What Price Salvation?: Visual Signifiers in Calderón’s El gran mercado del mundo

Abstract

Abstract: The world as a marketplace where some profit and some lose was a common trope in Calderón’s time. In El gran mercado del mundo, the playwright elucidates complex issues of grace and freewill for a largely illiterate Corpus Christi audience through the use of easily recognizable visual signifiers. The role of grace in salvation was a hotly disputed topic in early modern Christendom. Luther had argued that individuals were saved by “grace alone,” obviating the role of freewill. The Council of Trent countered that grace rendered persons capable of performing meritorious actions that facilitated their salvation. In El gran mercado del mundo, Calderón comes down clearly on the side of individual agency. In this auto sacramental, the Padre de Familias gives each of his twin sons a talent—a term that refers both to a coin and a particular aptitude—with instructions to spend it well at the market. Each also receives a rose, a symbol of grace. The subsequent behavior of each brother illustrates how a person can profit from or squander the gift of God’s grace.