41 pages • 1 hour read
Fuenteovejuna
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act III, Scenes 4-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Act III, Scene 4 Summary
At the Court of the Catholic Kings in Toledo, Ferdinand is discussing the battle at Ciudad Real with Don Manrique when a heavily-wounded Flores enters. He tells Ferdinand of the mutiny of the townspeople in Fuenteovejuna, claiming that their accusations were unproven, and that by the time they were finished with him, “the largest parts of him / That remained were his ears” (101). Ferdinand expresses shock and promises to send a magistrate to investigate and hold the guilty parties responsible.
Act III, Scene 5 Summary
In Fuenteovejuna, with the head of the Commander fixed on a pole, the townspeople take turns singing songs of celebration and praise to Ferdinand and Isabella. Esteban and Juan Rojo enter with a new coat-of-arms for the town, to celebrate the fact that their “dark times are almost over” and that “The sun is beginning to rise” (106).
Esteban points out that there will be an investigation and that they should plan ahead. He suggests that when they are interrogated, they
stick together!
And when the interrogator asks,
We speak these words and nothing else:
‘Fuente Ovejuna did it.’ (106)
They then take turns rehearsing to ensure they all have it right. At that point, Alonso comes to inform them that the judge is on his way. Esteban tells everyone to go home and prepare; with one last refrain, they exit.
Act III, Scene 6 Summary
At Grand Master Rodrigo’s residence, Cimbranos is giving him the news of the Commander’s demise. Rodrigo swears that he will “visit this remote, lawless place / With five hundred troops and [he] will / Wipe it off the face of the earth!” (109). Cimbranos recommends caution, as the town has sworn allegiance to Ferdinand and Isabella; Rodrigo decides that, in that case, his only choice is to plead youthful ignorance and beg forgiveness from Ferdinand and Isabella.
Act III, Scene 7 Summary
Back in Fuenteovejuna, Laurencia is lamenting that Frondoso has gone into hiding; just then, Frondoso returns out of concern for her. She wants him to leave, for his own safety, as the magistrate is already torturing and interrogating the townspeople; however, Frondoso asks “How could I live with myself if / To save my own selfish skin / I turned my back on all I cherish” (112).
Laurencia and Frondoso overhear the interrogation: first Esteban, then a little boy, then Pascuala, then Mengo—all stick to the claim that Fuenteovejuna was the culprit. The judge grows tired of the interrogation and orders Mengo to be released.
The people swarm Mengo, thanking him with food and wine; even then, when he is no longer on the rack, he maintains that Fuenteovejuna did it. All exit but Frondoso and Laurencia; he asks her, now that everyone is gone, who killed the Commander, but she maintains that Fuenteovejuna did it.
Act III, Scene 8 Summary
In Córdoba, Rodrigo arrives to beg forgiveness, pledge his life to their service, and offer his army of 500 men. Ferdinand welcomes this, while Isabella compliments him on his grace and wisdom.
The magistrate returns from Fuenteovejuna; Ferdinand and Isabella tell Rodrigo that they’ll make their own judgement, but then leave the punishment up to him. The judge tells them that he tortured 300 peoplebut was unable to uncover any hard evidence. As a result, he says that they “must either pardon them all / Or […] execute them all” (124).
The townspeople are outside, as well, so Ferdinand and Isabella agree to hear their plea. Esteban, Frondoso, and Mengo tell Ferdinand and Isabella of the brutality of the Commander, and that they wish to live under their rule. As there is no hard evidence of the crime, Ferdinand tells them that they have no choice but to pardon them, and that they will rule the town directly until they can find a worthy Commander to govern it.
Act III, Scenes 4-8 Analysis
With the Commander disposed of, the remainder of the play serves to tie up loose ends, but also, in a way, to set the play’s moral compass. It is here that the Marxist reading of the play is complicated. This reading is reinforced by the decision of the townspeople to stick together in order to avoid punishment, and especially by the particular manner in which they do it, acceding their own individuality to the collective, which ultimately saves them. However, this is undermined by the fact that they ultimately appeal to Ferdinand and Isabella to be ruled, suggesting not that they want freedom and agency, but only that they wish to be ruled by kings and queens who reflect their own values.
This could be viewed less as a desire and more as a practical acceptance of reality: they may be able to overthrow the Commander, but they would not be able to resist Ferdinand and Isabella. Further, their evasion of justice for the crime—and it is clear in the final scene that Ferdinand and Isabella do, in fact, view it as a crime, regardless of the testimony of the citizens—could be seen as still undermining their rule, rather than accepting it.
Matters of perspective remain important here. Flores managed to escape, and it would be too easy to view his testimony as a pernicious lie. For one, there is no real reason for him to seek justice on his behalf; given the amorality of Flores and Ortuño, the better move would have been to have taken the opportunity to reinvent himself and distance himself from the Commander, particularly as everyone else who could vouch for him is dead, and he seemed to, at least in part, understand the sentiments of the townspeople.
Further, most everything he describes is some shade of the truth: there was “a mob of women below” who called for his corpse to be thrown down onto their spears, they did smash down his gates, and he did swear “On his sacred honour as a knight / To listen to all their complaints” (101). Further, as the audience wasn’t privy first-hand to the execution, nor most of what followed it, much else of Flores’s description could certainly be true, and likely is. However, our perspective of it depends on our philosophy. Flores (and, it seems, Ferdinand and Isabella) believes their actions to be unjustified because he believes in a rigid class hierarchy—the Commander was brutal, but they were his subjects. For opposing reasons, the townspeople believe otherwise.
Unlock all 41 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: