Attempt at close depiction of 1900 symbolic writíng by means of the study of Comedias Bárbaras (1906-1923), Valle-lnclán’s tragic trilogy. In Valle’s play, the idea of «poverty» grasps significant elemenrs from several semantic sedes, fulí of literary and cultural antecedents; these sedes are intertwined through diverse associative methods. The particular functions of these symbolic elements enlightens some dark loci and leads to a better comprehension of the interpretative difficulties of the whole.