English · Chapter 23
Study notes aligned to the official NEB syllabus.
"A Sunny Morning" is a one act comedy by the Spanish brothers Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero, who wrote their plays together in the early twentieth century and were known for light, warm hearted comedies of Spanish life. It is set in a sunny corner of a park in Madrid and has only four characters, two of them servants. Nothing large happens. An elderly gentleman and an elderly lady quarrel over a bench, fall into conversation, and slowly discover that they were the sweethearts of each other's youth. The whole interest of the piece lies in what they then decide not to say, so that a slight comic scene turns into a quiet study of age, memory and pride.
Dona Laura is an elderly, dignified lady who comes each morning to this corner of the park to sit in the sun and throw crumbs to the pigeons she thinks of as her own. She is quick tongued and rather enjoys a fight, giving back every sharp remark the old gentleman makes. Beneath that briskness she is the Laura of an old romance, and once she knows who is beside her she keeps command of herself, invents a dignified end for her younger self, and lets him go without a word.
Don Gonzalo is an elderly, irritable gentleman who arrives complaining that the priests have taken the other benches and sits down unwillingly beside a stranger. He is gruff, a little vain about his past, and fond of his snuff. As the quarrel thaws he becomes courteous, and when he recognises Dona Laura he too refuses to say so, offering instead a heroic death for the Gonzalo of the story. His backward glance as he leaves shows what the meeting has cost him.
Petra is Dona Laura's maid, who walks her mistress to the bench, is sent off on an errand and is in no hurry to come back, and returns at the end to take her home.
Juanito is Don Gonzalo's servant, who helps his master to the bench, is ordered about and grumbled at, and comes back for him at the close. Both servants have few lines, and their real dramatic use is to leave the two old people alone for the length of the scene.