Bernarda Alba's house

Bernarda Alba's houseis one of the best known texts of Federico García Lorca. It was published in 1936 and the work tells the story of Bernarda Alba and her daughters who live secluded in the family home because of the death of her father. They have to comply with the 8-year mourning imposed by her mother and, therefore, the house becomes a kind of prison that drowns the women who live inside.

The symbolism In this work by Lorca it is constant and has been highly analyzed by experts in Spanish literature; Elements such as the color black, Bernarda's cane or the horse are loaded with meaning and are worth studying independently. Therefore, in this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to know the symbols of Bernarda Alba's house most studied and most significant.

Before you begin to study the symbols in Bernarda Alba's house It is important that we make a brief introduction to this very important work in the history of literature. We are before uone of the author's top works and that it is studied and analyzed both in secondary education institutes and in the most prestigious universities.

On resume, Bernarda Alba's house she tells us the life of a family of women her that she lives secluded inside a large house. The man of the house has passed away and Bernarda, her mother, imposes a long 8-year mourning on all of her daughters. But no matter how much you want to lock people up, they have dreams, desires and will to live, for That, the daughters will fight to save their lives and avoid the death in life to which their mother has submitted.

It is a work loaded with symbolism in which repression and authority are very present. But, faced with this atmosphere, the girls want to defend their freedom and live as they wish. Above all, this desire for freedom is embodied by Adela, Bernarda's youngest daughter and the most rebellious and fighter.

Bernarda's house rather reminds us of a convent and not to a family home. Here, the mother encloses her virgin daughters and the conception of man is very frowned upon. All of this can be seen in the space and the description of this house, as well as in the elements that appear throughout the work. There are many analysis on Bernarda Alba's house that have been made and, in all of them, they talk about the importance of the symbols that Lorca included in this masterpiece.

Let's get into the matter now and discover what the symbols in Bernarda Alba's house more obvious and interesting. Federico Garcia Lorca he used to resort to symbolism to give his works greater depth and different levels of readings; For this reason, scholars have analyzed in detail the most striking elements of the work to determine that the symbols are the following:

• Horse: it is an element that embodies erotic desire and sexuality. In the play he appears referring to Pepe el Romano, the man who revolutionizes two of the daughters and awakens their most natural and uncontrollable instincts.
• Sheep: It is an animal that has a symbolic relationship with Jesus Christ and, therefore, in the work it appears linked to Adela, one of the characters of Bernarda Alba's house that ends up sacrificing itself.
• Dog: it is a symbol that refers to the submission that women have towards men. In fact, in the play we witness how Pepe calls Adela as if it were a dog.
• flowers: flowers have always been a widely used symbol in literature and, almost always, are linked to the female universe. In Lorca's work, flowers appear on Maria Josefa's head, a clear reference to the eroticism, sensuality and love that this character feels.
• Water: in this work, water is presented as if it were desire. In Act III Adela's character has a great thirst since she is burning with passion for Pepe. Consequently, we understand that the river full of water is a reference to life and Adela dies drowned by that river that drags her to death. In this case, the well symbolizes death as it represents stagnant and putrid water.
• Staff of Bernarda Alba: it is a very significant element of the character and represents authority and repression. The sound of the cane is the omen that daughters have that freedom is ending.
• White color: in the work we find white walls and an obsession for cleanliness. This is because the color white represents purity and virginity, therefore, they are elements that must be preserved inside this house.
• Black color: Contrasting to white, black represents repression and death. Let us remember that all the characters in the play are in mourning, therefore, they are dressed in black because they are silenced and dead while they are alive. It is one of the most striking and visual symbols of La casa de Bernarda Alba.
• Moon: the symbol of the Moon also appears constantly in this work since the lovers are always seen at dusk. Here, the Moon becomes the symbol of eroticism and passion, but it also has that touch of darkness and death that stalks Adela at all times. The moon is one of the most frequent symbols in Lorca literature.
• Salt: The spilling of salt has always been considered a harbinger of bad luck and in this work, Adela drops the salt.
• Blood: Another of the symbols in La casa de Bernarda Alba is the presence of blood. This element represents life and, therefore, when it is shed it clearly indicates that there has been death. It also represents the most sexual part of life.

And we conclude this lesson on the symbols of Bernarda Alba's house to talk about another very interesting issue studied in this work by Lorca: the role of women in current Spanish society.

Let us remember that this work is starring only women: all the characters that appear on the scene are women. But despite this, the whole plot revolves around a man: Pepe el Romano. A single man is the one who causes the great tragedy that is lived in this family that ends with the death of one of them, the freest and most innocent. This is very significant since Lorca comes to say that women in Spain seem to only exist as a symptom of a man. Before Pepe's arrival, the girls only sew and mourn. But as soon as he makes his appearance on the scene, the girls begin to experience a revolution and the whole plot begins to get complicated.

We can also see the role of women in this work if we analyze the way Bernarda treats her daughters. The seclusion of women in their maternal home until they marry a man can be seen easily with her older sister, a woman in her 40s who is still under the command of her her authoritarian mother of her. A woman does not seem to become such until she has no husband, a totally patriarchal conception of the society of the time and that Lorca denounces in his work.

The oppression of female sexuality it is also a very important element in La casa de Bernarda Alba. Lorca makes it very clear the great sexual desire that women locked in the house live and that, no matter how much they want to silence, they end up exploded everywhere.