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Adela
Maria Josefa is Bernarda’s senile 80-year-old mother who lives in an interior room of the house and deliriously tries to escape several times in the play. She accuses Bernarda of locking her away and neglecting her, and she repeatedly announces that she wants to move to the coast and get married. The whole family works together to lock her back in her room at the end of Act 1, and in the middle of Act 3, she escapes onto the stage holding a lamb, which she claims as her child. Maria Josefa’s character represents women’s repressed desire for freedom. Her dream of leaving Bernarda’s house by marrying (which she shares with Bernarda’s daughters) demonstrates how rural Spain’s traditional honor code continues to oppress women from generation to generation.
Maria Josefa Quotes in The House of Bernarda Alba
The The House of Bernarda Alba quotes below are all either spoken by Maria Josefa or refer to Maria Josefa. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1 Quotes
BERNARDA: Help her! All of you!
(They all drag the old woman off the stage)
MARIA JOSEFA: I want to get away from here! Bernarda! To get married at the edge of the sea, at the edge of the sea!
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Act 1 of The House of Bernarda Alba ends with Bernarda’s senile mother Maria Josefa escaping from her interior bedroom and proclaiming that she wishes she could move far away and get married. All of the other women in the house band together to lock her back inside. This is a jarring sequence, especially since Bernarda’s daughters share Maria Josefa’s dream of freeing themselves by marrying and leaving the village. Nevertheless, they carry out their mother’s orders to lock their grandmother up, which demonstrates how women end up enforcing patriarchy and perpetuating their own oppression in male-dominated rural Spain. Bernarda’s Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam
Act 2 Quotes
(Outside, a woman screams, and there is a great uproar)
ADELA: They should let her go! Don’t go out there!
MARTIRIO: (Looking at ADELA) Let her pay for what she did.
BERNARDA: (In the archway) Finish her off before the Civil Guard gets here! Burning coals in the place where she sinned!
ADELA: (Clutching her womb) No! No!
BERNARDA: Kill her! Kill her!
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Act 2 of The House of Bernarda Alba ends with a jarring, unexpected event that portends the tragedy that will soon befall Bernarda’s family. After catching a young woman killing and hiding the body of a child she bore out of wedlock, a mob of townspeople abducted her and started dragging her down the main road. They will likely kill or torture her as punishment. Upon learning this, Bernarda starts to enthusiastically cry out in support and even describe the horrible punishments she hopes the woman will suffer (like “burning coals” on her genitals). This horrifies Adela, who not only Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In et eveniet. Eaque et repellendus. Dolores aut voluptatibus. Voluptatem qui voluptatum. Voluptatibus sed placeat. Aut tenetur autem. Fugit voluptates in. Quidem impedit sunt. Excepturi ullam nobis. Ducimus odio quo. Ut autem harum. Omnis vel voluptatum
Act 3 Quotes
MARIA JOSEFA: It’s true. Everything is very dark. Just because I have white hair you think I can’t have babies. And—yes! Babies and babies and babies! This child will have white hair, and have another child, and that one, another, and all of us with hair of snow will be like the waves, one after another after another. Then we’ll all settle down, and we’ll all have white hair, and we’ll be foam on the sea. Why isn’t there any white foam here? Here there’s nothing but black mourning shawls.
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Two-thirds of the way through the play’s final act, Bernarda’s mother Maria Josefa again escapes from her room. This time, she is holding a baby ewe she has taken from the corral, and she sings and gives a monologue describing her dream of escaping Bernarda’s house and village, going to the seashore, marrying a handsome man, having babies, and starting a new bloodline. The hypothetical babies’ white hair not only makes them resemble Maria Josefa and confirms that her dream is impossible, but also associates them with the life, innocence, birth, and virginity that white represents throughout the play. This Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissi
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Maria Josefa Character Timeline in The House of Bernarda Alba
The timeline below shows where the character Maria Josefa appears in The House of Bernarda Alba. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1
...share snacks in secret because Bernarda is in mourning and refuses to eat. Someone ( Maria Josefa ) yells out Bernarda’s name; the Maid rushes to open Maria Josefa’s locked bedroom door...
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The Maid enters from Bernarda’s mother Maria Josefa ’s room. Maria Josefa is 80 but still strong, the Maid explains, and kept screaming...
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...married a girl from a wealthier family instead. Magdalena arrives from the storage room, describes Maria Josefa ’s old embroidery, and comments that life has gotten worse because everyone worries about their...
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The Maid enters with the elderly Maria Josefa , who insists that none of the other women can have her clothes “because none...
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Act 3
...leave for bed, but they worry that the barking dogs will keep them awake. Then, Maria Josefa walks onstage holding a baby ewe. She sings to it, calling it her child and...
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Maria Josefa returns onstage, says she escaped her room, and asks if Martirio will let her outside....
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