Bernarda Alba's house
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The House of Bernarda Alba is one of the plays by García Lorca most studied. This is a work that is part of the so-called Generation of 27 and in which we are presented with a family of women who mourn the death of their father. A house that becomes something like a prison and where repression and fear of what they will say is felt in every corner. In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to discover main themes of The House of Bernarda Alba so that you can better understand this literary work that is one of the great classics of contemporary Spanish theater.
Index
- Introduction to La Casa de Bernarda Alba
- Freedom, the main theme of La Casa de Bernarda Alba
- Appearances
- Sexism in Spanish society
- The repressed passion, another of the themes of La Casa de Bernarda Alba
- Spanish tradition
Introduction to La Casa de Bernarda Alba.
Before starting to talk about the themes of La casa de Bernarda Alba, it is important that we get to know this work by García Lorca better. In this work we are told the story of Bernarda Alba, a woman whose husband has just died and who, therefore,
forces her five daughters to mourn for a long time. A mourning that becomes a seclusion that prevents young women from carrying out their lives as they really want.Being imprisoned in their own home, the feelings and conflicts between the characters will be magnified and, therefore, a very tangled plot will be lived and whose trigger will be the figure of Pepe el Romando, Angustias's boyfriend. This is the beginning of this work by Lorca that talks about many themes that were latent in the society of the time: anxiety freedom, the conflict between desire and morality, the situation of women in Spain in the early twentieth century, etc.
Bernarda Alba's character represents authoritarianism and her five daughters will embody different attitudes, such as rebellion, submission, etc. In this other lesson from a TEACHER we discover a summary of the plot of La Casa de Bernarda Alba as well as an analysis of the character characteristics; In this way, you will be able to fully understand the complexity of this Lorca work.
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Freedom, the main theme of La Casa de Bernarda Alba.
Although there are many themes in La casa de Bernarda Alba, the truth is that there is one that is considered the main one in the work. Its about confrontation between freedom and authority, a duality that we can see clearly reflected in the characters of the play: Bernarda represents her authority and her daughters the desire and desire for freedom. Both worlds are confronted at all times and, from this confrontation, other sub-themes appear that are treated throughout the development of the work.
The authoritarian moral, as we have already said, is represented by Bernarda Alba that, in fact, the description of him as a character is already full of symbols that testify to his personality: the cane, the belt, and so on. On the other hand we find the desire for freedom, something that is represented by Adela and Maria Josefa, two girls who rebel against Bernarda's world. The rest of the characters will live overwhelmed by the figure of Bernarda, even her maids live in fear of her.
Adela overcomes fear that he has the authority represented by her mother because she has a love impulse that makes him rebel against Bernarda. From the beginning of the play we find that Adela, the youngest daughter of the family, yearns for freedom and confronts her mother as no other daughter dares to do so. For this reason, the death of this character is so symbolic in Lorca's work.
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Appearances.
Another of the hottest and most evident themes of La casa de Bernarda Alba is the obsession with the world of appearances. Throughout the play we find that the protagonists are worried if someone outside the house finds out what is happening. It is more important to maintain your external image than to resolve your own conflicts, to appear to be a type of person and family that, in reality, you are not.
We can see this obsession at different times, but one of the most obvious is Bernarda's obsession with keeping her home clean, a home that is closed tight and from which no one can get out. The fear of gossip and family issues being aired is a constant in this work until it is even concealed that Adela has committed suicide because it is not a Christian act.
The repression that we have seen in Bernarda is better understood by seeing that women are repressed in a society where they can be judged at all times. This fear of what they will say her mother has makes the psychology of your character is better understood and see that, deep down, all she is trying to do is protect her daughters from the outside world.
Sexism in Spanish society.
As we have just indicated, the character of Bernarda cannot simply be considered a negative or authoritarian character. Absolutely. We must not forget that she is a woman, a woman mother of five daughters and that they have run out of the male figure at home. Therefore, they are cannon fodder. In Spanish society at the time, women had a very different role in society and their worth was only counted in relation to the worth of the father of the family. In this work we see that the country's education was sexist and women were relegated to the home and to perform traditional tasks.
The marginalization of women in society is perfectly reflected in La casa de Bernarda Alba when Bernarda Alba's daughters are set against Paca la Roseta, a prostitute. In this comparison, Adela moves between the two planes that separate women morally accepted in society (but confined and annulled) and women considered low moral (but free).
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The repressed passion, another of the themes of La Casa de Bernarda Alba.
During this play we can see how Bernarda's daughters are eager to meet a man in their lives or to be able to enjoy love, not only romantic, but also carnal, sensual love. But they are in a rigorous mourning imposed by the authoritarian mother and, therefore, their impulses and her desires are totally repressed because of the fault, not only of the mother, but of society.
The appearance of Pepe the Romano in the lives of the sisters it is the trigger for these emotions that are locked in the hearts of the girls. We can know a lot of love stories as well as the techniques that girls use to find a man in their life.
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The Spanish tradition.
Another of the themes of La casa de Bernarda Alba is the Spanish tradition. And it is that throughout the work we find elements that are very characteristic of the society of the time and that are worth highlighting. For example, the custom of mourning that Bernarda imposes on her daughters is something that was carried out at the time but that Lorca exaggerates since the woman forces the girls to be in mourning for 8 years. Adela rebels against these norms imposed by society and by her mother and, therefore, she is the most rebellious character in the play.
Another tradition that appears in the work is the existence of arranged marriages. Angustias is the one that she was going to marry Pepe el Romano, an arranged marriage that stems from Pepe's interest in marrying this woman who is the heir to her father's fortune. Therefore, an interested union that reflects a situation that existed in Spain in the early twentieth century.
And finally, the conservative moral It is also something that appears in this work and that is a faithful reflection of what Spain was like at the time. The characters are obsessed with virginity, what they will say, religion, and so on. And, more so now, that they are stripped of the "security" that the man of the house gave them.
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