Harlan: Moreto’s “El desden” 
17 
Diana and Juana seem, on the surface, to be the same type, 
the woman scornful toward the attentions of the opposite sex. 
Both are made to revise their ideas on the subject of love, and 
the method consists of their reaction toward being scorned 
and being made jealous. But, Juana wants back the power 
to charm Pedro as soon as she thinks that she has lost it, while 
Diana, at the first show of Carlos’ indifference, vows that she 
must make him susceptible to her charms only to punish him 
with a disdain far exceeding his which has wounded her. And, 
the difference between her and Juana lies in the psychological 
development which Moreto employs in making Diana risk all 
in her determination to “go her lover one better”, and in her 
being unmistakably defeated “at her own game”. The simple 
fact of being scorned and feeling jealous suffices to change 
Juana, just as arbitrarily on the part of the author as her 
first attitude is arbitrary. Diana has arrived at her attitude 
as the result of study and her honest convictions, and there 
is nothing arbitrary in the change which takes place in her. 
It is carefully and naturally developed. 
A comparison of the two characters is not complete without 
calling attention to their own words. 
Diana: 
Casarme y morir es uno. 36 
Juana (to her uncle on the subject of men) : 
SI, hago; 
Y tanto, que si estuviera 
Fundada en ellos mi vida, 
Gustosaxnente homicida 
De mi propia vida fuera. 37 
Diana : 
6 Como se puede casar 
quien sabe de amor el riesgo? 38 
Juana: 
Peligros no prevenidos 
A culpas suelen llegar . . . 
Antes debe las del gusto 
Huir por no tropezar. 39 
30 El desden, Act I, scene vi, p. 193. 
37 Los milagros, Act II, scene ii, p. 240. 
38 El desden. Act I, scene vii, p. 196. 
39 Los milagros, Act II, scene i, p. 240. 
2—28800 
