Women In Gabriel García Márquez's Chronicle Of A Death Fortold

In 1981, Gabriel García Márquez published his novella ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’. In 120 pages, the Columbian writer highlights the shocking cultural practices of colonized Latin America and through his pseudo-journalistic narration, brings to light the injustice in his society. Though his characterization of women, he provides an understanding of the dynamics of patriarchy, the exploitation and subjugation of women in his society. Further, his female characters constitute an apparent hierarchy of their own wherein they hold multifarious positions of power, or lack thereof. This essay explores the myriad of actual and illusioned influences exerted by the characters of Victoria Guzman, Divina Flor, Angela Vicario and Clotilde Armenta.

A beautiful young girl, she’s born into a family of scant resources. Interestingly the wealthy, prestigious and highly desirable Bayardo San Roman lays his golden eyes on her and decides that she will be the one he marries. He lay recumbent on a rocking chair and after one glance at her, said, “When I wake up, remind me that I’m going to marry her”. And just like that, Bayardo’s class position allowed him to embark upon a ‘conquest’ for his woman, whose fate was now sealed. In her society, it was irrelevant that Angela loathed the prospect of this marriage, although she made no attempts to hush up her opinions, clearly declaring “I detested conceited men, and I’d never seen one so stuck up” [29] The system of exploitation in the society, nonetheless, left no space for a woman like her to voice her opinion, let alone assert it. “He seemed like too much of a man for me” [34] she says, but her family smothers her resistance of a prospective marriage of such stature and upward social mobility. Marrying into the class position and wealth that was the San Roman’s greatly outweighed the immaterial anguish of Angela, as her mother blatantly says, “Love can be learned, too” [35]. With this, the unequal standards of an orthodox patriarchal society are risen to the surface, raising questions about the position of women for it’s apparent

She is the sole character who recognizes the gravity of the situation, as she is aware of the Vicario twins’ plans and actively attempts to stop them. She attempts to thwart their plants by presenting them with rotgut rum in the hopes that they’ll get drunk. When she sees Bedoya, she bellows at him to caution Santiago; she sends a message across to Father Amador, appeals to the civic authorities and requests them in vain to spare his life: “leave him for later, if only out of respect for his grace the bishop” [58]. Although this halts them from killing him immediately, their eyes are set on getting the job done. As a last attempt she physically intervenes by clutching Pedro Vicario by the collar and shrieking out to Nasar to run for his life. Alas, all these events are futile. It’s ironic how the only woman in the catbird’s seat had the smallest influence on the outcome. Marquez seems to have given her control with no effect, as if to reinforce the nature of the oppressive culture, making one ponder about how women can survive with having no position in the omnipotent male