Plot Synopsis and Character Breakdown

The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca

Version

The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca

Translated by Jo Clifford

Nick Hern Books – Drama Classics

ISBN: 978-1-84842-181-3

Lorca’s story of Bernarda Alba, a domineering matriarch who exerts a tyrannical rule over her five daughters is one of the most famous all female plays. The action takes place after the funeral of Bernarda’s second husband as she battles to maintain control over her increasingly fractious brood. 

In the unbearable heat of a ferociously hot summer, Bernarda decrees that a period of mourning lasting eight years will be observed by the household. Bernarda’s daughters are locked inside the dark, airless house, dressed only in black with all interaction with the outside world strictly prohibited. But the voice of the dashing Pepe el Romano at the window of Bernarda’s youngest daughter in the middle of the night awakes suspicions that lead inexorably to tragedy.

Lorca’s depiction of a human spirit fighting against the hideous curtailments imposed by the very authority figure who should be nurturing it, is a powerful and poignant tragedy that is enduringly fascinating to modern audiences. Written in 1936, as Fascism descended on Spain, it is a scream of defiance against any regime that threatens to crush independent thought or desire.

Do you know what she’d like to do? She’d like to sit on your heart and slowly squeeze the life out of it.

Bernarda Alba

The joyless and tyrannical matriarch of the family, sixty years old. She is insistent on keeping her daughters in line and willing to use violence and threats to do so.

Beggar Woman

An old woman who, along with her child, begs scraps from one of Bernarda's servants. The greed of the latter in denying the request of the former helps characterize the world of the play.

Maria Josefa

Bernarda's mother, eighty years old. She is senile and Bernarda keeps her locked up in the back of the house. Though she seems to rant senselessly, she takes on the role of an oracle through the wisdom she imparts in her speeches.

Angustias

Bernarda's oldest daughter, thirty-nine years old. The only daughter from Bernarda's first marriage. Her name translates roughly to "anguish." A plain, sad woman, but the only daughter with a dowry, she is engaged to Pepe el Romano.

Magdalena

Bernarda's second-oldest daughter, thirty years old. A bitter woman, though perhaps the daughter with the most realistic sense of what limitations a woman faces in their world.

Amelia

Bernarda's third-oldest daughter, twenty-seven years old. The most frightened and gossipy of the daughters, it is she who gives in most easily to Bernarda's demands and expectations.

Martirio

Bernarda's fourth-oldest daughter, twenty-four years old. Her names translates roughly to "suffering" and reflects her persistent depression. She was once engaged to a man, but Bernarda ruined it.

Adela

Bernarda's youngest daughter, twenty years old. The only daughter who willingly flaunts Bernarda's strictures and declares her true individuality. The tragic heroine of the play. She is having an affair with Pepe el Romano

Maids/Servants

Unnamed women who serve the Alba household. They wilfully gossip with La Poncia about the house, revealing serious class resentments.

La Poncia

Bernarda's house keeper, arguably the woman who knows Bernarda best. At sixty years old, she is a voice of wisdom throughout the play, albeit a wisdom tinged with bitterness and hatred of Bernarda.

Prudencia

Bernarda's only friend. Highly religious and consumed with regret over having let her husband banish their daughter.

Women in Mourning 

Women dressed in black who visit the Alba household after the funeral of Bernarda's husband.