Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University. / An investigation of critics representing each of the six decades during which Benavente wrote his plays reveals a fundamental dichotomy of opinion regarding the dramatist's attitude toward human existence. One group, including Pio Baroja, Manuel Bueno, Perez de Ayala, Diaz Plaja and others, maintains that Benavente demonstrates a generally consistent pessimistic and cynical view of man and society. Some among this group believe that this attitude emanates from a materialistic, amoral and even atheistic philosophy on the part of Benavente. The other group of critics, including Gonzalez Blanco, Onis, Lazaro, Valbuena Prat and others, believe that despite an initial pessimism and cynicism, Benavente gradually develops an interest in the inner world of human existence, and moves toward a more idealistic view. The present study establishes and defines the existence of the two opposing schools of Benavente criticism referred to above, and attempts to reconcile them. Our own study, based on an investigation of the complete dramatic and non-dramatic works of Benavente, reveals that the dramatist has a two-fold view of the human condition: 1) "External Reality", or man's environment, presents him with an essentially tragic existence which man cannot alter. 2) "Inner Reality", or man's spiritual and imaginative resources provide him with the means to find refuge, consolation or escape from the tragedy of his environment. [TRUNCATED]

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This is a study of the feminist content of the dramas of Jacinto Benavente (1866-1954) whose dramatic career spanned the same sixty years during which the most spectacular feminist advances took place in Spain. To this end twenty-nine plays are considered to illustrate topically Benavente's conception of the nature of Spanish women and his attitudes with regard to their position in society. It is concluded that Benavente in his first period of dramatic output drew into focus the problems confronting Spanish women in their culture, but in his second period (after 1920), however, he failed to portray adequately the modern female and her approach to the changing environment. Nevertheless, at its best, Benavente's drama constitutes a great contribution to feminist literature.

The great literary movements affected Spanish drama less than that of any other country, though romanticism drew the public and stage closer. Realism and naturalism were slow in developing due to the "manifest incompatibility existing between the very spirit of the French realists and the Spanish national dramatic ideals."2 Spanish national drama deals in elemental passions, is poetic in situations, and magnificently conventional in tone; while its literary form is more important than its dramatic structure.2 French literature contains fine and subtle psychology, witty and ingenious, but is sometimes a little unsubstantial. Not universal theme but complex and involved feelings are characteristic. Spain has been slow to appreciate the modern French realistic play; indeed she has never adopted it in its original form. Attempts to imitate Ibsen3 and the foreign symbolism of Maeterlinck have been unsuccessful. The modern movement in the theatre starts at the end of the nineteenth century. Of all the writers the man most responsible for introducing modern drama, as we understand it in Europe, was Jacinto Benavente. No consideration of the modern theatre would be complete without a discussion of this interesting and brilliant dramatist. Wherever reforms have been accomplished, wherever barriers have been broken down, wherever new paths have been formed, he has been the leader.1 He is generally considered the greatest living dramatist in Spain, and worthy to rank with the best in any country. Of all the realistic dramatist of our time none is more realistic than Benavente. New ideals of literature and art, the method of the modern dramatist, more refined, more serious in aim than of old -- these are some of his contributions to modern drama. He has reacted on the drama and compelled it to change its traditional conventions for modern stage technique. Benavente is to be the master builder of modern Spanish drama; at the same time he mirrors the society of his time, its virtues and vices.

One of the most widely discussed movements of modern Spain is the activity of a literary school usually termed the Generation of '98. The Spanish American War proved to be the final humiliation of a century of political and economic decline in Spain. A group of young men decided that something must be done to save Spain from crumbling to pieces before their very eyes. They loved their country, and its decline made them heart-sick. They knew something must be done to startle the people and to make them realize that they were no longer living in the Golden Age when Spain was a great power. They wished to make their countrymen look forward and not backward. This group of men were intellectuals. They were novelists, dramatists, critics, publishers, historians, professors, and editors of magazine and newspapers. As we see, they were all men of letters. Jacinto Benavente was born in Madrid in 1866 and spent the early years of his childhood in this city. Benavente's first important publication was a book of poems imitating for the most part Campoamor and Becquer.2 Benavente also published essays on various subjects. The most interesting of these for the purpose of this study were Cartas de Mujeres, because it shows that Benavente exhibits one of the tendencies of the Generation of '98. Martinez Sierra is generally considered a member of the Generation of '98 Because of this optimism, Sierra does not deal a great deal with the social and political problems of Spain. He writes simplify of the great masses telling the commonplace happenings of their lives.