A Sunny Morning Summary
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 as strangers. Don Gonzalo annoys Dona Laura as he scares away the birds she was feeding. Laura picks up 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 are taken back to their past. They talk about the 'sad love affair'. Don Gonzalo tells Laura that the gallant horseman in the story was his cousin and she says that she heard about the silver maiden's story through her friend. But they choose to pretend in order to hide their identities.
Their Love story
Don Gonzalo’s version
The gallant lover loved the silver maiden intensely. He 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. One night while he was waiting to hear her sing, the merchant whom Laura's parents wanted her to marry appeared. This resulted in a duel. 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.
Dona Laura’s version
Laura Llorente lived at Maricela in Valencia. She was known as ‘The Silver Maiden’ in her locality. The gallant lover 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. One night while he was waiting to hear her sing, the merchant appeared. 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.
Conclusion / Reality
Separated under strange circumstances, 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 romantic love continued. 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 in reality, they did not want to reveal, for they had lost their charming youth. Instead, they promise to each other to meet again, if they are blessed with a sunny morning next day. They want to relive their past with the same emotions of a gallant young lover and a black-eyed beauty.
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