Themes
Honor
Honor is a major theme in Spanish Golden Age drama. Theatre was used as a metaphor for life, and honor was therefore represented in a number of ways on stage, for example, reputation, and juxtaposed against disillusionment and hypocrisy.
Right Versus wrong
Right versus wrong is a common theme in plays from this period and Lope de Vega himself believed that everyone reacts to honor.Honorable (Christian) conduct is enforced by the public and to lose your honor is to live in shame and despair.
The fear of lost reputation
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Masculine honor based on woman's chastity
A large number of plots focus on the fear of lost reputation and on masculine honor based on women's chastity. While women seem to control their men's honor, gender roles are only very conservatively challenged.