Apparitions Can Be Deceiving: Ghosts and the Undead in Golden Age Spanish Drama

Abstract

Ghosts and the undead are uniquely capable of challenging the nature of truth and reality because they exist in an interstitial space between two extremes. A ghost is living and dead, present and absent, past and present, all simultaneously. As the ghost breaks down the binary states of being which are fundamental to the human experience, it challenges the purpose of such classifications. In Golden Age Spanish drama, an era which is fascinated by the concepts of engaño and desengaño, ghosts sometimes serve the function of obscuring the nature of objective reality and questioning humanity’s ability to perceive it, if it exists. However, ghosts also serve a second, incompatible function, which is to reveal absolute truth. Ghosts and the undead of the Golden Age are often regarded as omniscient, since, by virtue of existing outside of the limits of life, they are imagined to be able to see all of time and space simultaneously. They are frequently called upon to reveal their knowledge to the living. These dual functions are too antithetical to be embodied by the same figure. The theater of the Golden Age therefore shifts from omniscient representations of ghosts to the representation of ghosts as yet another visual deception. This study of the representations of the ghost in Golden Age Spanish theater examines how ghosts aid and reflect the epoch’s conceptions of truth and our perceptions of reality and presence in both time and space. I argue that ghost figures are always destabilizing, even when they represent an absolute truth, as they consistently demonstrate the gaps in humanity’s understanding of the world. Ghosts are born out of and also reflect Baroque society’s growing uncertainty or insecurity regarding humanity’s relationship to the world.