Previous
Act 1
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The House of Bernarda Alba, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom, Desire, and Tragedy
Patriarchy and Domination
Class and Honor
Tradition and Modernity in Spain
Summary
Analysis
Bernarda’s daughters, except Adela, are embroidering with Poncia. As she embroiders sheets for Amelia, Magdalena jokes to Angustias that she is adding Pepe’s initials. The women wonder why Adela hasn’t come, and Angustias says she can’t wait to move away. Poncia opens the door to stave off the summer heat. Magdalena and Amelia comment that they saw Pepe visiting Angustias the previous night, although they disagree about how late he stayed. Martirio says it’s strange that Pepe would start approaching Angustias, even though they had never met before. Angustias explains that she knew why Pepe was coming, and he asked for her hand matter-of-factly, claiming he wanted a “well behaved” wife. Angustias was thrilled; she had never been alone with a man like that.
Embroidery is the paramount female-coded activity for women of Bernarda’s class, who were wealthy enough to avoid even housework. This is why Bernarda has ordered her daughters to spend their eight years of mourning embroidering their ajuares (wedding linens), which is of course a metaphor for their preparation for marriage. Thus, it’s ironic that Magdalena—the sister least interested in marriage—takes the lead. This underlines how tradition is quickly becoming less relevant in Spain. Magdalena’s joke to Adelia about Pepe is also ironic, as they are the only two sisters who do not become involved with him in some way. Pepe’s interest in a “well behaved” wife fits cleanly with the value system that Bernarda has taught her daughters, but it also suggests that he is interested in marrying for status rather than love. Readers and audiences must recall that Angustias is 39 years old, so her comment that she had never been alone with a man reflects just how sheltered and unfree Bernarda has kept her daughters throughout their lives.
Active
Themes
Poncia describes the first time her husband came to her window; they briefly chatted, then embraced through the window bars, then married. Like all men, Poncia’s husband quickly grew tired of her. But it could have been much worse. All men cheat and drink, she laments, and women have to accept it. She hit him and even killed his beloved pet finches when he misbehaved. The other women laugh.
Poncia’s love story represents the typical romantic script for rural Spain in the 1930s: men propose to women quickly, treating the process almost like the acquisition of property, then just as quickly forget about them and go on with their immoral behavior. While Poncia’s pushback to her husband shows that she had some power in her marriage, she still accepted his misbehavior and viewed her subordinate role in the marriage as proper.
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Themes
Magdalena goes to check on Adela, who Angustias says is envious and mad. Magdalena brings Adela inside, but Adela says she just feels sick. She tells the others to leave her alone and keep embroidering, and she complains that she can’t go anywhere without all her sisters finding out. The Maid enters and reports that Bernarda wants them all; everyone leaves besides Poncia and Adela, who insults the departing Martirio.
Active
Themes
Adela complains that Martirio constantly watches her and comments on her face and body. “My body will be for anyone I please,” Adela announces, and Poncia asks if she means Pepe el Romano. Poncia points out that Adela woke up and stood at the window when Pepe last visited Angustias, then comments that Angustias probably won’t survive childbirth and Pepe could remarry Adela afterward. Offended, Adela cries and screams at Poncia, who claims that she is just trying to prevent the family from falling into disgrace. Adela warns that Poncia won’t stop her and declares that whatever happens between her and Pepe is meant to be.
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Angustias enters, and Adela and Poncia pretend they are just arguing about errands. Satisfied, Angustias leaves. Martirio, Amelia, and Magdalena enter and chat about Angustias’s wedding lace, but agree that they won’t go on sewing for Angustias if she chooses to have children.
Active
Themes
The bells strike three o’clock, and men start returning home from the fields. The women wish they could go out and see the attractive young fieldhands, who have come from the mountains to work. But due to their class, the women must stay home. Poncia says that 15 of the fieldhands took a dancing-woman into the olive grove last night. Poncia concludes that “men need these things” (including her own son) and Amelia declares that “to be born a woman is the worst punishment.” In the distance, the fieldhands sing about harvesting wheat and seducing women. The sisters dream of being free to come and go as they please.
Adela, Magdalena, and Poncia go to watch the men out of Adela’s bedroom window. Meanwhile, Martirio tells Amelia that the summer heat is making her sick and asks if Amelia knows anything about the sounds she heard coming from the corral late at night. Amelia says that maybe it was just a wild mule, and Martirio slyly jokes that it must have been. Amelia starts to leave and Martirio calls out her name, but claims it was an accident.
Active
Themes
Angustias enters, furious that someone has stolen the picture of Pepe she kept under her pillow. Her sisters return, and Angustias confronts them. Bernarda comes in, too, and she declares that the neighbors will hear the sisters’ argument. Angustias mentions the stolen photo and Bernarda sends Poncia to search the other sisters’ rooms for it. Poncia returns shortly thereafter with the photo, which she says she found in Martirio’s bed. Bernarda beats Martirio with her cane, but Angustias stops her. Martirio claims she was just playing a prank on her sister, but Adela insists that Martirio is in love with Pepe, too. Martirio declares that “the walls will collapse in shame” if she tells the truth.
Active
Themes
The sisters all accuse one another of sin; Angustias reminds the others that Pepe el Romano chose her, but Adela, Martirio, and Magdalena declare that he just wants her money. Distraught, Bernarda kicks her daughters out of the room. She and Poncia agree that they have to get Angustias and Pepe married and “far away from here” as soon as possible. But Poncia speculates that Pepe won’t leave; Bernarda objects and accuses Poncia of attacking her. “Open your eyes and you’ll see,” Poncia tells Bernarda; Bernarda seems to see everyone’s flaws but her own daughters’. But Bernarda still insists that Martirio was just joking when she stole Angustias’s picture of Pepe.
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Themes
Poncia tells Bernarda that “something monstrous is happening here” and argues that Bernarda should have let Martirio marry her suitor Enrique Humanas, even if his father was merely a fieldhand. But Bernarda refuses to mix with a lower-class family and accuses Poncia of forgetting her own low birth. She insists that nothing is wrong in her house and declares that her family would never be caught dead in the brothel that Poncia’s late mother used to run.
Poncia says she shouldn’t have gotten involved in the family’s problems, and Bernarda replies that her job is to “work and keep your mouth shut.” But Poncia says that she felt the need to say something, and that it would be better for everyone if Pepe marries Adela—the woman he really loves. “Things are never the way we would like them to be,” Bernarda quips, but Poncia replies that people always end up following their true desires. Bernarda accuses Poncia of inventing evil prophecies, but she reassures herself that her daughters would never disobey her. The real problem will come once they’re independent, Poncia says, but Bernarda insists she’ll overpower them.
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Themes
Poncia points out that her son saw Angustias and Pepe talking at four-thirty in the morning. Angustias enters to say that this is false, and Pepe leaves at one. Martirio comes in, too, and agrees that she heard Pepe leaving from the alley window at four o’clock. Angustias says she speaks to Pepe through her bedroom window, not the alley window. As Adela stands in the doorway, Bernarda, Poncia, and Martirio all realize that something is wrong. Adela accuses Poncia of trying to destroy the family; Bernarda agrees, calls the rumors false, and tells her daughters to ignore them. She insists that she will find out the truth for herself. Angustias says she wants to know what is happening, but Bernarda says that she has “no right except to obey.”
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Themes
The Maid announces that all the townspeople are gathering in the streets; Bernarda sends Poncia to figure out what is happening, but she chastises her daughters for breaking their mourning obligations when they try to follow. Everyone leaves but Martirio and Adela, who both threaten to expose the other. Martirio claims that she’s attracted to Pepe, but hasn’t done anything with him, and Adela claims that Pepe is trying to sleep with her, but she doesn’t want to.
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Themes
The other women return to the room, and Poncia explains what is happening outside. A neighbor’s unmarried daughter just had a baby and killed it to hide her shame, but a pack of dogs found the body and dragged it to her doorstep. The townspeople have brought her out in the street and want to kill her. Bernarda announces that they should, as she has “trample[d] on decency.” Adela says they should let the woman live, but Martirio stares straight at Adela and says, “Let her pay for what she did.” Adela screams no and holds her womb. Bernarda yells “Kill her!” as the curtain falls.
