ABSTRACT
The cry of “;Fuenteovejuna!,” for example, is accompanied by the fundamental justification of the rebellion which consists of a combination of what may be termed “naïve monarchism” and the accusation of tyranny leveled against the comendador and his men. The play, then, has a dramatic and group hero, the crowd, and this crowd acts in a structured and ordered way with justifications for resorting to what Natalie Davis would call “The Rites of Violence.” As for Fuenteovejuna itself it is difficult to categorize its inhabitants as either peasants or townsmen. Certainly with its 985 vasallos, that is some 4,500 inhabitants, it could hardly be described as a village. The existence of a sworn association and the assertions of those interrogated that the culprit was Fuenteovejuna as a united whole, however, did not imply that, for the occasion, the crowd had no structure or hierarchy.
