Benarda+Alba+-+Characterisation+-+BERNARDA

By Gideon Welles, Charlotte Davies and Toby Tam


Bernarda (age 60) is the Matriarch of the Alba family, more so following the death of her husband Antonio Maria Benavides. She has 6 daughters, and 2 servants/maids - one of which is named Poncia (while the other one isn't given a name). She is also very protective of her family name as well as its image, and she dislikes gossip as it smears the image of the Alba family. “It’s not that – out there, the neighbors can see her from the window.”

She is always seen with a cane, which is representative of authority and tyranny and has used it to beat her daughters with it to mark her authority. ("advancing on her with cane, she strikes her") *also note that cane in latin is fascii, which is where the word fascist comes from*. An example of her tyranny (as recognised by others) would be when Poncia said "she tyrannizes everyone around her". As a result her servants extremely dislike her- “May she have horrible pain – like nails stuck in her eyes.”

She doesn't show much emotion, and is seen as a cold, uptight woman. One can draw this by the way she speaks and reacts to people. "Is this the fan you give to a widow? Give me a black one, and learn to respect your father's memory!" She is somewhat heartless and cold towards her daughters- “Magdalena, don’t cry! If you want to cry, crawl under the bed. Did you hear me?”

Bernarda is a very bold woman, very assertive and likes to be in control. “I will make the decisions-my own and yours” - This shows she is controlling and forces her daughters to follow her orders and opinions. She also expects a lot of her daughters - “How dare you powder your face”. This shows that she is demanding and she uses criticism a lot to her daughters which is quite unusual in a mother-daughter relationship. Her speech is rich in imperative verbs - often shouting at people.

She's very traditional - (when responding to a little girl) - “AT your age, You should not speak in front of one’s elders”. This quote shows that she still follows old-fashioned traditions, which includes not speaking back to elders and to respect elders. Another example of her strong sense of tradition is when she said “During our eight years of mourning, no wind shall enter this house.” as a sign of respect to her dead husband. She also has strong ideas of a women’s place in society- “In church, women should look at no man but the priest, and at him only because he’s wearing skirts.” She is very classist, discriminates against those of a lower status- “The poor are like animals; they seem to be made of other substances.”