Death Foretold Honor

In the novella, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Angela Vicario prioritizes her integrity over her community's expectations for virtuous women. On the day of Angela Vicario’s wedding day, she had one job, fake the stain of honor to lie to the community about her infidelity. She explained, “‘Because the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was all something dirty that shouldn’t be done with anybody much less to the poor man who had the bad luck to marry me.’ So she let herself get undressed openly in the lighted bedroom, safe now from all the acquired fears that had ruined her life”(106). The “something dirty” was faking the stain of honor to prove that she is still a virgin. The community expects all the woman to be pure because

She could’ve have tricked him but decided to be in the light and stop letting the “fears” which are the community’s expectations, to force her to a mistake that “ruined her life”. She prioritized her integrity which motivated her to surpass the community’s expectations. So instead of lying to her husband, Bayardo, she let him see her for how she really is. After her mother beat her for being brought back by her husband, Angela realized that Bayardo is the one she loves, so she starts writing letters to him about everything. The narrator describes, “She became lucid, overbearing, mistress of her own free will, and she became a virgin again just for him and she recognized no other authority than her own nor any other service than that of her obsession” (109). After the embarrassment of being returned, she should know her place and slip quietly away because being virtuous she needs to hold herself to a higher standard. However, obsessing over a man who rejected her is not virtuous. She continues to shamelessly write letters to him even though he doesn’t