Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Angela Vicario and Her Sister-Victims: The Place of Women in Chronicle of a Death Foretold

In the novel Chronicles of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the place of women in the society of the time is lower than that of males, and this is seen in the novel as one of the reasons why the women tend to be victims. The time of the novel is 1951, long before any feminist impact on the social order in America or in Latin America. The story of the novel is based on a real murder case that took place in that year, and the focus of the novel is made clear in the opening paragraph as the coming death of Santiago Nasar is announced at the outset. The story of Angela's pending wedding to Bayardo is a secondary storyline, but in this social order, women are secondary in any case.

The killers are Angela's brothers. Angela is at odds with her family, especaily about her marriage to Bayardo. She does not love him and wants to stop the wedding, and while she cannot achieve this, she does manage to end the marriage in a few hours because she is not a virgin. In her society, that is grounds for ostracism and also gives the husband the right to end the marriage and return to bride to he family, which is what Bayardo does. The same sort of infraction today might not have the same meaning, depending on how much a given society has changed. It clearly remains a central issue I some societies and reflects the secondary status of women and the idea that the behavior of women carries with it an effect on the reputation and status of the family. If the woman transgresses the social code, the whole family is tainted, the honor of the family depending on the woman more than on male members of the family. A double standard prevails so that sexual indiscretions by the male members of the family is indulged, while those of female members of the family are not. Both brothers and Angela's father have had relations with the female servants. Bayardo as husband has the right to beat Angela when he learns the truth, but he does not. Her mother, however, does, beating her for hours until she tells the name of the man who took her virginity. She names Santiago Nasar, and her brothers then have to kill Santiago, to wash away the shame with his blood, a ritual accepted by the whole community, just as the beating of Angela is accepted. Indeed, this fact is made clear when the two brothers are eventually acquitted at trial because what they have done is to defend the honor of the family, just as they are expected to do.

Angela's life after the murder is simple, as noted by one critic who writes that "the forlorn Angela Vicario divides her days between the nocturnal and surreptitious correspondence with Bayardo and an equally accomplished dedication to embroidery by daylight" (Alonso 268). The options for Angela are extremely limited, and the fact that she manage to end her marriage does not free her to pursue other choices. She is still part of the same household, and she can only do what her family allows her to do. Her writing to Bayardo for so many years suggest that she has no other person outside the home to whom she can confide or to whom she can speak. She pursues only the domestic act of embroidery day after day, and though she did not love Bayardo and has no real tie to him, he is the only person outside the family with whom she communicates. One critic note the long-term change in Angela, stating that "she undergoes an extraordinary conversion and discovers in herself a love for Bayardo San Roman as tremendous and inexplicable as his for her" (Michaels para. 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 to end the relationship with Santiago instead of asking him for an explanation" (Pelayo 122). 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.