Who is Laurencia?

Although Lope de Vega's play was inspired by a documented historical event, the characters which feature in it are fictional. In the play, Laurencia is a young peasant woman who lives in the town of Fuente Obejuna and is the daughter of one of the village elders. She is a straight-talking woman who catches the attention of the tryannical overlord and who narrowly escapes his attacks on two separate occasions before she is ultimately overpowered by him and his men. 

What actually happens to Laurencia? 

As was common practice in plays from this period, the actual assault of Laurencia occurs offstage. We, the audience, are therefore left to infer what has happened when she returns to the stage dishevelled and distraught. This produces one of the most powerful and celebrated monologues in Golden Age Spanish drama. It is in this monologue that she confronts the village elders, she holds them accountable for their cowardice and their failure or refusal to help her, and moves the entire town into action. Over time, different performances and adaptations have interpreted and staged this scene in a number of ways: some emphasise her upset and her hurt, others her rage, and others still opt for a more contemplative figure. What is clear in each, however, is that Laurencia has been failed by the systems of power that were supposed to protect her.