Madrid

Madrid is the remembered starting point of Doña Clara de Viedma and Don Luis’s love story. The city is presented through the close arrangement of their fathers’ houses: the young people live opposite one another, near enough for a glance or sign at a window to carry meaning, but separated by family authority and Clara’s uncertainty about whom she can confide in.

Setting and Households

Doña Clara de Viedma’s father lives in Madrid, across from the house of Don Luis’s father, an Aragonese gentleman who is lord of two villages. The account offers no broad portrait of the city; instead, Madrid takes shape through these neighboring households and the openings through which the young people can see one another. Curtains cover Clara’s father’s windows in winter, while lattice-work is used in summer, giving their courtship a precise domestic setting.

A Courtship Across the Street

Don Luis sees Doña Clara while pursuing his studies and communicates his love through signs from his windows. One gesture—linking his hands—indicates that he wishes to marry her. Clara, motherless and unsure whom she could approach, initially leaves the signs unanswered; when both fathers are away, however, she raises a curtain or opens the lattice a little so Don Luis can see her. She says that she comes to love him despite their never speaking to each other.

Departure and Pursuit

When Doña Clara’s father is about to leave Madrid, Don Luis learns of the departure without hearing it from her. Clara believes that grief makes him ill, and she is unable to see him to bid him farewell. After two days on the road, she recognizes him at an inn, disguised as a muleteer and following her journey. Madrid is thus the point from which the courtship’s window-bound exchanges become a pursuit on the road.

Narrative Significance

Doña Clara recounts the Madrid episodes later, explaining the singer’s identity and the attachment behind his journey. The city’s role in the tale is intimate and limited: two opposing homes make a private courtship possible, while the departure from Madrid turns a relationship formed through signs into a continuing, concealed pursuit.