Gender Roles In The House Of Bernarda Alba

Words: 1179
Pages: 5

Servants, caretakers, brides, homemakers, women enclosed in their prison; build by fear and subjugation. Subjugated by a patriarchal society that has underestimated, manipulated and forced them to believe that their knowledge and energy is only useful behind the closed doors. The Christian church normalizes and establishes these beliefs. The patriarchal norms in religion restrict women from expressing their sexuality and discover their bodies. The Christian church encourages women to cover their silhouettes and be afraid to be seen. The play “The House of Bernarda Alba” by Federico Garcia Lorca criticizes society for precluding women sexuality. The play demonstrates that women are taught to assume unrealistic roles determined by the Christian …show more content…
The play renames the characters and changes the plot of the original, making it more relatable to modern circumstances. In this transformative work, it shows how those Christian beliefs have changed in history. The plot develops following the assassination of Bernarda’s husband, who was murdered by a gang. She does anything to protect her family's reputation and the future of her daughters. The formidable matriarch arranges the marriage of her older daughter for economic and reputational benefits. Meanwhile, the family follows the common funeral tradition by wearing black and abstaining from social events. Bernarda is trying to climb the social latter by being an example of morality and …show more content…
Such an atmosphere of repression leads to an impasse and defiance for the preservation of sexist traditions. In “The House of Bernarda Alba: A Hermaphroditic Matriarchate,” Bettina Knapp summarizes, criticizes, and analyzes the playwright “The House of Bernarda Alba” by depicting Bernarda Alba's archetypal house, and retrogressive code of morality. According to Knapp “the playwright explores the means by which this archetypal, domineering, and domestic tyrant uses her absolute power to preserve the most regressive of traditional conventions” (382). Bernarda Alba’s devotion to Christianity makes her obsess with her daughters’ purity and reputation. Their entire life is molded to fit the Christian traditions, such as virginal chastity and marriage. The matriarchal atmosphere in “The House of Bernarda Alba” is dominated by patriarchal perspectives, even though men are not present. In such conditions, a woman can impose patriarchal views upon others to preserve the environmental conditions established by the Christian bible. By remaining relentlessly subservient, enslaving herself to her