most of the expenses were directed towards military expenses: “But that gold and that silver were lost in the hands of the aristocracy, the official and the clergy, lazy, malleysresumed in Flanders.”(Arturo Pérez-Reverte, P. 61). Truly the monarchy was mired deep economic depression that only "stopped" before the death of Felipe the Great and the loss of Spanish hegemony.

As the last one examines the intertextuality that the book represents. Throughout the novel, several references to different artists, writers and recognized characters of that time helping the creation of a more similar atmosphere with the seventeenth century, the seventeenth century. Pérez-Reverte makes explicit allusions to Quevedo, there are references from Miguel de Cervantes: "And even the great Don Miguel de Cervantes, that God has in the best of his glory, had written written on his trip to Parnassus …" (Arturo Pérez-Reverte, p. 162). Likewise, the reference to Lope de Vega is presented that is from the mention of his poetry to the presence of his theater. This is the case when the two main characters (Alatriste and Iñigo) attend the corral to witness the Seville Arenal in Chapter X. And so you can see a vast variety of celebrities such as Luis Góngora, Ambrosio de Spinola and the painter Diego Velázquez.

In conclusion, it can be seen that in the historical novel of Pérez-Reverte not only presents events of quite general knowledge such as the Inquisition or Decadence of the Spanish Monarchy, but also addresses precise events and that are mostly taken lightly. A clear example is the arrival of Prince of Wales to Spain. Also, it is appreciated how Arturo Pérez-Reverte resorts to the historical novel to create an entertaining source of information for the teaching and learning of the history of his country.

Another point of great importance that is able to appreciate at the beginning of the novel and all that remains of it is that Pérez-Reverte performs an exhaustive documentation collection. Either of customs, language, political, social or geographical. So, this transforms the author’s novel as a fairly solid basis for the teaching of the baroque era and a pleasant learning for those students who wish to know more about the time.