Individual rights vs. authority in Calderón de la Barca\'s El Alcalde de Zalamea.

Calderon’s El Alcalde de Zalamea can easily be misunderstand as a simple honor play (“drama de honor”).  However, the play has a much wider and deeper significance. It exposes the conflict  between the common man, the peasant, or the villain  (“villano”) of the time- formally a man without titles of nobility- against abuse from the socially more powerful, in this case, the military man.  The purpose of this paper is to bring to light new aspects of Calderon’s play, El Alcalde de Zalamea.  A brief exposition of the plot is followed by a detailed analysis of key characters, such as Don Crespo, his daughter Isabel, Don Nuño and the army captain, Don Alvaro de Ataide.  The study will reveal that the author’s objective was to expose the anxiety of a layman facing menacing power.  Don Crespo’s well-founded anguish is materialized and his response brings a certain sense of balance against the lack of protection individuals like him suffer when facing the well-established and powerful nobility of his time.