A Sunny Morning Summary

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Introduction

“A Sunny Morning” is a one act play by Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero, brothers and celebrated Spanish playwrights of the early twentieth century.  The story is centred on two old lovers now in their 70s meeting at a park and trying to recall their romantic past. The man is Don Gonzalo and the lady is Dona Laura.

Meeting of Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura / Background / Setting

The Autumn season in the background presents the baldness of life coinciding with the entry of two key characters in the play Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura who have also lost their prime youth and attraction. They meet at the park but they are not able to identify each other at the beginning. Don Gonzalo angers Dona Laura as he scares away the birds she was feeding. Laura picks up a verbal combat attacking him with a barrage of words. He retorts though, gives up soon and offers her a pinch of snuff and reconciles with her.

Flashback / The past

When Don Gonzalo reads from Campoamor’s ‘Twenty years pass. He returns’, both feel that they were the lovers in the past. But they choose to pretend to hide their identities. Don Gonzalo tells Laura that he was Gonzalo’s cousin and she says that she heard about Dona Laura’s story through her friend.

Their Love story - Dona Laura’s version

Laura Llorente lived at Maricela in Valencia. She was known as ‘The Silver Maiden’ in her locality. Gonzalo would pass by on horseback every morning down the rose path under her window and would toss up to her balcony a bouquet of flowers. Later in the afternoon he would return by the same path and catch the bouquet of flowers she would toss him. Laura’s parents wanted to get her married to a merchant. A duel followed and the merchant was badly wounded by Gonzalo. He fled away fearing the consequences. Laura waited for days and months and not hearing from him for long she left her home one afternoon and went to the beach. While she was engrossed in his thoughts she was washed away by the waves.

Don Gonzalo’s version

Gonzalo loved her intensely too. After injuring the merchant seriously, fearing the consequences, he took refuge in Seville and Madrid. He wrote many letters to her but they were intercepted by her parents. As there was no reply, in despair, he joined the army and met his death in Africa.

Conclusion / Reality

Two years later Laura married someone and settled down in her life. Similarly, Gonzalo disappointed over his lost love, three months later married a ballet dancer and settled down in Paris. Though they were separated, in their hearts their yearning for the romantic love continued. When they meet in the park after nearly 50 years, both of them were able to recall their intense romantic affair. Although they came to know about each other in reality, they did not want to reveal, for they had lost their charming youth.

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