Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...

While the first phrase (“Tal para qual,” “Two of a kind”) is from Capricho
5, the rest of the “dialog” comes from the Desastres. No se puede mirar (One
cannot look, Plate 26) portrays the desperation, grief and pleading of the victims,
many of whom are women, about to be shot by the French soldiers who are
represented only metonymically through the pointing end of their rifles at the
right. 132 Inspiring compassion for the victims and indignation for the heartless
murdering, this image is used ambiguously in this scene. Taken by itself it
indicates the indignation of the male voice about the cruelty of the rape. But in the
context of the dialog, as answer to “Tal para qual” (“Two of a kind”), it seems to
express rather an indignation about both their behavior and Leocadia’s supposed
consent to or provocation of the rape, since this Capricho image shows a flirting
couple and its commentary emphasizes that both men and women are equal in
their vices and perversions. 133
Similarly ambiguous is the use of Se aprovechan (They avail themselves,
Plate 16) in this scene. In Goya’s etching, soldiers are seen raiding corpses for
clothes and valuables. This image of disrespect against the dead is here used in
Male voice: “Why?” (Sleep 57) – In what follows, however, I use the more common translations
of Goya’s titles (following for the most part Robert Hughes), which in many cases differ from
those provided by Marion Peter Holt in the above translation.
132 As Hughes has noted about this painting, the absence of executioners makes the “threat of their
presence” all the greater, which for Hughes creates “an astonishingly cinematic effect” as it
announces the expected killer from offstage (318).
133 “Muchas veces se ha disputado si los hombres son peores q e . las mugeres, ò lo contrario. Los
vicios de unos y otros vienen de la mala educación. Donde quiera q e . los hombres sean perversos
las mugeres lo seran también. Tan buena cabeza tiene la señorita q e. se representa en esta estampa
como el pisaverde q e la esta dando combersacion; y en quanto à las dos viejas, tan infame es la una
como la otra.” (Goya, Caprichos n.p.). [“Many times it has been argued whether men are worse
than women or the other way around. The vices of the former, as well as those of the latter, come
from bad upbringing; wherever men be wicked so would be women. The young lady in this plate
has as good a mind as the fop talking to her, and as for the two old women, one is as vile as the
other,” Lopez-Rey 188].
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