El surrealismo de Octavio Paz: La hija de Rappaccini

Abstract

This essay explains how La hija de Rappaccini, Octavio Paz’s only play, displays the different aspects of the Mexican author’s poetics which are theoretically explored and exemplified in works such as El arco y la lira, Las peras del olmo as well as Los hijos del limo. In fact, in his rewriting of a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne —who, on his part, was inspired by diverse European and Asiatic traditions—, the author’s surrealistic core is evident in the construction of spaces pertaining to diverse levels of conscience. Thus, three spaces overlap, a "real" one, an illusory one, and an "intermediate" one. The intermediate space acts like an interface between the other two spaces; it works as a bridge that can only be crossed by Juan, who, in spite of belonging to the space of reality, manages to enter the illusory or inner one, for love. The rules that govern both universes and the life of the characters that shape them are opposed. The love theme works as a vehicle for the reflection about the coincidence between microcosm (the illusory space) and macrocosm (the real space), a recurring theme in the work of Octavio Paz.