5). This change in Angela has to be as much a surprise to her as it is to Bayardo and the reader, but again, her choices are limited. Other females in the community have been lusting after Bayardo before his wedding, and he is cited by one young woman who says, "I could have buttered him and eaten him alive" (Marquez 202). He is a catch because he is not only handsome and athletic but also rich, for "he's swimming in gold" (Marquez 203). At the same time, descriptions of him suggest that he is not a nice man, as one older woman notes when she says he "reminded me of the devil" (Marquez 204). He shows his true nature when he forces Xius to sell him his house because Angela has expressed a desire for it.

Angela still resists hijm in spite of the way he is sought after by others and in spite of her parent's wishes. She tells her parents she does not love him, but her mother says, "Love can be learned too" (Marquez 209). Angela ses no way out and so considers suicide rather than marry Bayardo, but when she does not have the strength to do this, she does marry him. She is even more horrified about her fate when she sees that Bayardo does not love her, either, and sees her as socially inferior to him. She learns this when he takes her to meet his parents.

Other women in the novel are just as tied to the social order and also fail to do anything to save Santiago. Among these are Flora Miguel, Placida Linero, Victoria Guzman, and Divina Flor. His fiancee is Flora Miguel, and she knows what is to happen and does not help him: "She feels humiliated and hurt because of the rumor concerning why the Vicario brothers want to kill him and decides...

She and other women in the community gain what position they have fro the men with whom they are associated, and they also make moral choices based on how they will look to the community rather than on real moral values.
Significantly, Angela only begins to regain her will to live once Santiago is dead. In some way, she now has a choice, and she exercises that choice by writing to Bayardo. When they meet many years later, both are much changed, and now she believes she loves him and accepts him as he accepts her. The social structure is also likely to accept their marriage now in spite of the history behind it. The novel shows that women like Angela are oppressed by the patriarchal system in which they live and by the false moral values that infuse this system and that are also held by her family. The Church is just as guilty by promoting the same values and by not denying the family its revenge. The life of Santiago is lost in all of this, and though it is hinted that he was not guilty in the first place, this issue is never resolved.

Works Cited

Alonso, Carlos J. "Writing and Ritual I Chronicle of a Death Foretold." In Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Harold Bloom (ed.), 257-270. New York: Chelsea House, 1999.

Marquez, Gabrial Garcia. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Trans. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Knopf, 1983.

Michaels, Leonard. "Murder Most Foul and Comic." New York Times (27 March 1983), Section 7,-Page 1.

Pelayo, Ruben. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Critical Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood…