The Usage of the Motif of Eyes to Illustrate Defiance, Effects of
Repression and Confinement, and Foreshadow in Federico Garcia Lorca’s
The House of Bernarda Alba
Although the human body functions the best when all five senses work,
the sense of sight is arguably the most important of the senses. With
that intact, it is definitely easier to get by because one will always
be aware of the events occurring around him or her. In Federico Garcia
Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba”, the motif of eyes and sight is
prevalent, and is used for various purposes: to show rebellion against
a greater force, to show the effects of repression and confinement,
and as well as a way of foreshadowing. In the play, Lorca could be
said to be establishing that confinement and repression from a greater
force can lead to one’s end, and through the way he uses the motif of
vision, he is continuously reinforcing that idea.
Because of the authoritarian figure of Bernarda Alba, a strict mother
who confines her five adult daughters within the four walls of her
house, subtle rebellion, usually through what they see, is the one
method that her daughters use to defy her. For instance, Adela, the
youngest of all the daughters, once told on her sister, Angustias, “I
saw her looking out through the cracks of the back door” (Lorca 166).
Here, she was referring to Angustias spying on the men outside their
house, which could also suggest that she is looking out from the
boundaries that her mother had set. This is an act of rebellion
against her mother because firstly, she is disobeying her, since she
knows her mother disapproves of it, and secondly, she is aware that
snooping around during her father’s funeral is wrong, and perhaps even
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motif of eyes and vision to illustrate defiance against a domineering
force, the effects of a greater force on the repressed, as well as a
porthole into the future. Although this was not mentioned previously,
Lorca also emphasized this motif through other things, such as the
materialistic issues such as class, wealth and beauty. Bernarda had
not let one of her daughters marry because the man was of a lower
class than them. Also, despite the fact that others kept emphasizing
Angustias’ ugliness, she was the only one with the marriage proposal
because she had money. Thus through this idea that materialism counts,
Lorca could have been suggesting that what is perceived and seen plays
a great role in the way people act. In all, the presence of this motif
of eyes shows that vision is important in keeping one aware of the
events occurring in the environment.
An archetype is a universal symbol. It is also a term from the criticism that accepts Jung’s idea of recurring patterns of situation, character, or symbol existing universally and instinctively in the collective unconscious of man. Archetypes come in three categories: images (symbols), characters, and situations. Feelings are provoked about a certain subject by archetypes. The use of the images of water, sunsets, and circles set the scene of the movie. Characters, including the temptress, the devil figure, and the trickster, contribute to the movie’s conflicts that the hero must overcome in order to reach his dream. However, to reach his dream, the hero must also go through many situations such as, the fall, dealing with the unhealable wound, and the task. By using archetypes in the movie, the viewer can obtain more than just the plot and better understand the true theme of the movie: to never give up on dreams.
is mental, emotional, or physical and specifically through the use of ethos, pathos, and logos.
Major turning points in history such as the overthrow of a country’s government, political violence, guerrilla movements and civil wars, bloody revolutions, brutal dictatorships, domestic violence, criminal violence, physical and sexual abuse and psychological damage are all well known throughout history and they serve as a common theme in literary works of the time period. This is especially true of Isabel Allende, in which the true event of the overthrowing of the Chilean government by the military is an important aspect of the plot in her novels. The aim of the paper is to analyse Isabel Allende’s Of Love and Shadows as a story reading in between the shadows of violence and the gentleness of love by mixing politics and love and demonstrating
In Federico García Lorca’s La Casa de Bernarda Alba, a tyrant woman rules over her five daughters and household with absolute authority. She prevents her daughters from having suitors and gives them little to no freedom, especially with regard to their sexualities and desires. They must conform to the traditional social expectations for women through sewing, cleaning, as well as staying pure and chaste. While, as John Corbin states in The Modern Language Review, “It was entirely proper for a respectable woman in [Bernarda’s] position to manage her household strictly and insist that the servants keep it clean, to defend its reputation, ensure the sexual purity of her daughters, and promote advantageous marriages for them,” Bernarda inordinately
Federico Garcia Lorca was born in 1898 and died in 1936, he lived through one of the most troubling times of Spain's history. He grew up in Granada, Spain, and enjoyed the lifestyle and countryside of Spain. His father was a wealthy farmer and his mother was a school teacher and encouraged his love of literature, art, and music. He was an extremely talented man. A respectable painter, a fine pianist, and an accomplished writer. He was close friends with some of Spain's most talented people, including musician Manuel de Falla, and painter Salvador Dali. Lorca was a very liberal man who lived un dictatorship for most of his life. However, in 1931 Spain turned into more of a democracy, and was called "The Second Spanish Republic." However, fascist leader, Francisco Franco, was trying to gain control of Spain. Known as a leftist, Lorca was killed by Franco's forces. What are considered to be his three most important plays, referered to as folk tragedies were: Blood Wedding, Yerma, and the House of Bernarda Alba. They really drove home his feelings of the Spanish culture, and, in particular, its treatment of women.
“A Man Who Had No Eyes” by Mackinlay Kantor is a short story full of twists and suprises that contains three elements of literature, flashback, foreshadow, and character. These elements fill the story with excitement and bring the story to a higher, more advanced level that is more enjoyable for the one reading.
The play "The House Of Bernarda Alba" gives an interesting portrayal of a middle class home consisting entirely of women. The plot is set in a small town, middle class house in a society dominated by men. It is believed to be set somewhere in Spain in the 1930s. The play was written in a time when the suppression of woman was still strong. The mother, the head of the household, does everything she believes is necessary to keep her house within a good social standing in the town. The mother had become the master of the house after her husband died, which makes her work harder to keep a good reputation for her house of women. Looking deeper into the story one might find two sides to the dilemmas that cover the house. There are protagonists, principle characters in a story, and antagonists, characters that act adversaries or opponents to the principle characters. In this play one of the maids, Poncia, is forced to be in the middle of much of the drama consuming this house. She, Poncia, can be looked at as both a protagonist and antagonist. One might say that she fits into a back up role; helping support the main characters' roles, in the cast of characters.
Studying this theme affected my life, my relationships, my feelings, my actions and my values. This theme affected my life through the changing of my understanding of human life. This change in my understanding affected my relationships in a positive way because it helped me to
A motif is an element in a film that is repeated in a significant way. As discussed in Film Art, a viewer cannot follow a story, recognize emotional tenor of the scene, respond with their own emotions, or reflect on possible meanings until they notice certain things in the frame (p. 140). Since motifs
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will” (Shakespeare). In life we all have a route that we are supposed to follow to achieve our goal. Our attitude towards the path to achieve that goal is what will shape our ends. Our reactions to our obstacles we face are what are going to set us through the path. Shakespeare was trying to have an overall theme throughout his tragedies, to get through obstacles to keep continuing on the path to our overall achievement in life.
Federico Garcia Lorca considered the “problem of women” in Spain in the early 20th century to be the oppression of women which was created by ambiguous Spanish traditions. During this time period women were struggling to find their voice in the political, social and economic issues of Spanish society. Only to be viewed as fragile, objects of beauty and regarded as submissive sex objects. Most women were expected to marry whom their parents arranged for them, take care of their home, have children and remain voiceless. Federico Garcia Lorca illustrates how society viewed women during this time and their struggle to find their voice throughout his plays Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba.
The external conflict of nature against man never becomes resolved, as nature ends the man and his goals. For example, the severe cold weather prevented the man fro...
How are the patriarchal and class systems presented in García Lorca's "La casa de Bernarda Alba"?
Furthermore, Campbell explained such patterns by using Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, which he was strongly influenced with. Psychological organs that developed through the evolution, is the idea Jung gave of archetypes (Jung 81). To him they are recurring patterns, images and ideas which all humans inherited in their unconsciousness (Volgar 23). In addition, Campbell described his theory as a reoccurring cycle of pattern consisting of three phases: Departure, Initiation and Return, which he calls The Monomyth (Campbell 28), a deep inner journey of transformation that every hero must go through in order to grow (Voytilla vii).
In a multitude of tales written across time, both true and fiction, there lies an antagonist and a protagonist. Often times, it transpires that the protagonist pushes through whichever obstacles the malevolent antagonist decides to throw their way over the course of the story. Now, that simple baseline, the baseline of multitudinous stories, aims to demonstrate that the human soul pushes on. No matter what someone may encounter, sooner or later they’ll move past it, and their soul will prove stronger in spite of it. In order to corroborate my theory, I’m going to share some specific findings from stories including the “The Myth of Sisyphus”, Matthew 26 and 27 of the bible, and lastly, “The Crisis”.