Characteristics of the characters in La casa de Bernarda Alba

The writer Federico García Lorca finished writing in June 1936, the year of her death, the play "La casa de Bernarda Alba". The plot of "La casa de Bernarda Alba" is based on the story of a woman named Bernarda Alba who was widowed for the second time at the age of 60. He decides that he has to live the next 8 years of her life in rigorous mourning and forces the other women who live with her to participate in this mourning, so Her five daughters, Bernarda Alba's mother and her two maids, are also forced to wear black, to remain silent as much as possible and not to celebrate.

In "La casa de Bernarda Alba" the characteristic features of Spain at the beginning of the 20th century are reflected in which society was very traditional and religious, a time when women always stayed in a second flat. With this play, the author gave prominence to the women of that time, creating female protagonists with very significant names and through which he explained the religious fanaticism and the importance that was given to what others thought in the Spain of that time. epoch. In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to explain the main

Index

1. Bernarda alba
2. Angustias, the eldest daughter of Bernarda Alba
3. Magdalena, the second daughter of Bernarda Alba
4. Amelia, the middle daughter of Bernarda Alba
5. Martirio, the fourth daughter of Bernarda Alba
6. Adela, the youngest daughter of Bernarda Alba
7. Other relevant characters in the play La casa de Bernarda Alba
8. Brief analysis of La casa de Bernarda Alba

To start talking about the characteristics of the characters in La casa de Bernarda Alba, we must begin by talking about the most important in this work by Federico García Lorca. The main character of the play is Bernarda Alba a 60-year-old woman living in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century with her five daughters, her mother, and two maids. Bernarda has just been widowed for the second time and decides to enter a rigorous mourning that she also imposes on the other women in the house. Bernarda's name means masculinity and great strength, specifically it means "bear strength", For this reason she herself has a strong and determined character, in fact, as soon as she enters the scene she does Screaming.

Bernarda is excessively controlling and oppressive, especially with her daughters, to the point of locking some of her in her room and not letting them leave the house. This authoritarian and dictatorial character that she has is reflected in all the actions that she carries out throughout history, designed to give a good image and reinforce the external aspect of her family, so she really cares a lot about what others may say and the criticisms of the townspeople in which they live. We can say that Bernarda Alba represents authority and power within the family bosom.

In a teacher we discover theshort biography of Federico García Lorca so that you know this author better. We also offer you the argument of La casa de Bernarda Alba by acts to make it easier for you to study.

Angustias is the eldest daughter of Bernarda Albaher, so she is the heir to the entire family fortune. She is 39 years old and she wants to marry Pepe el Romano, in order to leave her mother's house where she is not happy. But all the sisters of Angustias and Poncia, one of the maids, believe that Pepe only wants to marry Angustias because of her money and not because he really loves her. In fact, one of her sisters, Magdalena, believes that there are reasons why he is not in love with her older sister as she comments in these lines of the work: "she is old, sickly and has always been the one who has had the least merits of all of us," (348).

Although Bernarda has approved the courtship of her eldest daughter and the young man, Angustias looks out the door to see him, Bernarda He gets very angry at what the neighbors may think and immediately begins to beat Angustias until she is cries In fact, focusing on the characteristics of the characters in La casa de Bernarda Alba, the meaning of the names is something key and, really, the name that Lorca chose for her reflects very well her life, since the name of Angustias takes the meaning of depressing and downtrodden.

We continue with this summary of the characteristics of the characters in La casa de Bernarda Alba and we talk about Magdalena, who is Bernarda's second daughter. Her name is biblical and refers to the saying of "crying like a Magdalene", so she is always depressed, sad and cries easily. Magdalena is 30 years old and she is the daughter who has been most saddened by the death of her father, in fact, the maid Poncia says: "She was the only one who loved her father," (339). Magdalena is a character that suffers a lot because of how poorly the female gender was treated at that time and she is not happy being a woman, reflecting it with words like these: "Damn women," (343).

Magdalena she is envious of her older sister Anguish for getting married, for the fact that this is how she is able to leave her mother's house, where they are not happy. Bernarda also treats her second daughter badly and when she enters the scene crying, she shouts these words at him: "Magdalena, don't cry, if you want to cry, get under the bed," (341).

Amelia is the third daughter of Bernarda Alba and therefore the median of her five daughters. In the play "La casa de Bernarda Alba", Amelia's name means "without honey" and this indicates that she is a kind person. Amelia is 27 years old and, although she has a more secondary role than other of her sisters, she is also a victim of mistreatment by her mother, so it is also common to see her crying like her sister Magdalena.

For the same reason as her older sisters, her unhappiness and suffering, she wishes to escape from the house in which she has lived all her life to start a new life. Likewise, she also believes like her sisters and her maids that her older sister's boyfriend only wants to marry her to keep her father's money. These last two characteristics are very common among the characteristics of the characters in La casa de Bernarda Alba.

Martirio is Bernarda's fourth daughter and, therefore, the penultimate daughter and in the plot of "La casa de Bernarda Alba", her name means "tormented". Martirio coincides with one of the characteristics of the characters in La casa de Bernarda Alba that we find most in the play, she is deeply in love with Angustias's boyfriend. Although this, in reality, although he is going to marry her older sister, he is in love with the little daughter, Adela, and this corresponds to him.

For this reason, Martirio she openly hates her little sister and, at the end of the play, when Bernarda shoots the young man, Martirio makes Adela believe that the man The one he loves has died, when in reality he is not, Martirio only wants his little sister to suffer. In fact, when this happens, Martirio says the following words to Adela: "Pepe el Romano is over," (372). Although Martirio behaves like this, she tries many times to hide that she is in love with Pepe so that Bernarda doesn't get mad at her and start yelling at her.

Adela is the little daughter of Bernarda Alba, her name means that she is a person of noble nature. Besides being the youngest, she is 20 years old, she is the most beautiful of all Bernarda's daughters and is in love with Pepe el Romano. By telling everyone about her, in addition to her confirming that he is also in love with her, Adela rebels against oppression and Bernarda's tyranny and, from this rebellion on the part of her young daughter and, in theory, Angustias's future husband, she is then when the great tragedy occurs in the play and Bernarda becomes exceedingly angry, to the point that she leaves the house in search of the young man and she shoots. It is then that her sister, Martirio de ella, full of envy for the love between her little sister and the young man, tells Adela that Pepe has died, when this is not really true.

Adela is an impulsive and in love girl, in addition, she is the daughter who rebels most often in the play "La casa de Bernarda Alba", since she from the beginning she refuses to do rigorous mourning that Bernarda imposes on all of them. Therefore, we can say that Adela is the one with the characteristics of the characters in La casa de Bernarda Alba that are more differentiated from the others.

In addition to Bernarda Alba and her 5 daughters, there are other important characters in the play "La casa de Bernarda Alba"Next, we comment on the characteristics of the characters in La casa de Bernarda Alba that have less prominence than the mother and daughters, but are also vital in this story:

• Maria Josefa: She is the mother of Bernarda Alba and is 80 years old. His name is biblical and represents both the mother (Mary) and the father of Jesus (Joseph). They consider this old woman to be upset but in reality, with her crazy and shameless words, she only speaks truths. For this reason, she gives an image to others that her daughter Bernarda does not like her at all and for this reason she keeps her locked up in her room or in her attic.
• The poncia: She is the maid who has been serving the family for the longest, she is 60 years old and his name is related to the biblical Pontius Pilate. Bernarda and Poncia grew up together as children, so she is Bernarda's most trusted confidante, although he actually hates her for how she behaves. He knows Bernarda so well and hates her so much that in one scene Poncia comments: “She is the one who surrounds her. She is able to sit on your heart and see how you die for a year without closing that cold smile that she wears on her damn face ”(p13). Also, since La Poncia is the main maid and she knows everything that happens in the house and everything that the daughters try to hide from Bernarda.
• Pepe el Romano: Although he contributes a lot to the scenes and the plot of "La casa de Bernarda Alba", he never appears on stage. He is 25 years old and, although in principle he must marry Bernarda's eldest daughter, Angustias, in reality he is in love with her youngest daughter, Adela. Due to this, he is the one who causes, together with Adela, that he is of the tragedy in the play when Bernarda, upon learning everything, decides to shoot him. No more features of him are known throughout history.

Now that you know the characters in this play, we are going to offer you a brief analysis of La casa de Bernarda Alba that will help you get to know this play by Lorca better. Here we offer you a list with the most characteristic and distinctive elements of the drama.

The language

Lorca is one of the Spanish authors with a more refined and poetic language. And this is also seen in this play. The author dominates the dialogue to the maximum and offers scenes with great fluidity and with an imposing dramatic and poetic intensity. During the play, we find short and quick sentences that all the characters proclaim to each other. Phrases that, at times, seem like authentic sentences of life and emotions. We must not forget that in Lorca there is a great influence of popular color and, therefore, in the language we also find a presence of the folklore and expressions of the time.

Featured topics from The House of Bernarda Alba

In this work by Lorca we find the appearance of different themes that are what make the plot develop and evolve. On the one hand, there is the issue of appearances and, on the other, the issue of concern for external opinion. These two are the engines that activate and move the plot and that make the characters evolve during the course of the plot. Love also appears in this work but it does so as a secondary theme.

The space of the work

All the action of La casa de Bernarda Alba takes place inside the house of this family, therefore, it is a totally closed space and separated from the world. This house continues to be one more symbol of the silence and mourning in which these women and many other women of the time live, who were true shadows when they did not have a man by their side. During the play, we see that the characters compare the house with other spaces, such as a prison, hell or a convent, something that better portrays the atmosphere that is breathed in its inside.

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