Today’s lovely tragedy, actually ugly tragedy since tragedy is never lovely, comes from Rodolfo Usigli’s final drama in his great trilogy of Mexican history. The trilogy is made up of Corona de fuego, Corona de luz, and Corona de sombra, but my discussion will focus on Corona de sombra. Corona means “crown” so all the titles in the Corona trilogy refer to a type of crown. My focus is on Corona de sombra meaning “crown of shadow”. Corona de sombra describes the harrowing journey of emperor Maximiliano or Maximilian and his wife Carlota or Charlotte as they are forced from their position as Emperor and Empress of Mexico by Benito Juaréz and his rebel forces. This journey results in the execution of Maximiliano, and the insanity of his wife Carlota. One thing about tragedy in Spanish literature is that it never affects just one person; rather it affects several people so one must really look at tragedy in Spanish literature as an interdependent force rather than as a standalone concept. In Usigli’s Corona de sombra the interdependence of tragedy is seen in the fact that Carlota goes crazy after the execution of her beloved Maximiliano. While Maximiliano eventual death is the foremost form of tragedy in this drama, there are other subtle tragedies. One such subtle tragedy is the way in which the life that Maximiliano and Carlota have always known slowly crumbles. A destroyed way of life is in a way almost as bad as actually losing a life, which is why it can be viewed as a tragedy. But by portraying the destruction of a way of life, Usigli really points to an essential idea about human life, which is that tragedies don’t only affect the human spirit, meaning our relative inner peace, but also the way in which we live our lives. Therefore, the tragedies in Usigli’s Corona de sombra really reflect how tragedies have a way of radically redefining our lives.
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