When Honor is Not Enough: Masculine Power and Uxoricide in Calderón de la Barca

This essay explores how husbands in Calderón de la Barca’s plays A secreto agravio, secreta venganza and El médico de su honra embrace a pattern of masculine domination that systematically silences their wives. These women evoke an early modern Spanish society that can only maintain its coherence by making feminine subjugation intrinsic to its operation. This perspective suggests that the honor code is an insufficient marker of masculine identity: Calderón’s corrupted men cannot depend solely on their public reputation, they require uxoricide to perpetuate their sociopolitical dominion over women.