The House of Bernarda Alba

The House of Bernarda Alba is a reflection of Lorca's intense

theatrical sense, meaning that the play's focus is less its simple plot
and more the atmosphere created around it.
The entire play is set in Bernarda's house, where she lives with her
five daughters, her maid La Poncia, and several other servants. The
Alba family lives in a small village in Andalusia, a region of Spain.
Act I opens on La Poncia and a servant, who are cleaning the house
while the funeral of Bernarda's husband takes place in the nearby
church. They complain about how Bernarda tyrannically demands the
house be kept too clean even though she should pay more attention to
her unwed daughters. The funeral bells announce the end of the
ceremony, and 200 women enter the house along with Bernarda and
the daughters. They discuss whether Pepe el Romano, a local young
man whom they expect to propose to Bernarda's eldest
daughter Angustias because of the girl's inheritance, was at the
church. Turned off by the gossip, Bernarda ends the visit and the
mourners leave.
Bernarda then tells her daughters they must go through an eight-year
mourning period for her dead husband, father to all of them but
Angustias. Adela, the youngest daughter, shows right away that she
is a free spirit and will not be easily dampened by Bernarda's
repression. There is much talk that sets up how Angustias hopes to
entice a proposal from Pepe through her money, and how all of the
girls are interested in men but how Bernarda prohibits any expression
of those interests.
Adela meanwhile runs outside and plays with the chickens, which the
other girls find strange. Bernarda finds Angustias has applied makeup,

and a fight nearly ensues before Maria Josefa, Bernarda's senile

mother who is kept locked up in the back, enters yelling about how
she wants to get married and run away. Bernarda has her caught and
locked back up.
Act II opens with the girls sewing, a sign of their mourning period.
They discuss how Pepe has been over late talking with Angustias, but
there is some belief that he might stay later than Angustias thinks. La
Poncia tells them about how little they can expect of men and about
her husband. They gossip about Magdalena, a daughter who has
recently been sleepless, and Martirio, a hunchbacked daughter,
implies that Adela has been carrying on an affair with Pepe.
The women leave at Bernarda's behest, except La Poncia and Adela,
who have an intense argument over the latter's affair with Pepe. The
women hear reapers, men who work the fields, passing by and
singing, and all stop fighting to listen. Amelia, another daughter, and
Martirio, gossip further about how late Pepe stays at night, after
Angustias has gone to bed. Angustias brings news that someone has
stolen her photo of Pepe that she keeps under her pillow, and a violent
struggle begins that ends with the revelation that Martirio stole it.
Worried about her daughters, Bernarda laments her lack of diligence
and La Poncia cruelly insinuates that there is wickedness under her
roof. The women are merciless in their argument, even when La
Poncia shares that her sons see Pepe there until far later than
Angustias is awake. The argument grows until news comes of a local
girl who, ashamed of having had a child out of wedlock, had murdered
her baby and was now about to murdered herself in punishment. As
Bernarda celebrates the vicious murder of a wicked woman, Adela
protests it futilely, since this could well be her.

Act III opens a bit later, after the engagement between Angustias and
Pepe has happened. All of the women are onstage with a
visitor,Prudencia, who is sad over having had to banish her daughter
for wickedness. They hear a stallion banging against its door out in the
yard.
La Poncia and Bernarda have another fight, and then all the women
go to bed. Later, Adela sneaks outside and Martirio starts to follow, but
Maria Josefa enters, holding a lamb and singing a song that stops the
latter girl. By the time Maria Josefa is put back to bed, Adela reenters
with signs of having been out with Pepe. She and Martirio fight and all
the women are called onstage. Adela triumphantly announces she will
be Pepe's no matter what shame it brings, and Bernarda runs offstage
with a shotgun to shoot Pepe. When Martirio enters to tell them Pepe
is dead, Adela hangs herself, not knowing Martirio was only telling a
cruel lie and that Pepe had actually escaped.
After they find the body, Bernarda has a short moment of remorse,
after which she demands Adela be buried as a virgin no matter the
truth demands again that the girls fall in line under her tyrannical
strictures.