Setting - In the house of Bernarda Alba in Southern Spain
Characters
Bernarda
1. A
sixty-year old widow with five daughters
2. She
represents the land-owning upper class of the Spanish society
3. In
a way, Bernarda represents the tyrannical rule of the Spanish dictator Franco
who killed Lorca
4. The
mourners call her “a dried up lizard”
5. However,
she notices a widower at the church,
not Pepe
6. She
laments that hers was a “damned town without a river, this town of wells”
7. Wells
are reference to stagnation, while rivers refer to fertility and life
8. She
is a product of the values and traditions of her society
9. She
also has to bear the responsibility of five unmarried daughters and her mother
10. According
to her, men and women have specific roles: “A needle and thread for females, a
mule and a whip for male”
11. She
controls the lives of all around her
12. The symbol
of her authority is the cane
13. She has a
negative attitude towards sex
14. She wants
the mob to finish Librada’s daughter before the police got there and put
“burning coal in the place she sinned!”
15. She does
not express any feeling other than anger; she does not cry when her husband
died or when Adela kills herself
16. She does
not allow her daughters to express their sorrow either
a. Tells
Magdalena, “Magdalena don’t cry! If you want
to cry, crawl under the bed. Do you here me?”
b. At
Adela’s death she silences her daughters: “Did you here me? Silence! Silence, I
said! Silence!”
17. She does
not believe children should have an independent voice. When one of the mourners
daughters says that the poor, too, must eat to live, Bernada says, “At your
age, one does not speak in front of one’s elders”
18. She has a
low opinion of the poor and the working class
19. She
attempts to keep up the appearance by telling that Adela died a virgin: “My
daughter had died a virgin. Carry her to her room and dress her in white
Adela
1. She
is the youngest and the most beautiful of Bernarda’s daughters
2. She
challenges Bernarda’s tyranny
a. When
her mother declares an 8-year long mourning period, she says, “I can’t be
locked up! I don’t want my body to dry up like yours!”
b. She
wears a green dress and models for the chicken
c. She
carries on an affair with Pepe
d. She
breaks her mother’s cane: “This is what I do with the tyrant’s rod! Don’t take
one step more. No one gives me orders but Pepe”
e. She
commits suicide instead of living under her mother’s tyranny
3. Adela
is passionate: she tells Poncia, “When I look into his eyes, I feel I am slowly
drinking in his blood”
4. However,
she is not completely free from patriarchy which Bernarda represents: she is
ready to take orders from Pepe
5. According
to Martirio, Adela “was fortunate thousand times over – she had him”
Martirio
1. In
Spanish her name means ‘martyr’
2. Her
relationship with Enrique Humanas was put a stop to by Bernarda over class
considerations
3. Martirio
was sick and deformed
4. She
is hopelessly attracted to Pepe and steals his photograph from Angustias
5. She
is afraid of men and sexuality: “Since I’ve been afraid of them … I was always
afraid of growing up for fear of suddenly finding myself in their clutches”
6. She
betrays Adela to her mother by pointing out the straw clinging to her petticoat
7. It
is because of her lie that Bernarda had killed Pepe that Adela kills herself
8. Magdalena calls her a “fiend” for causing their sister’s
death
9. Poncia
says that Martirio is “a well of poison” – her stagnation and frustration had
poisoned her mind
Angustias
1. Bernarda’s
daughter by her first marriage
2. According
to Magdalena, Angustias looked like “a scarecrow
when she was twenty”
3. Pepe
proposes to her because of her money
4. Angustias
accepts it: “gold in your purse is better than dark eyes in your face”
5. Pepe
gives her a ring with pearls, which according to Prudencia a symbol of sadness
Maria Josefa
1. Bernarda
keeps her locked up thinking she was crazy
2. She
understand the situation at home well
3. She
wants to marry “a beautiful man from the edge of the sea”
4. Her
character adds a touch of humour to the play
Pepe el Romano
1. A
25-year-old suitor of Angustias and lover of Adela
2. He
never physically appear on the play, but all the actions in the play are
connected to him
3. Maria
Josefa calles him a giant and Adela calls him a lion
Themes
·
Oppressive religious and social traditions and
the Status of women
1. Magdalena refers to a better time: “Those were happier
times! A wedding lasted ten days and wagging tongues were not in fashion”
2. But
now the former organic village society has changed
3. According
to Bernarda, “A needle and thread for females; a mule and a whip for males.
That is how it is for people born with means”
4. The
only honourable option for a woman is to be married
5. Marriage
is acceptable only between social equals
6. Dowry
was a necessity
7. Unmarried
women are to be under repressive guardians
8. Women
could be exploited by their male guardians – Adelaida
9. Angustias
is joyful because she would escape spinsterhood: “Fortunately, I’ll soon be
getting out of this hell”
10. According
Martirio all men cared about “is land, oxen, and a meek little dog to cook for
them”
11. Pepe tells
Angustias: “You know why I’m here. I need a good woman, well-behaved, and
that’s you, if you aree”
12. Ponica
describes the status of a married woman: “Anyway, it is best for a single woman
like you to know that fifteen days after the wedding, a man leaves the bed for
the table, then the table for the tavern. And any woman who doesn’t accept it
rots away crying in the corner!”
13. The
virginity of unmarried women must be preserved at whatever the coast
14. Bernarda
says she had five chains for her five daughters
15. Magdalena says, “Not even our eyes belong to us”
16. Sexual
double standards
a. Women
have to repress their sexuality – Librada’s daughter
b. Men
are expected to ‘saw their wild oats’ – harvesters, Poncia’s son
17. Women
should not look at men except the priest, and that too because he wore “skirts”
18. Poncia
notes that Adela was frightened as if she had “a lizard between her breasts”
due to her affair
19. Poncia
tells Adela, “I keep watch! So people won’t spit when they come through the
door”
20. Hence, as Magdalena points out, “inside we rot away over what
people will say”
·
Resistance
1. Poncia
kills her husband’s finches
2. Adela’s
affair with Pepe: “I do what I want with my body”
3. She
says, “I’ll fight with my mother, to put out this fire that rises from my legs
and mouth”
4. When
she heard the harvesters have come Adela says, “Oh, if only I could go to the
fields, too”
5. Paca
la Roceta whose husband is impotent goes off with men to the mountains and
return with a circle of flowers on her head
6. The
woman wearing the sequined dress
7. Maria
Josefa tries to run away and get married
8. Poncia
would lock herself up in a room with Bernarda and spit at her
9. The
maid who had been sexually abused by Bernarda’s dead husband: “Rot away,
Antonio … Never again will you lift up my skirt behind the back of the
corral”
·
Class
1. Poncia
tells Bernarda that it was time for the daughters to marry, but Bernarda
insists that there were no men worthy of
their status
2. Bernarda
does not allow Enrique to marry Martirio: “My blood will never mix with that of
the Humanas family”
3. To
Beranda, “The poor are like animals”
4. When
Poncia asks Bernada to give away some of her dead husband’s clothes to the
poor, Bernada says, “Nothing, not a button!”
5. She
terrorizes her servants. The Maid: “If Bernada doesn’t see things shine, she
will pull out the few hairs I have left!”
6. She
abuses Poncia: “That’s what you should do – work and keep your mouth shut”
7. The
maid says she would like to have what Bernarda’s family has. In reply Poncia
says, “What you and I have is our hands and a hole to be buried in when we die”
8. Poverty
brings out cruelty in the poor. When the beggar woman says, “My daughter are
alone”, the Maid refuses to give the leftover food by saying, “Dogs are alone,
too, and they get by”
·
Appearance vs. reality
1. Bernarda
says “I want to keep up appearances that we have harmony in the family”
2. Poncia
warns that “something monstrous” was happening in the house
3. But
Bernarda ignores her warning and says, “I know my fate – and that of my
daughters”
Techniques
·
Symbols
1. Heat
and thirst, stallion kicking the wall – sexual frustration
2. Water,
watermelon, crown of flowers – sexual
satisfaction
3. Harvesters
– aggressive male spirit that “burnt like trees”
4. White
walls – purity, lifelessness, lack of passion
5. The
black fan and black clothes – repression of sensuality
6. The
colourful fan and green dress – celebration of life and sexuality
7. Bernarda’s
cane – patriarchal authority
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