Symbols in La Casa De Bernarda Alba?

Answer 1

Themes of "THE HOUSE OF BERANDA ALBA"

· Tragedy- Adela rebels against the tyranny of her mother and pays with her life. There is also tragic irony in the fact that her suicide is out of grief for Pepe's death, who is then revealed to be alive.

· Oppression of women - Bernarda represents the view that 'a woman's place is home'.

· Tradition - Bernarda is desperate to uphold tradition, both in her observance of the funeral rites, and the differences between men and women.

· Class prejudice - Bernarda uses money as a means of making herself superior, and views the villagers as unworthy of her daughters.

· Reputation - Bernarda is preoccupied with the reputation of her family and is horrified by the idea of scandal and gossip, shown at the end of the play, when she demands it be known that Adela died a virgin.

· Authoritarianism - Bernarda exercises a tyrant's will over the household.

· Beauty --- Beauty becomes corrupted, Lorca suggests, in an environment where people are not permitted to pursue their desires and passions. Pepe el Romano is passionate for Adela, but is bound by economic necessity to court Angustias instead. "If he were coming because of Angustias' looks, for Angustias as a woman, I'd be glad too," Magdalena comments, "but he's coming for her money. Even though Angustias is our sister, we're her family here, and we know she's old and sickly."IDEAS AND THEMESFrom Honor to Death

The House of Bernarda Alba is the story of a woman whose tyrannical oppression of her daughters transforms her house into a powder keg of tension, jealousy, anger, and fear. The play's subtitle, A Drama of Women in the Villages of Spain,underscores the fact that the story is about rural women. In the village, where everyone knows everything about everybody, honor is serious business. Robert Lima, in his book The Theatre of García Lorca, writes "Lorca's theater revolves on a single axis: the preservation of Honor leads to the frustration of love, hence, of life itself; this frustration, in turn, becomes a despair, which leads to Death."

Honor, as Lorca sees it, is a traditional code based on superstition, law, and religion. Originally this code served society's desire for betterment, but eventually it became an instrument of self-torture. "Thus, "writes Lima, "Lorca's characters are their own worst enemies." The House of Bernarda Alba is the last of his three major plays, all with rural settings. The other two are Blood Wedding 1933) and Yerma (1934). The instigating force behind each is honor; the central characters all live, react, and die in the shadow of this burdensome code. And the majority of this burden is borne by women.

The subtitle of Bernarda Alba also suggests a critique of the status of women in a male-dominated society. Lorca views his women as tragic figures because of their roles as child bearers, prisoners of custom, and servants of men. While their male counterparts are out in the fields acting in whatever manner they choose, Lorca's women must stay at home, obeying men's commands and the rules of tradition. Men may ignore these rules if they choose, and it is Lorca's depiction of double standards that makes his female characters so passionate and so memorable.

Her Own Worst Enemy

Lorca exposes the tormenting paradox of authority that permeates the thick walls of Bernarda Alba's house. Bernarda takes on the authoritarian mantle, because there is no man to do so. With this authority, she oppresses her daughters; hence the oppressed becomes the oppressor. As she tries ferociously to quell the chaotic force of passion under her roof. her efforts drive that very passion to destroy her daughter Adela. She also wields authority over her servant, Poncia; but because Poncia can foresee the looming tragedy that Bernarda cannot, Poncia is powerful in her own way. Bernarda's tyranny deprives her of her daughters' love, and her imperious command over her servant deprives her of valuable insight. Finally, her acceptance of the authority of the church deprives her of her own happiness.

The Role of Religion

The Catholic Church is a constant presence in the play. An enormous crucifix dominates the set. Church bells are tolling as the drama opens and will toll again after Adela's suicide. This oppressive presence is embodied by Bernarda's fierce standards of piety and purity for her household. Showing respect for the dead is part of that piety, but Bernarda takes extreme measures in both the duration of the period of mourning she imposes and in the severity with which she enforces the convention. At the end of the play, Bernarda's immediate reaction to Adela's suicide is to plunge the family into even deeper mourning --- thereby eliminating all of her daughters' hopes of marriage and children. Bernarda may be diligent about the way in which her family should show respect for the dead, but that is as far as her Christianity extends. For her, religion means unquestioning adherence to an established set of rules observed solely for the purpose of keeping up appearances. She embodies what Lorca feels to be wrong about traditional Catholicism: it imprisons the individual instead of liberating him, it corrupts his life instead of perfecting it.

In his essay "Religion in the Rural Tragedies," John Gilmour argues that Lorca's social conscience motivated him to present religion in such a negative manner. Lorca's critical stance on traditional Catholic morality is very much in line with the Republican thinking of his time. The main objective of the legislation introduced by the left-wing Republican government of the early 1930s was to ensure that the personality of the individual could develop in total liberty. This meant lessening the power and influence of the Church on Spanish society.

"The poor are like animals."

In addition to condemning authoritarianism, The House of Bernarda Alba attacks the class system that perpetuates it. Wealthier than her neighbors, Bernarda despises them. "The poor are like animals," Bernarda remarks. "They seem to be made of other substances." This attitude prevents her from allowing her daughters to marry. She banishes Martirio's suitor ("My blood will never mix with that of the Humanas family --- not as long as I live! His father was a field hand!"), and Martirio's resulting jealousy and bitterness becomes the driving force behind Adela's tragic death.

This social interpretation of The House of Bernarda Albais justified, but is by itself inadequate. All three rural tragedies suggest not merely that society frustrates our intimate desires and instincts, but that those desires and instincts can never even be clearly identified. As Christopher Maurer says in his introduction to Three Plays, "Lorca's characters are unhappy and tragic, not because society keeps them from attaining their object or reaching their destination, but because they cannot fully understand what it is that they want." What drives the human spirit? Why is there longing without object? In his poem "The Qasida of the Rose" he expresses this idea of blind longing:

The rose

was not searching for the dawn.

Almost eternal on its stem,

it was seeking something else.

The rose

was not searching for knowledge or shadow.

Enclosure of flesh and dream,

it was seeking something else.

The rose

was not seeking the rose.

Immobile in the sky,

it was seeking something else!

That "something else", says Maurer, lies beyond language. Poetry and drama cannot name it, but can only gesture toward it. They are the gesture: a mysterious, stylized gesture toward meaning.

Answer 2

• Heat - in this case, often mentioned and referred to at the height of Bernarda's oppression and fury. Therefore, a symbol for Bernarda's dominating nature. Heat is also another reference to sexual desire represented by the fans and lemonade.
• Black and white - The common Western connotations. Black represents everything bad (death, mourning, oppression, being closed in...) while white represents all things good (the truth, life, freedom). Black is mainly associated with Bernarda and all the daughters who wear black throughout the play, except Adela. . As is already said above, in her craziness she says what all the girls won't dare to say. Another possible interpretation is that white represents sterility or purity, as in the "pure" and "immaculate" appearance of Bernarda's home, and black represents oppression.
• Green - The symbol of future death and, in Hispanic culture, hope: it is worn by Adela when she confesses her love for Pepe el Romano. Can also represent jealousy, i.e. as between the sisters as they find Adela is the lover of Pepe, and over Angustias' engagement with Pepe. The passionate personality of Adela as well. In addition, for Lorca, green represents erotic passion.
• The fan - Adela gives Bernarda a round fan decorated with red and green flowers - a symbol of Adela's uniqueness.
• The cane - Symbolizes the power and sovereignty of Bernarda over her daughters. Adela finally breaks it near the end of the play.