Bernarda Alba’s House: A Tragedy of Repression and Desire
Genesis of the Genre
The House of Bernarda Alba was released in 1945 in Buenos Aires, the same year and in the same place as its first edition. The book is subtitled “Drama of Women in the Villages of Spain.” Why drama and not tragedy? In Lorca’s tragedy, mythical elements are absent here. The realism of the language and expressions that might be called “comic” (in the mouth of Poncia, for example) would also be distinctive features of the drama. However, the essential need for the printing of catastrophe, of the inexorable frustration, speaks of tragedy.
It is also true that the work has aspects of the rural drama, but the fact remains that the poet transcends the genre in many accurate ways and rises to an incalculably higher level. Lorca’s studies have found Shakespearean and Calderonian accents…
The genesis of the play had its starting point in actual figures: such as Frasquita Alba and her daughters, whose house was adjacent to the one Lorca had in Valderrubio (Granada). But only the genius of the poet could create, from those, the figures of Bernarda and her daughters.
Real home where Francisquita Alba and her daughters lived in Valderrubio (Granada)
Approach and Thematic
After the death of her second husband, Bernarda Alba imposes on her five daughters, as mourning, a long and rigorous imprisonment. This is an exaggeration of a real habit, a tradition carried to extreme lengths. But the same exaggeration, this excess, puts the work in terms of legend, the symbolic, and myth.
In this extreme situation (limit position), conflicts, strengths, and passions will enlarge and will develop ad nauseam. The catalyst of the forces locked in the house will be the figure of Pepe el Romano, Angustias’ suitor or boyfriend, daughter and heiress, but attracted by the youth and beauty of Adela, the youngest, and loved, in turn, by Martirio.
Such is the situation that starts to flesh out Lorca’s drama to its most personal and profound subject matter. It has been said that the central theme of the play is the confrontation between authority and freedom and the conflict between reality and desire. One could speak of rebellion against repression, against tradition, nature, etc.
Faced with authoritarianism and repression represented by Bernarda Alba, her daughters embody a range of attitudes ranging from passive submission, more frustrating, to a more open, impossible rebellion. In sum, we are therefore faced with a seemingly irreparable frustration. For this reason, we talked about the need for the tragedy. The roots of the frustration can be placed on a social level with a strong moral component, which would lead to identifying a number of related issues with the central theme: the traditional moral and social pressure on individuals, social differences, thus we will call the pride of caste, and, finally, the status of women in Spanish society of the time.
We should note the different themes: the theme of “what will they say?” and appearances. Honor, passion, loneliness, or sentenced to death, death and mourning, like the subsequent imprisonment symbolized love versus lust for Pepe el Romano, are also important themes of the drama. Contrast also the confrontation between authority and freedom and rebellion against repression. They oppose authoritarianism and repression that Bernarda subjects her daughters to, off their submission or rebellion. Other issues are irreparable frustration (social) and traditional morality and social pressure on individuals, as well as social differences between women and men. The House of Bernarda Alba was written in the spring of 1936, apparently in a few days. It was Lorca’s last play, because his death came shortly after. Then came the war…
Space
The action takes place in the house of Bernarda Alba, an enclosed space. It is the world of mourning, of silence, of concealment, in short, a fertile area for extreme situations. This place, compared to the work along with a “convent,” a “prison,” a “hell,” conveys a sultry atmosphere. Seems to miss the air, water in this world that puts barriers to the forces of life, “which breathes death.”
It is totally opposed to the inside of the house and the repression that daughters are subjected to, the outside world of it arriving echoes or an elemental passions unleashed eroticism. This outside world is governed by conventions, “what people say.” The town in which the action takes place is considered a bad place to have wells instead of a river. In this case, the river symbolizes the life force, eroticism, while clearly well death.
Language
We can clearly see the master of dialogue, which is characterized by its fluidity, nerve, and intensity. The predominance of short, quick responses often draws attention to his sentence. They join reality and poetry.
The language also has an intense Lorcan popular taste. It is deeply rooted in popular speech, especially in Andalusia, which is clearly seen in the drawings and words, in a taste for hyperbole and creativity.
It should be mentioned also the poetic dimension of dialogue, full of symbolism and imagery comparisons. This creates a dramatic atmosphere and gets an individualization of the characters.
Structure
The book is structured in three acts if we look at its external structure.
Three distinct parts are visible in the work. First is a statement of the situation, a spatio-temporal and a presentation of the characters. It is said to have killed Mr. Bernarda Alba and mourning will impose on his family. In the second part, development, announces the wedding of Angustias with Pepe el Romano and from that moment the tension is rising. Showing the jealousies and loves of the other sisters, is the mystery of the windows and night meetings. The highlight is when it reveals that Adela and Pepe had maintained a relationship. The last part, the outcome, has a tragic ending, Adela’s suicide, believing that her mother has murdered her beloved Pepe.
Characters and Symbols
Bernarda
Her name means “strong bear.”
Hyperbolically, she is the embodiment of the repressive forces. She represents the moral and social conventions more stale with the existing traditional mentality. She gives importance to criticism: the “what people say,” appearance, and good front even when not corresponding with reality. She opposes erotic impulses, believes in decency and honor, and has a great obsession with virginity. She has a traditional conception of the role of women compared to men (women were required rigidity, the men “all they are spoiled”). Her pride causes her to have a caste consciousness of belonging to an upper class and therefore prevents a courtship of Martirio (for social reasons) to all the daughters reminded what membership requires being “of its kind,” being born “with potential.” Her authority and power are clearly symbolized by the staff, who always wears on stage, and the prescriptive language (commands and prohibitions, “Quiet”). Other characters think of it in a derogatory manner, describe it very well, “tyrant,” “bossy,” “dominant.” Her power coupled with a clear irrational voluntarism, blindness which makes taking your desires for reality, a wish that things will be like his available.
Daughters
All daughters live among the imprisonment imposed and the desire of the outside world (“wanting to quit”). All are more or less obsessed with the erotic. These erotic longings may be attached (or not) to the idea of marriage, the only channel allowed to escape that confinement. Bernarda’s five daughters embody a spectrum of attitudes ranging from submission or resignation to rebellion.
Angustias
39 years old; daughter from her first marriage.
Heir to an enviable fortune soon attracted, despite his age and lack of charm, Pepe el Romano. She has lost her enthusiasm and passion already.
Magdalena
30 years old.
On the one hand, she shows signs of submission but can surprise us with bitter protests. She would rather be a man, as she has already abandoned the idea of marriage.
Amelia
27 years old.
It is perhaps the most disfigured character: resigned, fearful, and shy. Her name means “no honey.”
Martirio
24 years old.
She is a more complex character. She may have married if her mother had not interposed, is sick, depressed, and pessimistic. She is in love with Pepe el Romano and this passion leads to an uncontrollable wickedness.
Adela
20 years old.
She is the embodiment of open rebellion, the younger, beautiful, passionate, vitality (green suit), her strength, her passion makes her break out in outrageous exclamations: “My body will be whoever I want!” or “I’ll have it all!” In open defiance of the established morality, she is ready to become the darling of Pepe el Romano even wearing a crown of thorns. Her high point is when she breaks her baton in a fit of Bernarda’s tragic rebellion. Her name means “noble nature.”
Other Characters
Maria Josefa
Grandma. In his madness and truth are mixed. She gives voice to a common desire “Let me out!” lyrically and enlarges the central problems: the frustration of women, the desire for marriage and motherhood, the desire for freedom, open space, etc.
Poncia
Old maid involved in discussions and conflicts, makes warnings, gives advice to Bernarda familiar form, but it never ceases to remind the distances that separate them. She takes her condition but is full of rancor content. Have conversations with their daughters in an open and brazen, in talking about sexuality will bring an element of contrast and murky inducements. She is characterized by its rustic wisdom, popular for its tear and taste, wealth, and the creation of his speech.
The Maid
She has shown that lower Poncia and also participates in the resentment towards the mistress (and for the deceased husband, who pursued her), but shows submissive and hypocritical. Obey the Poncia but is arrogant and rude to the beggar.
Pepe el Romano
He appears on the scene but is omnipresent. Man is the embodiment of the “Obscure Object of Desire,” with everything being said about him is made a sufficiently outlined. But he has his duplicity going after money of anguish, but loves Adela, thus becoming the paper “catalyst” for the latent forces.