The Sins of Sor Juana

1. The Sins of Sor Juana By: Karen Zacarias

2. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

5. The World of the Play • Geographic location • New Spain (Mexico) • Historical period • Late 1600’s • Season • Summer • Social conditions of time/place • Restricted, Very Proper, Confined, Strict • Economic conditions of time/place • Surrounded by Wealth and Royalty • Political conditions of time/place • Monarchy • Religious conditions of time/place • Modest and Strictly Christianity • Physical environment in play • Convent

6. My Character: Vicereine

7. Physical Characteristics • Age: • 30 • Race / Nationality: • Spanish • Health: • Well, young • Posture/Figure: • Very royal, regal figure. Never bows to anyone • Movement habits / gestures/ mannerisms: • Wide, long, exaggerated arm movements. Never moving too quickly • Voice / speech patterns or distinctions / dialect or accent: • Proper, educated, intelligent speech • Dress / grooming habits: • Large dresses, always dresses properly • List of adjectives describing the character in physical terms: • She is elegant and her movements are all fluid and flowing together. Walks as if floating on air.

8. Social Characteristics • Educational Background • The Vicereine is very well educated and probably knows many languages. • Social class • She is very well respected by all, but very judgmental and ultimately selfish • Economic status • Very high class, has a lot of money • Occupation • The Vicereine of New Spain • Religion • Christian, Catholic • Hobbies, interests • Always concerned about Juana and her well-being. She spends much of her time adoring Juana, taking care of her, and making sure she has the “perfect life” all planned out for her. • Family relationships • She thinks Juana as one of her own and because of the growing bond and affection for Juana, her relationship with the Viceroy suffers.

9. Psychological / Emotional Characteristics • Intelligence • Very well-educated • Awareness • She believes she is very aware of everything that is going on, but it takes a while for her to realize Juana’s love affair with Silvio. • Stability and self-control • For the most part, she is very in control of her emotions and always remains proper and pleasant, but when Juana angers her, her anger gets the best of her. • Temperament (genial, domineering, etc.) • Pleasant and calm normal, but when angered she can become temperamental • Desires, beliefs, ideals • She no longer cares very much to mend or keep a relationship with the Viceroy. She believes being looked at as a good, Christian woman is very important. She cares what others think about her. • Basic attitudes towards your environment, past events, people, etc. • She loves the Viceroy and would not divorce if given the chance because it is looked down upon. • She loves Juana and would choose spending time with her over her husband. • Adjectives describing the character in psychological, emotional terms • Stable, uneasy at times, loving, caring, concerned, temperamental.

10. Moral Characteristics Code of ethics; standards • 1.  What moral crises do you encounter? • Sor Juana is going behind the Vicereine’s back by seeing Silvio and ruining her perfectly planned out future for Juana. • 2.  What choices do you make when faced with these crises? • The Vicereine’s true colors show when discovering Silvio and Juana together. The Vicereine furiously and immediately orders Pedro to capture the bastard, Silvio. This is the Vicereine’s true breaking point. •  Are you selfish? • Yes, very. She’s very much about appearances and what is fitting in her eyes. She is also happier with Juana than the Viceroy, and doesn’t really care what her husband thinks. She doesn’t really care if Juana is truly happy or in love with Fabio either. • Hypocritical? • Not really. She holds very true to her beliefs and what she wants for Juana. • A person with integrity? • The Vicereine is full of integrity. If she did not have integrity, she would not care so much to “save” Juana and clean up the mess she created. She also tries to make things seem less than they are; Nothing is as big of a deal as the Viceroy makes it, in her eyes.

11. Define your relationships with other characters • 1.  Your initial attitude toward other characters in the play. • Distinctly higher than the others. Silently demands respect. Also has an understood amount of respect required by the other characters. • 2.  Your behavior toward other characters. • Caring, but wants things done her way. She also does not find it completely necessary to be nice or kind to anyone that she does not find a specific interest in. • 3.  Changes in attitudes toward other characters. • Always loving toward Juana, but becomes very frustrated with her in the end. • 4.  Other characters’ attitudes toward you. • Respectful in her presence, but probably annoyed by her behind her back. There is probably much gossip about her and quite put-out with her.

12. Explore Your Character’s Growth • 1.  How have you changed at the end of the play? • She is no longer so passive or naive. • 2.  What have you learned/experienced as a result of the events of the play? • Sor Juana was not as trusting as she thought. • Examine the character’s motivation • Her motivation is to have control over Juana, even control over who she marries. • 1.  What is the character’s main objective, super objective, in the play? • Essentially, to get her way in every aspect. • State in a single statement: I want what (active verb) from whom because why? • I want submissiveness from Juana because I want to control what she does.

13. In Depth Analysis • What are the sins of Sor Juana and why? • The sins of Sor Juana is her desire to read and write. It is also a great sin because she is a woman. Her sins also involve her pride, how she sets up Pedro and Silvio’s death, her manipulative ways and how she uses the Viceriene’s affection as away to get what she wants. • Who became nuns and monks during the time period and why? • The wealthy people whose parents want the best for them. Some families in the time could only have a certain number of children, so sending their children off the convent was the best choice. They could gain wealth through the convent that way. • Who is the playwright, why did she write Sor Juana, when did she write Sor Juana, what are her other work? • The playwright is Karen Zacarias. She wrote the story to “introduce Sor Juana to the English-speaking world”. • The conflict of the play; the main action usually involves a central conflict. • The conflict of the play is Juana is selfish and wants things her way, no matter how much others sacrifice in order for her to have the best life possible. • The meaning or theme of the play; what is the playwright saying? • The playwright is trying to introduce a culture and a great story about a woman very wise beyond her years. • The meaning of the play is that you must always stay driven and not expect for things to be simply handed to you. Just because the Viceroy and the Viceriene took an interest in her, didn’t mean that she would have everything handed to her. Juana was very manipulative towards the Viceroy and Viceriene once she knew how enthralled they were with her.

14. Some of Sor Juana’s work…

15. My lady, I must imploreforgiveness for keeping still,if what I meant as tributeran contrary to your will.Please do not reproach meif the course I have maintainedin the eagerness of my loveleft my silence unexplained.I love you with so much passion,neither rudeness nor neglectcan explain why I tied my tongue,yet left my heart unchecked.The matter to me was simple:love for you was so strong,I could see you in my souland talk to you all day long.With this idea in mind,I lived in utter delight,pretending my subterfugefound favor in your sight. In this strange, ingenious fashion,I allowed the hope to be minethat I still might see as humanwhat I really conceived as divine. But now, at your solemn bidding,this silence I herewith suspend,for your summons unlocks in mea respect no time can end.And, although loving your beautyis a crime beyond repair,rather the crime be chastisedthan my fervor cease to dare.With this confession in hand,I pray, be less stern with me.Do not condemn to distressone who fancied bliss so free.If you blame me for disrespect,remember, you gave me leave;thus, if obedience was wrong,your commanding must be my reprieve.Let my love be ever doomedif guilty in its intent,for loving you is a crimeof which I will never repent.This much I descry in my feelings--and more that I cannot explain;but you, from what I've not said,may infer what words won't contain. My Lady Oh, how mad I becamein my blissful love of you,for even though feigned, your favormade all my madness seem true!How unwisely my ardent love,which your glorious sun inflamed,sought to feed upon your brightness,though the risk of your fire was plain! Forgive me if, thus emboldened,I made bold with that sacred fire:there's no sanctuary securewhen thought's transgressions conspire.Thus it was I kept indulgingthese foolhardy hopes of mine,enjoying within myselfa happiness sublime.

16. Silly, you men-so very adeptat wrongly faulting womankind,not seeing you're alone to blamefor faults you plant in woman's mind.After you've won by urgent pleathe right to tarnish her good name,you still expect her to behave--you, that coaxed her into shame.You batter her resistance downand then, all righteousness, proclaimthat feminine frivolity,not your persistence, is to blame.When it comes to bravely posturing,your witlessness must take the prize:you're the child that makes a bogeyman,and then recoils in fear and cries.Presumptuous beyond belief,you'd have the woman you pursuebe Thais when you're courting her,Lucretia once she falls to you.For plain default of common sense,could any action be so queeras oneself to cloud the mirror,then complain that it's not clear? Still, whether it's torment or anger--and both ways you've yourselves to blame--God bless the woman who won't have you,no matter how loud you complain.It's your persistent entreatiesthat change her from timid to bold.Having made her thereby naughty,you would have her good as gold.So where does the greater guilt liefor a passion that should not be:with the man who pleads out of basenessor the woman debased by his plea?Or which is more to be blamed--though both will have cause for chagrin:the woman who sins for moneyor the man who pays money to sin?So why are you men all so stunnedat the thought you're all guilty alike?Either like them for what you've made themor make of them what you can like.If you'd give up pursuing them,you'd discover, without a doubt,you've a stronger case to makeagainst those who seek you out.I well know what powerful armsyou wield in pressing for evil:your arrogance is alliedwith the world, the flesh, and the devil! You Men Whether you're favored or disdained,nothing can leave you satisfied.You whimper if you're turned away,you sneer if you've been gratified.With you, no woman can hope to score;whichever way, she's bound to lose;spurning you, she's ungrateful--succumbing, you call her lewd.Your folly is always the same:you apply a single ruleto the one you accuse of loosenessand the one you brand as cruel. What happy mean could there befor the woman who catches your eye,if, unresponsive, she offends,yet whose complaisance you decry?

17. Stay, Shadow of My Love Stay, shadow of my love, untamed, reflection of the charm I treasure most, illusion beautiful by which entranced I die, sweet fraudulence by which in pain I live. If to the powerful magnet of your gifts my breast becomes submissive steel, why cast your coaxing spell on me then teasingly take to heel? No bending to your despotic sway can nurse your swaggering content; for though you mock the closest tie that bonded your imagined form, it little counts to dodge my breast and arms when once you're in the irons my dream forged. This Evening, My Love This evening, my love, as I spoke to you and saw it in your face and in your acts that I was not persuading you with words, I longed for you to look upon my heart. And Love, that aided my intentions, conquered that which seemed impossible: for in the plaint that grief was pouring out my broken heart was suffering distillation. Enough of strictures now, my love, enough. Let tyrannous jealousies torture you no more nor vile suspicion vex your peace of mind with foolish doubts and futile indications, since now in liquid humor you can see and touch my broken heart between your hands.