The Main Themes of Honor and Respect, Societys Point of View and Womens Role in relation with the relationship of Angela and Bayardo
IB English A1 Higher Level
Detailed Study
The Main Themes of Honor and Respect, Society’s Point of View and Women’s Role in relation with the relationship of Angela and Bayardo
Yakir Starosta
Candidate # D 0984-023
The American International School of Bucharest
Mr. R Lamirand
April 14, 2009.
Word Count: 1236
In this novel, Marquez uses many literary devices in order to develop main themes that are being portrayed throughout the plot. The tumultuous relationship between Bayardo and Angela is expressive of the role of women in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and while it is greatly affected by their fear of the society’s opinion, it defines honor and respect, two motifs constantly visible in the novel.
Bayardo’s objectifying treatment of Angela is a clear portrayal of a woman’s role in that Caribbean society. Women’s roles are one of the major themes in the novel. The community in which the story takes place is a male dominant community so it is not surprising that women in the society have specific and no significant roles. This is actually a paradox as woman through reproducing create and provide men as well as the women satisfying their sexual needs. Pura is a strong woman that controls her children and being seen as very powerful. Angela and her mother are seen as two women taht come from a family in which they believe that they should be well respected from the towns’ people and keep their pride and honor which represents the main themes in the novel. “That day I realized just how alone we women are in the world!” (Pg.63 l.4-5) said Clotilde who owns the shop the two brothers were drinking at. Clotilde had to serve the two brothers with alcohol in order to stop them from killing Santiago which shows how powerful men are and that the only way that they could be stopped is by getting them drunk, it also relates to the fact that men are more dominant than women. Pedro Vicario asks Clotilde if he could have the razor and she gives it to him because she was scared. That was the point where Clotilde understands that women are actually alone in the world; she understood and realized that men are stronger, dangerous and can’t be trusted. The fact that women cannot stop men from doing certain things shows that the women’s status in the book is not as strong as men which are dominant. The sex role in the novel shows how women are weaker than men and that men have much more power than women. Angela accused Santiago Nasar of raping her, her honor and respect was diminished because of this which shows that it is not right for women to have sex before marriage but it is fine for a man which is not fair. Angela was humiliated and disgraced because of what had happened and her family reacted violently to it “The only thing that I can remember was that she was holding me by the hair with one hand and beating me with the other with such rage that I thought that she was going to kill me” (pg.46 l.23-24).
