The underlying theme of Buero Vallejo's plays is unquestionably man's efforts to realize his full capacities against the internal and external forces that restrain him. These efforts are directed toward the search for truth, the essence of reality, the creation of social justice, the attempt to establish personal, political, and artistic freedom, and other aspects of the human condition. Hope is eternally present, but the nature of man and of things is such that life is inherently tragic and happiness and self-fulfillment is achieved only through great effort….

[In Buero's] dramas man succumbs to circumstance primarily because his inability to face reality and his inclination to delude himself leads to procrastination which in turn paralyzes the will and shackles him to inaction and subsequent defeat.

Urbano and Fernando (Historia de una escalera) are complete failures because they talked and dreamed about what they were going to do, but did nothing to further their dreams. Some critics have blamed their failure on their environment,… yet others in the play did manage to raise their standard of living…. (p. 21)

Silverio (Hoy es fiesta) also suffers from inertia…. [The protagonist] spent years brooding, trying to make up his mind to speak frankly to his wife.

Another character defeated because of his inability to face reality is Juan (Las cartas boca abajo). He refused to admit openly the merit of Carlos Ferrer, and failed to win a professorship because he was unable to answer questions concerning Ferrer's authorative books. (p. 22)

Mario of El tragaluz may also be considered unsuccessful, even though at the end he is hopeful of a better future. His brother Vicente showed greater strength of character but unfortunately was selfish in his actions. Mario, on the other hand, although morally upright, was afraid of life and preferred to know the world only through the window of his basement apartment which he rarely left….

Not all of Buero's characters are overcome by life's circumstances. Some of them, although they meet death, are not tragic in Buero's ideology since they have realized their capacities to the fullest and have contributed something to the future of mankind. (p. 23)

[Buero himself points out that the two blind protagonists, Ignacio (En la ardiente oscuridad) and David (El concierto de San Ovidio)] sought to surmont the limitations of their handicaps. David, being older and more experienced, was better able to understand the world and had greater success. (pp. 23-4)

Perhaps the most outstanding protagonists of Buero's plays are Esquilache (Un soñador para un pueblo) and Velázquez (Las meninas) for having realized their abilities to their greatest extent. Both were men of humble birth who rose to positions of importance…. Esquilache did more than any other character in Buero's plays to raise the level of Spain in many aspects. His forced departure might be considered a tragedy, but he was really triumphant as his reforms, having been won against bitter opposition, were preserved for future generations. (p. 24)

In keeping with Spanish tradition … the activities in which the above-mentioned protagonists engaged are reserved for men. Women are concerned, in Buero's plays, primarily with love and the begetting of children…. The desire to love and be loved is the greatest motivating force in the behavior of the women in Buero's dramas, and … their degree of happiness or unhappiness and fulfillment of self is directly proportionate to the depth of the love they feel for a particular man and the intensity of the response inspired.

The character who achieves the greatest heights in the realization of her role as a woman is Amalia (Madrugada), the central figure of one of Buero's most tense dramas. Amalia, who felt a coldness developing in her husband Mauricio's attitude toward her, was unable to find out the reason for it before his death. Feeling that it was the result of gossip spread by one of his relatives before his death, she called them to her home minutes after his demise, pretending that he was still alive but liable to pass away at any moment. She attempts to extract the truth, promising that she will not permit her husband to leave her his wealth, but to leave it to them instead. By playing on their lust for money she finally discovers that her conjecture was correct, and, moreover, that her husband had loved her deeply to the end.

Vying with Amalia for success in carrying out a woman's function in life to its greatest heights and as a richly developed dramatic character is Penelope, protagonist of La tejedora de sueños. Buero destroys Homer's characterization of Penelope as the perpetually faithful loving wife, and substitutes for it a Penelope who, true to her womanly instincts, cannot wait indefinitely for a husband who has abandoned her to fight a war over another woman. She falls in love with Anfino, one of her many suitors, who loves her sincerely. Their love, however, remains platonic. When Ulysses returns and slays the suitors, including Anfino, Penelope reproaches him for his long absence and his cowardliness in disguising himself, and declares her undying love for the deceased Anfino. Both Amalia and Penelope, therefore, give meaning to their lives only through fulfillment in a love which transcends mortal existence. (pp. 25-6)

[Buero's important female characters] are not virtuous women by normal standards. We see, therefore, that for Buero, the spiritual union of a man and a woman transcends conventional morality as well as mortal existence. (p. 26)

The character who reaps the most tragic consequences of the failure to be true to her womanly role in life is Adela (Las cartas boca abajo). (p. 27)

Adela was the most active of Buero's female characters in betraying her role as a woman. To lure a man she did not love from another woman, and later to marry a man she did not love, were grievous sins in the eyes of Buero Vallejo, and for these she received a severe punishment—the loss of even her son's love and respect. At the end she was a tragic figure, more to be pitied than to be condemned….

In spite of the repeated criticism that Buero's plays are entirely pessimistic and devoid of hope, by using the criteria of the author it can be said that there is much optimism and achievement in the actions of Buero's heroes and heroines. The fact that many of them die does not make them tragic figures…. [Individual] deaths are irrevelant and not necessarily tragic [for Buero; rather] a man's success in life is to be measured by the importance of the contribution he has made to the betterment of society, and a woman's success by the depth of a requited love and her role as a mother. (p. 28)