A Sunny Morning II PU Enlgish Summary | A Sunny Morning II PU Enlgish Notes

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Introduction

“A Sunny Morning” is a one-act play by Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero brothers, celebrated Spanish playwrights of the early twentieth century.  The story is centred on two old lovers in their 70s who meet at a park in Madrid as strangers and get into a heated of words. They soon discover that they were involved in a 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 ripeness of life coinciding with the entry of two key characters in the play Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura, who are in their twilight years, past their prime youth and attraction. They meet at a park in Madrid  but are not able to identify each other at the beginning. Don Gonzalo annoys Dona Laura as he scares away the birds she was feeding. Laura picks up an exchange of words. He retorts initially, though, gives up soon, and offers her a pinch of snuff that reconciles them.

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 Dona Laura says that she heard about Dona Laura’s story through her friend.

Their Love story - Dona Laura’s version

Dona Laura  tells Don Gonzalo that she heard from her friend about Laura Llorente who lived at Maricela in Valencia. She was known as ‘The Silver Maiden’ in her locality. The gallant horseman, Gonzalo's cousin 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. Once, while he was waiting under her window, the merchant arrived and insulted the horseman. This resulted in a duel. The merchant was badly wounded by the gallant horseman. He fled, 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 sat engrossed in his thoughts on a rock, she was washed away by the high waves.

Don Gonzalo’s version

Gonzalo tells Laura that the gallant horseman was his cousin, and he heard this story from him. He loved the silver maiden intensely. Once, while waiting under the balcony of the silver maiden, the local merchant who was to marry her appeared. A duel ensued, and the merchant was seriously wounded. Gonzalo's cousin, fearing the  consequences, took refuge in Seville. He then fled to Madrid. He wrote many letters to her, but they were intercepted by her parents. As there was no reply,  he joined the army in , and met his death in Africa.

Conclusion / Reality

In fact, two years later, after the incident,  Laura married someone and settled down in her life. Similarly, Gonzalo, disappointed over his lost love,  ran away to Paris with a ballet dancer three months later. Thus, they were separated. But when they met 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, they did not want to reveal, for they were not in their best looks. They had lost their charming youth. However, their chance meeting on a sunny morning adds new sunshine to their renewed friendship. 

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