Fuenteovejuna

The question of honor and morality returns throughout the play. The Commander questions the honor of the Grand Master at the start of the play, as he feels he is being slighted by being made to wait; shortly thereafter, we get the opposing perspective, as Laurencia’s complaint about the Commander (and men more generally) is his lack of honor—or, perhaps more accurately, his taking of women’s honor. Laurencia and Frondoso likewise center matters of morality and honor in their jabs at city people, and Esteban breaks in response to the Commander over honor when the latter asks the former to give up his daughter’s. He expresses disbelief that people of the city could lack honor in the way that the Commander claims. Further, honor is what separates Frondoso and the Commander; whereas the latter only feigns honor, Frondoso lives it, even returning to Fuenteovejuna because he felt it would be wrong to remain in hiding while the people of the town were being tortured. Much of the play boils down to matters of and debates about honor, including the killing of the Commander—justified, literally, due to his lack of honor—and the centering of honor in the ultimate decision to pardon the town.