The House of Bernarda Alba: A Deep Dive into Lorca’s Masterpiece
Main Themes of the Work
Death
Bernarda’s husband’s death and the funeral held at home deeply affect her daughters. This event sets the stage for the play’s exploration of mourning, repression, and societal expectations.
Character of Bernarda
Bernarda possesses an authoritarian personality, keeping her daughters locked up at home. Her controlling nature is evident when a beggar woman visits, seeking leftovers. Bernarda, driven by greed, orders her servants to give her nothing.
Inheritance
Angustias, the eldest daughter, stands to inherit the most significant share of their father’s estate, sparking jealousy among her sisters.
Adela’s Discomfort and Her Sisters’ Concerns
Adela grapples with guilt and anxiety over her secret relationship with Pepe. Her discomfort is compounded by the early signs of pregnancy and the knowledge that her actions are considered taboo.
Martyrio’s Secret Love
Martyrio harbors unrequited love for Pepe, a secret only she knows. However, Poncia, the housekeeper, begins to suspect her feelings due to Martyrio’s possession of Pepe’s portrait.
Angustias’s Engagement to Pepe
The family discusses Angustias’s upcoming marriage to Pepe, including the ring, furniture, and Bernarda’s advice on managing Pepe after the wedding.
The Love Triangle
The play’s central conflict revolves around the love triangle between Adela, Martyrio, and Pepe. Adela’s confession of her love for Pepe reveals the depth of Martyrio’s hidden affections.
Character Analysis
Bernarda
At 60 years old, Bernarda, the matriarch, represents authority and enforces strict societal norms upon her daughters.
Maria Josefa
Bernarda’s 80-year-old mother, Maria Josefa, symbolizes oppression and the stifling effects of societal constraints.
Angustias
The eldest daughter at 39, Angustias represents the complexities of luck and misfortune as she prepares to marry Pepe, primarily for his perceived wealth.
Magdalena
At 30, Magdalena embodies resignation and acceptance of her fate within the confines of her mother’s house.
Amelia
The peacemaker of the family at 27, Amelia tries to avoid conflict and maintain a sense of harmony.
Martyrio
Driven by envy and resentment at 24, Martyrio represents the destructive nature of repressed emotions.
Adela
The youngest daughter at 20, Adela symbolizes innocence, rebellion, and the pursuit of love and freedom.
Poncia
The 60-year-old housekeeper, Poncia, represents a voice of reason and challenges Bernarda’s hypocrisy.
Maid
The 50-year-old maid embodies the potential for cruelty and gossip within the household.
Pepe el Romano
The object of desire for several of Bernarda’s daughters, 25-year-old Pepe, remains an elusive figure, representing both love and societal expectations.
Plot Summary
Act 1
The play opens in the wake of Bernarda’s husband’s funeral. The oppressive atmosphere of mourning and Bernarda’s strict rules set the stage for the family’s conflicts. The daughters’ discussion of their inheritance and Angustias’s engagement to Pepe foreshadows the tensions to come.
Act 2
The sisters sew Angustias’s trousseau, their conversations revealing their jealousies and frustrations. Adela’s secret meetings with Pepe come to light, and Martyrio’s hidden love for him intensifies the drama. The news of a young woman’s infanticide and the community’s outrage highlight the tragic consequences of societal repression.
Act 3
: Bernarda and Prudence were talking about their lives and then Bernarda asked about her husband and Prudence replies that he is angry with his brothers for the heritage and is angry with his daughter to answer. When he finished the track, went to sleep.
The next day Adela and Martirio talking about who owns two of them reach Pepe and the reason that Joe just wants to sorrow for the money. Adela and Martirio then discussed and Bernarda out, and starts a discussion between Adela and Bernarda. The discussion came at the end of Bernarda grabbed a gun and shot that Pepe was in the street, but not touched. Adela is believed to be dead and dying, and then with the death of Adela, Adela died a virgin. Bernarda tells anyone saying anything about the shot gun on Pepe el Romano.
AUTHOR Lorca
García Lorca, Federico (1898-1936), Spanish poet and dramatist, is a national writer of this most famous of the twentieth century and one of the supreme artists. His murder in the first days of the Spanish Civil War made him a particularly notable victim of the Franco regime, which contributed to know his work. However, sixty years after the crime, its universal value and prestige remain unchanged.
The world of García Lorca is a creative capacity, powers of synthesis and natural ability to capture, express and combine the greatest amount of poetic resonance, without apparent effort, and reach perfection, not as a result of a technique achieved with effort, but almost at once. The variety of shapes and shades is dazzling, with love, presented in a cosmic sense pansexualist, infertility, childhood and death as primary reasons.
ENVIRONMENT socio-historical framework
The work is framed in a difficult time (1936) translating a universal human vision, and as brilliant foreshadowing of the Spanish reality of those years.
Under my complete discretion to propose and realize I prefer working in this specific environment that floats inside the house, where the scenery is based almost literary and which focus the main issues.
For my skills I can deduce that it creates a state of dictatorship, in which the hierarchy is very clear, an absolute monarchy in the hands of the angry Bernarda. The daughters survive under a very strict orders and implemented. They can not see the light of day can not exceed the doors that enclose their despair. This aspect implies a great stress and anxiety really very intense.
To end my discussion of the environment inside the house adds an indispensable feature: the atmosphere of attachment of the daughters of Bernarda brings side effects such as, of course, lies, cunning and try to break the rules under a cover chained through the group of sisters.