Federico Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba and Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits

Federico Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba and Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits

Society, and its influences upon the characters, plays a pivotal role

in the development of the story in Federico Lorca's "The House of

Bernarda Alba" and Isabel Allende's "The House of the Spirits." Though

the characters in each literary work were influenced by a range of

societal pressures, three major influences dominate both works. The

Church, male dominance over women, and socio-economic status (in other

words, one's social class) are all sources of the greatest societal

pressures upon the characters. In order to understand why these

societal pressures had such a great influence upon the characters, it

is important to understand the setting of each story.

"The House of Bernarda Alba" is set in a small village in rural Spain

at about the same time as the play was written, which was just before

the Spanish Civil War. In rural Spain, like many rural areas across

Europe, traditional values and social systems were prevalent among the

small villages. As a result, these rural areas, like much of European

society at the time, were largely backwards in their social structure

with class divisions still existent and society dominated by males.

Also, as is quite apparent in the play, religion in the form of the

Catholic Church had a huge influence over the lives of the people.

"The House of Bernarda Alba" portrays the lives of five sisters living

in a village in rural Spain who have been heavily repressed by the

society that they live in. They live in a restricting and unforgiving

society where men exercise great control over women, the Church wields

such an influence that it can ostracize individuals that do not

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pressures have upon a society.

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[i] Lorca, Federico. The House of Bernarda Alba. Page 47.

[ii] Lorca, Federico. The House of Bernarda Alba. Page 48.

[iii] Allende, Isabel. The House of The Spirits. Page 3.

[iv] Lorca, Federico. The House of Bernarda Alba. Page 37.

[v] Lorca, Federico. The House of Bernarda Alba. Page 22.

[vi] Lorca, Federico. The House of Bernarda Alba. Page 21.

[vii] Lorca, Federico. The House of Bernarda Alba. Page 43.

[viii] Allende, Isabel. The House of The Spirits. Page 146-147.

[ix] Lorca, Federico. The House of Bernarda Alba. Page 5.

Bibliography:

Allende, Isabel. The House of The Spirits. Bantam Books: New York,

1993.

Lorca, Federico Garcia. The House of Bernarda Alba. Nick hern Books

Limited: London, 1999.