SOURCE: Brown, Kenneth. “The Significance of Insanity in Four Plays by Antonio Buero Vallejo.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos VIII, no. 2 (May 1974): 247-60.

In the following essay, Brown explores the function of mentally ill characters in four of Buero Vallejo's plays.

Eloy, in Mito; Goya, in El sueño de la razón; Irene, in Irene o el tesoro; and the Father, in El tragaluz are all characterized as mentally unsound. In Mito, Eloy is “El pobre [que] sueña en fantasmas.”¹ He readily admits to being in contact with Martians in flying saucers, and these so-called hallucinations earn for him the title of “iluso.” In El sueño, Goya is considered “¡Un estafermo sin juicio!”² by Calomarde, the King's minister; “un viejo demente” by his mistress, Leocadia; and an old man suffering from “locura senil” and “miedo” by Arrieta, Goya's physician and friend. The artist, another Eloy...