{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.025952512424075095, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.163265306122449, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Joaquín Pacheco's Alfredo and the Father-Son Conflict in Spanish Romantic Drama

Two months after the controversial debut of duque de Rivas’s Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino in Madrid’s Teatro del Príncipe, Joaquín Pacheco would challenge the conventional norms of Spanish society even more than his contemporary had with his drama Alfredo. The Sicilian protagonist Alfredo, arguing that he is the victim of “una llama irresistible,” falls desperately in love with his stepmother Berta, believing his father has died while fighting in the crusades. As a result of his obsession with his father’s widow, Alfredo turns away from his longtime friends Rujero and Roberto and is driven to kill Berta’s brother Jorje when the latter inadvertently witnesses the lovers’ union. The miraculous return of Alfredo’s father Ricardo, however, thwarts the hero’s plans to marry his stepmother and live happily ever after. Berta immediately seeks, and receives, Ricardo’s forgiveness, agreeing to leave the palace immediately for the convent in order to perform lifelong penance for her sins. Berta’s change of heart angers Alfredo, who believes them to be united forever by their shared sin. Goaded by his new friend El Griego, a palace outsider, Alfredo vows to kill his father. At the final moment, however, Alfredo instead kills himself, proclaiming himself cursed as he dies. Though Alfredo possesses many of the traits of the hero who appeared regularly on the Madrid stage during Romanticism’s apogee in Spain, his plaintive cry and tragic suicide evoked little sympathy among Spanish critics and audiences. El Eco del Comercio, having panned Don Álvaro two months earlier, nonetheless expressed a preference for Rivas’s work over Pacheco’s, stating, “nosotros en su lugar siempre preferíamos las jornadas del indiano a