Abstract: This essay probes the intersection between sociocultural norms and mental health in the representation of motherhood in Cervantes's La señora Cornelia . This article argues that the society and culture that Cervantes created in this novella played an important role in triggering postpartum melancholia in Cornelia. Since female sexuality was criminalized, women who engaged in premarital sexual relationships and became pregnant experienced traumatic childbirths, giving way to mental illnesses, such as melancholia, paranoia, and suicidal ideation. A sudden onset of panic induces Cornelia into labor, and she is forced to live in a state of existential crisis afterwards.
Luis F. López González (2026) studied this question.