On La Casa de Bernarda Alba (Lorca)

I alway get a little worked up when I have to talk about Bernarda Alba. It's a play by García Lorca that predates the Spanish Civil war by about six years, and it's main themes are fascism, a general lack of human rights, a lack of free will, and the ability of some institutions to impose themselves on people to take away their freedom to chose or general agency. Bernarda has just lost her husband, and the play begins with her return to her house with her five daughters--none of which is married, but they are all adults. None of them can get married (or even leave the house) without Bernarda's permission. The daughters, all adults ranging from about 20 to 39 years of age, are complete innocents and have no idea about he outside world. Bernarda is a tyrant, a jailer, as it were, who won't let them out of the house under any circumstances, unless it is to go mass. The work is frustrating to watch because the house becomes a pressure cooker in which the five daughters are all slowly going mad. They can't deal with their own sexuality because they don't hardly know what that is. They know they have desires and feelings, but they have no outlet for any of it. When the youngest rebels, the outcome is only too tragic. The entire family leads a series of lies which create a false front for there place in society. Since Bernarda has money and land, she is part of the elites which exploit the rest of the population in order to increase their wealth and standing. There is nothing healthy about any of this, and when tragedy strikes, things will only get worse. The play is a condemnation of capitalistic fascism designed to exploit the working class, but it is also a hymn to individual freedom. When freedom of thought and action are stifled or repressed, the natural human reaction is to rebel. In the end, it is the violence that carries the day, stomping out hope and killing the innocent.