abstract
- © UNED.This paper proposes a study of contrasts and ironies in Jacinto Benavente's play La ciudad alegre y confiada. They produce stylistic and comical effects that are typical of the Spanish drama in the first decades of the 20th century. However, they also define the ideological structure of the play and justify its outcome. The contrasts and the ironies of this play will be studied in three sections. In the first one, the personal characteristics and roles will be examined. Their contradictions and incoherencies contribute to the unpredictable nature of the play. In the second section, the analysis of the socioeconomic structure of the society will provide the bases for individual and collective conflicts. The last section focuses on the relation between life and death. The key protagonists Crispin and Desterrado are convinced that death is the only way to purify the people and to save their town. Soren Kierkegaard, Wayne Booth and Peter Roster provide the theoretical approaches to irony that will be used in this study.