The House of Bernarda Alba (Spanish: La casa de Bernarda Alba ) is a play by the Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. Commentators have often grouped it with Blood Wedding and Yerma as a "rural trilogy". Lorca did not include it in his plan for a "trilogy of the Spanish earth" (which remained unfinished at the time of his death).
Lorca described the play in its subtitle as a drama of women in the villages of Spain . The House of Bernarda Alba was Lorca's last play, completed on 19 June, 1936, two months before Lorca's execution. The play was first performed in 1945. The play centers on the events of an Andalusian house during a period of mourning, in which Bernarda Alba(age 60) wields total control over her five daughters Angustias (39 years old), Magdalena (30), Amelia (27), Martirio, (24), and Adela (20). The housekeeper (La Poncia) and Bernarda's mother (María Josefa) also live there. The deliberate exclusion of any male character from the action helps build up the high level of sexual tension that is present throughout the play. Pepe "el Romano", the love interest of Bernarda's daughters and suitor of Angustias, never appears on stage.
The play explores themes of repression, passion, and conformity, and inspects the effects of men upon women. Bernarda's cruel tyranny over her daughters is often said to foreshadow or represent the stifling nature of Franco's fascist regime. Franco did not come into power until 3 years after this play was written.
Lorca's association with a number of intellectuals in the Communist Party of Spain, such as Rafael Alberti, resulted in his assassination shortly after the outbreak of Civil War in July 1936.
Plot summary
After the death of her second husband, Bernarda Alba, a dominating woman, imposes a period of mourning on her household to last eight years, as has been traditional in her family. Bernarda has five daughters, aged between 20 and 39, whom she has shielded and controlled to an excessive degree and prohibited from any form of relationship. The mourning period further isolates the daughters, and tension mounts within the household.
After a mourning ritual at the family home, Angustias, the eldest daughter, enters, having not been present while the guests were there. Bernarda is angered, assuming she had been listening to the men's conversation on the patio.
Angustias inherited a large sum of money upon the death of her father, Bernarda's first husband, while the other four sisters inherited much less from their father, Bernarda's second husband. Angustias' wealth attracts a suitor, the young and attractive Pepe el Romano from the village. Passion and jealousy among the sisters increases. They feel it is unfair that Angustias, the oldest and most sickly of them, should receive both the majority of the money and the freedom to marry and leave the constraints of the house.
Adela, the youngest, is stricken with sudden spirit and jubilation on the day of her father's funeral. Defying Bernarda's orders to dress only in black and mourn, she refuses to take off her green dress. Her brief time of feeling young and free is suddenly shattered when she discovers that Angustias will be marrying Pepe. In her distress she threatens to run into the streets in her green dress, but her sisters are able to stop her. Suddenly, Pepe el Romano is seen coming down the street. Adela stays behind while her sisters rush to get a look at him--until a servant in the household hints to her that she could get the best view from her own bedroom window.
As Poncia and Bernarda discuss matters of the daughters' inheritance upstairs, Bernarda spots Angustias wearing makeup. Appalled that she would defy her orders to stay in a state of mourning, she violently washes the makeup from her face. The daughters all enter in the commotion. Finally Maria Josefa, Bernarda's elderly mother, who is usually locked away in her room, enters. She says she wants to escape the house and get married. She also warns Bernarda that she is going to turn her daughters' hearts to dust if they cannot be free. Bernarda retaliates by forcing her back into her room.
It transpires that Adela has been conducting an illicit affair with Pepe el Romano. She becomes increasingly passionate, refusing to submit to her mother's will and arguing with her sisters, particularly Martirio, who is revealed to also be in love with Pepe.
The tension in the story comes to a head as the family confronts one another. Bernarda chases Pepe with a gun. A gunshot is heard from outside, implying that Pepe el Romano has been killed. Adela slips into another room while the family anticipates the outcome. As Martirio and Bernarda re-enter, Martirio states that Pepe el Romano got away with his life, and Bernarda remarks that as a woman she cannot be blamed for not knowing how to aim.
With Pepe el Romano dealt with, Bernarda turns her attention to calling for Adela, who has locked herself in a room. Bernarda and Poncia work at bringing down the door through force after being met with silence from Adela. Upon gaining entrance to the room, Poncia shrieks. Returning with her hands clasped about her neck, she warns the family to not enter the room--Adela has hanged herself.
The closing lines of the play show Bernarda characteristically preoccupied with the family's reputation. She calls for it to be made known that Adela died a virgin (which is not the case, as the play alludes that she and Pepe have been meeting in secret). No one is to cry.
Characters
- Bernarda - An elderly widow who exerts excessive will over her daughters. She is preoccupied with ideas of honour and tradition, in particular relating to the role of women in society, and is too proud to see the truth about her own daughters. Portrayed dictatorially within the household, her walking stick is a symbol of the power she holds over the household. Bernarda's name is the Spanish version of the Teutonic name Bernard meaning "having the force of a bear".
- Angustias - The eldest and sickliest daughter. She inherited a fortune from her father, Bernarda's first husband. Her stepfather's estate has been split between the other four daughters, making Angustias the richest. Angustias becomes engaged to Pepe el Romano, who is interested not in her, but in her money. Aware that he is interested only in her money, she continues, desperate to marry and be free of her oppressive mother. She is described by her sisters as the ugliest, and Poncia comments that she is unlikely to survive childbirth. Her name is the Spanish for "Anguish".
- Magdalena and Amelia - The two middle sisters. Magdalena feels a deep sorrow at the loss of her father and cries frequently. She also has a tendency to sleep all day. Amelia is gossipy but submissive to Bernarda.
- Martirio - Her name is Spanish for 'Martyrdom', and this subtle allusion goes some way to explaining her complexity. She is in love with Pepe and has had a previous relationship that failed due to the destructive intervention of her mother. It is also believed to be rooted to the Greek word for 'witness' or 'testimony', a reference to her awareness of Adela's affair. Her upbringing and negative experiences with men in the past lead to what she describes as a feeling of weakness and inferiority when in the presence of men.
- La Poncia - The sturdy housekeeper of Bernarda's abode. Her name is a reference to Pontius Pilate.
- Adela - The youngest of the daughters and the only one to defy Bernarda. She is in love with Pepe el Romano and carries on a secret rendezvous with him, until her sister Martirio intervenes and they have a scuffle, drawing the attention of the sleeping household. Adela's guilt is revealed by the discovery of straw on her skirt. She then freely admits that she has been with Pepe el Romano. At the climax of the play, she hangs herself.
- Prudencia - A dinner guest of Bernarda. Her name is taken from "Prudence" one of the four cardinal virtues.
- Pepe el Romano - Angustias' suitor and the lover of Adela. Although he never appears within the play, his actions create most of the drama within it.
- María Josefa - Bernada's eighty-year-old mother, who is locked up upstairs by Bernarda. She desperately wants to escape, marry and have lots of children. She acts as the voice of the daughters; her dialogue dictate the thoughts which the daughters have but do not have the courage to tell Bernarda. Her name is taken from Mary and the feminine form of the name Joseph, the parents of Jesus.
- Maid - Another maid in Bernarda's house. Prior to the occurrences of the play, she had an affair with Bernarda's late husband Antonio. In some translations this maid is given the name "Blanca", and in many she is referred to as "Servant".
- Beggar with a child - She enters the courtyard during the funeral and begs scraps from the maid.
- Women in Mourning - Mourners for the funeral of Bernarda's late husband, Antonio Maria Benavides.
- Girl - A girl who attends Antonio's funeral.
Themes
- 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 as being alive.
- Oppression of women - Bernarda represents the view that 'a woman's place is home'.
- Tradition
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