70 pages • 2 hours read
La Casa De Bernarda Alba
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Act IIIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act III Summary
Act III opens with Bernarda and her daughters entertaining Prudencia, a friend and neighbor, in the late afternoon heat of the house. The stage directions indicate that the sound of “a heavy blow […] heard against the walls” (197) interrupts the conversation. Bernarda explains, “The stallion. He’s locked in the stall and he kicks against the wall of the house” (197). Although things within the house appear settled and peaceful after the chaotic mob that ended Act II—Angustias wears an engagement ring from Pepe and talks of plans for the wedding. Adela makes repeated attempts to slip away alone—first to get a drink of water, then to go out for an evening walk in the cooled air; either Bernarda or her sisters disrupt both attempts.
Adela, Amelia, and Martirio go out for a walk and Bernarda and Angustias discuss how things are going with Pepe. Angustias reveals that Pepe will not visit her window tonight, explaining he has gone into town with his mother. When pressed by Bernarda, she confesses apprehension about Pepe’s wandering attention, telling her that she feels him grow more and more distracted during their nightly meetings at her window and feels as if “he’s hiding things from me” (200). When she has gone to bed, La Poncia tries again to warn Bernarda to open her eyes to the mounting threat of discord under her roof. Bernarda, however, feels placated by the engagement and refuses to admit that anything is amiss.
After everyone has gone to bed, Adela slips out of bed and escapes outside to the direction of the corral. Martirio appears a moment later, obviously having anticipated Adela’s attempt to sneak out. Martirio spies María Josefa, who has escaped the house once again and gone wandering. Martirio discovers Maria outside cradling a baby lamb in her arms and babbling incoherently. Martirio ushers her inside and finally talks her back into her room, then she goes to the door leading to the stable yard to find and confront Adela.
Adela enters, and the two have a climactic confrontation in which she confesses to having just met Pepe in the corral (who is not in town, as Angustias believes, but here at the house waiting for Adela). Martirio can tell from the straw on Adela’s skirt that the two have consummated their affair by making love in the corral.
Martirio, consumed by jealousy, confesses to being in love with Pepe and resolves to manipulate circumstances so that neither Angustias nor Adela will get to have him. Adela, however, has embraced defiance and the power of her newfound sexual freedom; she impulsively declares that she will run away with Pepe and live a life of sin as his kept mistress. Before she can leave, however, Martirio rouses the family and reveals Adela’s transgressions. Bernarda flies into a rage and makes as if to beat Adela with her cane, but Adela grabs it from her and snaps it in two, saying, “This is what I do with the tyrant’s cane. Not another step. No one but Pepe commands me!” (209).
Bernarda calls for a gun and rushes out into the yard, followed by Martirio. A gunshot sounds offstage. When they return, Martirio says, “That does away with Pepe el Romano” (210), leading Adela to believe that Bernarda has just killed her lover. In actuality, Pepe has escaped unscathed and ridden away on his horse.
Adela runs offstage, distraught, and locks herself in her bedroom. Bernarda and La Poncia run after her and try to persuade her to open the door to no avail. La Poncia breaks it down and discovers that Adela has hanged herself in her bedroom. While the other daughters look on in horror, Bernarda raves:
Cut her down! My daughter died a virgin. Take her to another room and dress her as though she were a virgin. No one will say anything about this! She died a virgin. Tell them, so that at dawn, the bells will ring twice (211).
The play ends with Bernarda prohibiting anyone from weeping or making a sound, crying repeatedly for silence.
Act III Analysis
As the act opens, the kicking of the tethered stallion in the stable next door is an indicator of mounting tensions threatening to destroy the Benavides household. Like the stallion, who is eager to mate, the daughters in the Benavides house are suffering from their cloistered existence. Most of the girls are eager for romance, and Bernarda’s rules have frustrated them to the breaking point. The stallion foreshadows the destruction of the household, and Adela’s tragic end.
Act III moves swiftly towards a climax. The themes of sexual repression that Lorca has built through the stacking of secrets and private moments between individuals all culminate here at the end with an eruption of open, public violence. The crimes committed by the Librada girl and the resulting horrors of the mob at the end of Act II brought violence to the Benavides’s doorstep. Now, in Act III, the violence erupts directly under Bernarda's roof and ends with one of her daughters having met a similar fate. Instead of learning from this, however, or outwardly admitting to any wrongdoing of her own, Bernarda processes her horror at Adela’s death by attempting to manage the family’s reputation. The Servant reports, “all the neighbors are up” (211), likely roused by the gunshot, and this news sends Bernarda into a panic. Before she or her remaining daughters can even register their grief, she immediately begins painting over the grisly scene with orders to dress her daughter’s body as a virgin and tell the villagers to ring the bell twice.
Ironically, the final lines that Bernarda shouts to those around her contain orders directly contradicting her own actions. She says, “I want no weeping. Death must be looked at face to face. Silence!” (211)—and yet ironically, she is the only one of those assembled who refuses to silently witness Adela’s death in this moment. The play ends with Bernarda shouting “Silence, silence I said. Silence!” (211) to a room of her silent daughters, still incapable of confronting her own part in the tragic events that have unfolded, even as the truth is obvious for Lorca’s silent, witnessing audience.
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