44 pages • 1 hour read
Miguel de UnamunoSaint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1930A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Lake
Content Warning: The text addresses themes of death by suicide and suicidal ideation alongside employing outdated and offensive terminology regarding people with disabilities.
The lake is a critical symbol and recurring motif linked to the themes of Saintliness, Legacy, and Mortality, and The Tragedy of Consciousness. It is a mirror, reflecting how characters grapple with their faith and doubts.
For example, Don Manuel’s internal conflict is highlighted by Lázaro’s comparison of him to a submerged town, suggesting layers of hidden doubt beneath his outward faith: “[A]t the bottom of our Don Manuel’s soul there’s something submerged, drowned, a town whose bells you can sometimes hear” (76). Lázaro’s observation shines a light on the duality of Don Manuel’s character, outwardly serene yet inwardly battling with existential questions. Angela’s observation of the deep sadness in his eyes, which are “blue as the waters of the lake” (69), also serves as evidence of his complex inner life, hinting at his concealed despair—in particular, his desire for death. This is something Don Manuel himself confirms, seeing in the lake both a symbol of his inner turmoil and a possible means of suicide: “This water looks so calm—the current runs below the surface—and mirrors the sky; how it calls to me!” (85). This symbolism is reinforced after Don Manuel’s death. Angela warns Lázaro, who has converted to Don Manuel’s beliefs, about the dangers and contagiousness of existential thought: “Don’t look at the lake so much” (99).
The lake’s legendary origins—drowning a city that failed to recognize Jesus—lend additional meaning, connecting the lake and submerged city to themes of faith and the collective unconscious of the village. Unamuno’s use of the lake to represent “intrahistory”—the unseen, lived experiences of the villagers—ties directly to its symbolic role. The lake holds the village’s collective memory, including the legend of its own submerged counterpart. This concept of a visible village and its submerged, silent history reflects the narrative’s deep dive into legacy, in which Don Manuel, despite his personal doubts, aims to cement a positive, lasting impact on the community. The lake, with its dual nature of reflection and depth, serves as a metaphor for the interplay between the seen and unseen, the spoken and the silent, in the lives of Valverde de Lucerna’s residents.
The Walnut Tree
The walnut tree is as a motif symbolizing innocence, memory, and the inescapable awareness of mortality. Don Manuel refers to it as the “matriarchal walnut” in a nod to its enduring presence throughout his life, from the carefree days of childhood to the complex realities of adulthood. He reminisces: “[I]n [its] shade I used to play as a child, when I was beginning to dream…In those days I did believe in life everlasting!” (95). This quote captures the walnut tree as a repository of happier times before the onset of Don Manuel’s existential doubts.
The tree’s transformation from a living entity to material for practical use underscores the progression from innocence to the acknowledgment of death. Upon the tree’s death, Don Manuel repurposes its wood for the community and keeps six planks for himself “by the foot of his bed” (61). This act symbolizes his intimate confrontation with mortality; it is a constant reminder of his own existential dread and contemplation of suicide. Later, he expresses a wish to be buried in a box made from these planks, linking his final resting place back to the source of his childhood joy and innocence: “When they bury me, let it be in a box made with those six planks I cut from the old walnut tree” (95). This connection between the walnut tree and his burial signifies a desire to reconcile his lost innocence with the inevitability of death.
The transformation of the walnut tree into a community talisman, particularly through the walnut cross, highlights its role in the theme of Saintliness, Legacy, and Mortality. Women afflicted by spiritual turmoil seek healing at the cross: “Women possessed by evil spirits would come to touch the walnut cross, which he had also made out of the same tree from which he had cut the six planks in which was buried” (99). This transformation of the tree from a personal symbol of Don Manuel’s happier times and his subsequent existential struggles into a communal artifact for spiritual solace demonstrates the tree’s rebirth. Don Manuel’s legacy lives on through the wood that once represented his reflection on mortality, reflecting the book’s exploration of themes related to the lasting impact of one’s life after death.
The “New World” Versus the “Old World”
The “Old World” and the “New World” are antiquated terms for Europe, Asia, and Africa on the one hand and the Americas on the other. The phrases have fallen out of use due to their implicitly imperialist assumptions (i.e., the “New World” only being “new” from the perspective of Europeans). However, they play an important role in Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr, where they represent not merely a geographical distinction but also a cultural and temporal one: Unamuno associates the “Old World” with tradition (particularly religious tradition) and the “New World” with progress.
Lázaro embodies the New World’s secular thought, which Don Manuel privately agrees with but chooses to shield his village from, believing the introduction of such ideas would bring despair to a community rooted in Christian belief. His conviction leads to Lázaro’s “conversion”—not to Christianity per se but rather to Don Manuel’s way of thinking. This conversion takes place not through faith but through logic, as Lázaro admits: “I gave into his logic, and that’s my conversion” (79). In this way, Lázaro remains a resident of the “New World” even after appearing to accede to the Old.
This conflict between the New and Old Worlds is also a battleground for the theme of The Utility and Morality of Deception. Don Manuel’s efforts to preserve the village’s traditional way of life are in part an attempt to safeguard faith against the encroaching truths of the New World. In a conversation with Angela, he mentions the contrast between their Old World lifestyle and Lázaro’s experiences in America: “The New World! And us in the Old” (67). This juxtaposition not only marks a geographical difference, but also marks the broader ideological divide between embracing modernity and clinging to the comfort of established beliefs.
Unamuno argues that internal struggles are often the cause of personal and communal unrest. Don Manuel, for example, remarks that “persecutions more often come from a persecution complex than from any persecutor” (59), hinting that “New World” progressivism, including awareness of social injustices, can exacerbate discontent. Through Don Manuel, Unamuno critiques how new ideologies, by shedding light on societal wrongs, might deepen unhappiness.
