Abstract

The light-hearted pieces with a happy ending produced during the Spanish Golden Age were no longer in accordance to the comedy based on turpitudo et deformitas — which was confined to «entremess». Instead, they offered a new kind of complex humour, which no longer rejected creating empathy with the characters. Despite the claims of some well-known criticism, the tragic and comic universes are radically separated in Calderón. Even though the comic pieces incorporate, in a sort of emulsion, features belonging to the tragic sphere, these are approached from a light-hearted, optimistic and hopeful perspective. This thesis is supported by the analysis of Los empeños de un acaso.