How do Marquez and Lorca Explore Affirmation of Self Through Reputation?

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Sam Dennis

English World Literature Coursework

How do Marquez and Lorca Explore Affirmation of Self Through Reputation?

‘In The House of Bernarda Alba’, the role of reputation is of central significance. Bernarda Alba is obviously very concerned with what her neighbours think of her and her family as desire for social standing drives her actions, something Lorca makes very clear throughout the play. Márquez displays the colonel and his wife’s concern for reputation in a more subtle way but it still comes across powerfully. The colonel is more concerned about looking strong despite living in absolute poverty. This is perhaps linked to the fact that he was once a highly-ranked military officer.

Bernarda Alba is from a wealthy background and family and seems to think that her high social status requires particular behaviour from her and her family. She lives in fear of her reputation being tarnished and is hence very concerned about what her neighbours think of her and her daughters. This is apparent from the outset, before we even meet Bernarda herself. The first characters in the play that are presented to us are the Poncia and the Servant. Whilst cleaning the house for Bernarda’s dead husband’s funeral, they mention how Bernarda would be furious if everything was not looking impeccable for the guests. The Servant and Poncia have no respect for Bernarda (“Damn her!”) but it is she that employs them and so, against their will, they must clean everything for their mistress and whilst the Servant complains “I’ve got blood on my hands from all my scrubbing”, Poncia tells her “If Bernarda doesn’t see a shine on everything she’ll pull out the few hairs I’ve got left” and “There are marks on this glass.” We learn a considerable amount about Bernarda before we have even met her for the first time, through Poncia’s expression of her. First of all, she sarcastically exclaims “She’s the cleanest, she’s the most respectable, she’s better than the lot of us,” and even more interestingly she says that over Poncia’s last thirty years at Bernarda’s command, she has had to have her “eye squashed to the crack in the door to spy on the neighbours and bring her the stories”. The audience appreciate Bernarda’s dominance in the household and the locality from the way the women speak of her.

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Similarly, Marquez makes clear the importance of reputation to the colonel early on – the colonel has little else left on his life as he awaits his pension. Getting ready for the funeral that he must attend, he dresses as best as he can despite his lack of money. He puts on a pressed suit instead of a newer one, does not dare move out on to the street despite the rain with an umbrella where “the bright satin material had been eaten away by the moths”. Then he shaves and scrapes “the dried mud from the stitching” of his ...

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