The Sleep of Vital Reason in García Márquez's Crónica

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The Sleep of Vital Reason in Garca Mrquez's Crnica de una muerte anunciada Author(s): Arnold M. Penuel Source: Hispania, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Dec., 1985), pp. 753-766Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and PortugueseStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/341977Accessed: 10-03-2015 12:46 UTC

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Arnold M. Penuel, Centenary College of Louisiana

The Sleep of Vital Reason in Garcia M arquez's Cr6nica de una muerte anunciada*

Fate is unpenetrated causes. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

A masterfully-told murder tale with all the essential ingredients of the genre, Gabriel Garcia Mirquez's Crdnica de una muerte anunciada is based on an actual murder that occurred in Columbia in 1951.' Initially, this short novel begs to be read as just a murder tale. Its widely-publicized factual basis and narrative techniques discourage a perception of transcendent meaning in its pages. Al- though the narrator, supposedly the author himself, was a witness and a marginal partici- pant in the action, his method is primarily that of an investigative reporter who describes the actions and the views of the numerous witnesses and participants, however contradictory they may appear. He does inter- sperse his own opinions about the events, which though significant, by no means pre- empt the reader's interpretive role, especially in view of the myriad perspectives and possi- bilities structured into the novel. Withal, the point of view leaves the impression of a scrup- ulous objectivity, born of the narrator's in- telligent and extremely diligent efforts to re-create and understand what happened a quarter of a century earlier. The narrator imaginatively likens his task to "tratando de recomponer con tantas astillas dispersas el espejo roto de la memoria" (p. 13).2 The strong impression of journalistic objectivity, involving multiple and often contradictory views, contributes decisively to the mono- polistic hold the surface events exert on the reader's attention.

Nevertheless, a close reading of Cr6nica reveals that this novel, like most of Garcia Mirquez's other fiction, possesses a strong infrastructure of symbolic meaning, integrat- ing a rich mixture of mythical, religious, social, psychological, and historical elements.3 For

various reasons, however, this infrastructure is more camouflaged and farther from the surface than in the novelist's other fictional works.4 The novel abounds with evocative names and other allusive elements suggesting a symbolic mode of writing. Yet these elements so strongly resist being integrated into larger patterns of meaning that the reader may be tempted simply to drift along with the surface flow. The primary source of resis- tance lies in the novelist's technique of radical dissociation or displacement of many allusive elements from their referents. This technique, combined with the novel's factual basis and journalistic point of view, works con- stantly against the reader's tendency to search for transcendent meaning. Grasping the novel's symbolic meaning requires an effort resembling the piecing together of a jig- saw puzzle. The pieces are scattered about and must be placed wherever they fit. The narrator's metaphor comparing his task to that of fitting together the scattered shards of the broken mirror of memory provides an appropriately dissociated clue to the nature of the reader's task." For the moment a few examples of dissociation will have to suffice to illustrate the technique. Dr. Dionisio Iguarin exhibits few characteristics associated with his mythological namesake, yet the Dionysian side of human nature is thematically central in the novel. Nor is there any clear connection between General Petronio San Roman and the author of The Satyricon, but there are meaningful similarities between the general's son and a major character in the Roman writ- er's masterpiece. The names of other characters, such as Pedro and Pablo Vicario, are transparently allusive, but turn out to have an ironic relationship with their referents. Such

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754 HISPANIA 68 DECEMBER 1985

a varying of the nature of the relationships throughout the text complicates even further the deciphering of the novel's more abstract meanings.

One of the primary functions of literature is to define in changing times and circumstances what it means to be human. When myths, religious beliefs, moral codes, institu- tions, and social conventions thwart rather than serve human needs, good writers take their readers back to their common human roots, showing them how they fall short of- or fulfill- both their elemental and noblest human potential. While Crdnica can certainly be read as an absorbing murder tale, it also undertakes a humanizing mission. Indeed, one may well suspect that the murder tale serves as an exciting means of enticing the reader into a recognition of certain realities ordinarily difficult-and perhaps threaten- ing- to perceive.6

The action of the novel revolves around a matter of honor. When Bayardo San Romain, a wealthy newcomer to a small river town near the Caribbean cost of Colombia, discovers that his bride, Angela Vicario, is not a virgin, he returns her to her home the very night of the wedding. Pressured by her family to reveal the identity of the man who deflow- ered her, Angela blames Santiago Nasar, a handsome young man of a wealthy family, whom no one had ever associated with her. Immediately, Angela's brothers, Pedro and Pablo, resolve to restore the family honor by killing Santiago. Hog butchers by trade, the twin brothers sharpen their knives in a butch- ershop and await Santiago in a store within sight of his home. They announce their intention of killing him, and the reason, to dozens of townspeople in both places. Despite the widespread knowledge of their intention, for a variety of reasons, not only does no one prevent the murder but virtually the whole town witnesses the gory, hair-raising event in the town square.

Clearly, a principal object of criticism in Cr6nica, as reviewers and critics have noted, is a set of communal values embracing a primitive code of honor.' Moreover, these values presume the guilt of the man accused of vio- lating the code. The Vicario brothers' reluctance to carry out their intention to kill San- tiago Nasar is patently clear by the way they publicly announce this intention and by the way they conduct themselves in Clotilde Ar-

menta's store. Just as evident is the more or less tacit complicity of their fellow citizens in the crime. In a sense, the failure of the townspeople to prevent the murder when the brothers provide them every opportunity to do so transforms the twins into unwilling tools of the town's collective will. The novel is re- plete with passages demonstrating the role the townspeople's observance of the strict code of honor plays in Santiago's death. The following passage, however, best sums up their attitude and the moral discomfort they feel considering the fateful consequences of the code: Pero la mayoria de quienes pudieron hacer algo por impe- dir el crimen y sin embargo no lo hicieron, se consolaron con el pretexto de que los asuntos de honor son estancos sagrados a los cuales s610o tienen acceso los duefios del drama (p. 127).

Complaining of the scarce development of the major characters, one reviewer has com- pared them to film characters.8 The reason for the relative lack of development is that the town itself is the protagonist of the novel. The novel's chief interest lies in exploring the town's collective psyche or communal values. Moreover, it is likely, for reasons that will be made clear later, that the characters' relative lack of individualization is a part of the novel's message. The communal values determine the course of events in the town. What are the town's values? How did they develop? How are they maintained? What is their psychological conformation? What are their consequences? These are the principal issues explored in the novel and addressed in this study.

The novelist's ultimate target in Cr6nica is the ideal of instinctual renunciation in human conduct. The principal manifestation of this ideal is the cult of virginity. This ideal gives substance to the town's code of honor. There are omnipresent signs that the ideal and the code are in decline, yet they still hold sufficient sway over the collective psyche to bring on the death of Santiago when he is accused of having violated them.

Several circumstances provide evidence of the code's decadence. The most obvious evidence is the Vicario brothers' announcement of their intention to all comers, in hope that they will be stopped. Clotilde Armenta sees their reluctance very clearly. When the mayor does nothing more than take away their knives without trying to dissuade them from their


ARNOLD M. PENUEL CRONICA DE UNA MUERTE ANUNCIADA 755

purpose, she expresses her disillusionment in the following manner:

Es para librar a esos pobres muchachos del horrible compromiso que les ha caido encima.

Pues ella lo habia intuido. Tenia la certidumbre de que los hermanos Vicario no estaban tan ansiosos por cumplir la sentencia como por encontrar a alguien que les hiciera el favor de impedirselo (p. 77).

The brothers' feeling that they will have discharged their duty by demonstrating the proper intention indicates a greater fear of "el que dirin" or gossip than a conviction of the validity of the code. In their tacit hope that a symbolic gesture will suffice, they mis- calculate their neighbors' reactions. The townspeople's ambivalence both before and after the crime further demonstrates the decline of the ideal of instinctual renunciation. While the collective obsession with the crime decades afterwards probably corresponds to a natural, human tendency to relive the most exciting event of their lives, it suggests also the need to relieve guilt feelings. Hence, the narrator speaks of a consoling pretext. This ambivalence is clear both in numerous individual reactions and in the spectators' spontaneous cry of revulsion in the plaza: "No oyeron los gritos del pueblo entero espantado de su propio crimen" (p. 153).

The double standard for men and women in sexual matters and the popularity of Maria Alejandrina Cervantes' house of prostitution provide additional evidence of the halfhearted devotion to the cult of virginity. Divina Flor, a servant's daughter in the Nasar household, is said to be destined to wind up in Santiago's bed, and he pursues her relentlessly. Nor does he miss an opportunity to deflower any virgin who crosses his path. Is it possible that the difficult ideal of instinctual renunciation pro- vokes a rebellion in men that makes a double standard inevitable or at least exacerbates it?

The juxtaposition of a marriage without love and the love of virginity reveals yet another facet of the decadence of the ideal of virginity. Bayardo San Romain explains that he has been going from town to town in search of a wife. The pejorative of the two meanings of the novel's epigraph probably applies to him: "La caza de amor es de altaneria." Speaking of her first impressions of Bayardo years later, Angela confesses: "'Yo detestaba a los hombres altaneros, y nunca habia visto uno con tantas infulas.. .'" (p. 41). For the Vicarios, Angela and Bayardo's union is a marriage of

convenience. Angela harbors no illusion of love for her prospective husband, and Bayar- do's interest in this most spiritless of women appears enigmatic.9 It is scarcely accidental that the description of the Vicarios' decision to marry (sell?) Angela to Bayardo is immediately followed by that of her fiance's purchase of the widower Xius's house. In neither arran- gement does Bayardo demonstrate but mini- mal regard for the feelings of Angela and the widower Xius, who is loathe to part with a house which has so many happy associations. Bayardo's disregard for Angela's feelings easi- ly matches that of her own family. El argumento decisivo de los padres fue que una familia dignificada por la modestia no tenia derecho a despreciar aquel premio del destino. Angela Vicario se atrevi6 apenas a insinuar el inconveniente de la falta de amor, pero su madre lo demoli6 con una sola frase: -Tambien el amor se aprende (p. 48).

Eventually Angela does learn to love, but the lessons come at an extremely high cost to her and others. Moreover, the reader has already been predisposed against marriages of convenience when the narrator tells him that Santiago "era el hijo inico de un matrimo- nio de conveniencia que no tuvo un solo instante de felicidad" (p. 14). The following passage underscores the commercial nature of Bayardo's wedding plans: Bayardo San Roman, por su parte, debi6 casarse con la ilusi6n de comprar la felicidad con el peso descomunal de su poder y su fortuna, pues cuanto mAs aumentaban los planes de la fiesta mas ideas de delirio se le ocurrian para hacerla mas grande (p. 53).

This passage subtly insinuates that Bayardo is attempting to compensate for his lack of love with a show of wealth and power.

A final indication of the weakness of the ideal of virginity is found in Bayardo and Angela's total indifference to this considera- tion when they finally learn to love each other. Although the narrator says that Angela be- came a virgin again for Bayardo when she fell in love with him, virginity here becomes a metaphor for her psychological fidelity to her husband. Within the context of her all-consum- ing love (the intense quality of which is ex- pressed by the sheer quantity of letters she writes), the matter of physical virginity is an insignificant detail.

Crdnica contains a subtle and indirect yet strong and persistent attack on the Catholic Church. The strength of this attack, which is unmistakably clear once the pieces fall into



place, partially explains the novelist's rela- tively greater concealment of the tale's symbolic implications. The novel presents the Church as the author of the doctrine of instinctual renunciation, the root of all the trouble in the town. In its insistence on this doctrine the Church has set up an impossible ideal of conduct for humanity and has therefore undermined and betrayed the mission of love and fulfillment preached by Christianity's founder. The centerpiece of this doctrine is the cult of virginity, which in turn occupies a central place in the town's code of honor. 10 What appears to be a casual detail early in the novel foreshadows the identity of the novelist's chief target. When a maid accidentally dropped a pistol Santiago's father had concealed in a pil- lowcase, the pistol discharged and destroyed "un santo de tamafio natural en el altar mayor de la iglesia" (p. 12). What for the maid was a frightening but meaningless accident is no accident at all within the novel's symbolic context. Garcia Mairquez has aimed the weapon directly at an important aspect of the Church's ideal of sainthood, that is, its advocacy of instinctual renunciation."' More than anyone else the Vicario family epitomizes the Church's ideal for family life. The family name itself suggests the Vicarios' pivotal role as represen- tatives or intermediaries of the Church: vicario means both "church official" and "indirect." It was Poncio Vicario's (the father) namesake, of course, who handed Christ over to the Romans for crucifixion. Here, he hands his daughter over to San Romian (to a Ro- man?), not for crucifixion but indeed for a long martyrdom. The easy symbolism of the twins' names is confirmed in the sequence of their acts. It is Pedro who takes the initiative in restoring Angela's honor. But when they return home to replace the knives the mayor had taken away from them, it is Pablo who must persuade the unenthusiastic Pedro to persist, reflecting thus the biblical sequence of the two saints' work. Appropriate in one sense, it is ironic in another that it is Pedro and Pablo who carry out to the extreme the implications of the Church's cult of virginity by killing a violator of that cult.

As the superlative form of her name suggests, the mother, Purisima del Carmen, attempts to exemplify the Church's doctrines in their purest forms. A psychological relative of Amaranta and Fernanda in Cien anos de soledad, Pura also exhibits strong affinities

with Gald6s' dofia Perfecta and Lorca's Ber- narda Alba. Also, according to Mercedes, the narrator's wife, "Parecia una monja" (p. 43). Products of the same small-town Hispanic catholicism, she and Bernarda Alba, as the following passage makes clear, would have un- derstood each other perfectly. Ademas de los gemelos, tuvieron una hija intermedia que habia muerto de fiebres crepusculares, y dos afios des- pubs seguian guardindole un luto aliviado dentro de la casa, pero riguroso en la calle. Los hermanos fueron criados para ser hombres. Ellas habian sido educadas para casarse. Sabian bordar en bastidor, coser a maquina, tejer encaje de bolillo, lavar y planchar, hacer flores arti- ficiales, y redactar esquelas de compromiso. A diferencia de las muchachas de la epoca, que habian descuidado el culto de la muerte, las cuatro eran maestras en la ciencia antigua de velar a los enfermos, confortar a los moribun- dos y amortajar a los muertos (pp. 43-4). 1

The narrator's mother makes remarks leaving the impression that the townspeople view this strict, old-fashioned upbringing as an admira- ble model:

Lo .inico que mi madre les reprochaba era la costumbre de peinarse antes de dormir. "Muchachas - les decia--: no se peinen de noche que se retrasan los navegantes." Salvo por eso, pensaba que no hab ia hijas mejor educadas. "Son perfectas," le oia decir con frecuencia. "Cualquier hombre sera feliz con ellas, porque han sido criadas para sufrir." Sin embargo, a los que se casaron con las dos mayores les fue dificil romper el cerco, porque siempre iban juntas a todas partes, y organizaban bailes de muje- res solas y estaban predispuestas para encontrar segun- das intenciones en los designios de los hombres (p. 44).

Such perfection enjoys the same ironic status as that of dofia Perfecta, whose fellow citizens considered her "un aingel."

The phrase "el culto de la muerte," which applies par excellence to Pura's philosophy of "life, " applies also, with somewhat less rigor, to the town's ethos. Pura simply embodies in an extreme form the more or less tacit values of her neighbors. She has the strength of character to live as many of her neighbors feel they should live. The narrator continues to describe Pura's actions with images of death even after the tragedy occurs. In a phrase that could have been used to apply to virtually all of Angela's life, the narrator states that Pura "habia tratado de enterrarla en vida" (p. 115) and, again, that "habia hecho mis que lo posible para que Angela Vicario se muriera en vida . . . (p. 118). Of course Pura's and the town's cult of death produces its expected (announced) victim. What surprises us (con- vincingly in my judgment) is Angela's rebirth- of which more hereafter.



The cult of virginity is an integral part of the cult of death. Here, as in Cien aios de soledad, the obsession with virginity becomes a substitute for love and the ability to live positively. For Garcia Miarquez the cult of virginity is a vestige of taboo morality and symbolizes sterility in human relations and, ultimately, death. Santiago's death is the end- product of this cult.

The Church's role in the novel places it in clear contradiction to its original mission of promoting faith, hope, and charity among men and at variance with Christ's promise of fulfillment: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 19:10). Although the Church's betrayal is multifaceted, the bishop's arrival symbolizes its failure most clearly. The flurry of activity and the expectations surrounding the arrival of the highest Church official that could be expected to visit the town symbolically demonstrates the townspeople's faith in the Church. Eager for the bishop's arrival, San- tiago remains in town that fateful Monday in- stead of going as usual to his ranch el Divino Rostro (p. 11). Father Amador gives as a pretext for his failure to prevent the murder his distraction with the bishop's arrival (p. 93). In refusing to disembark, as Santiago's mother had predicted, the bishop betrays the townspeople's faith and hope: -Ni siquiera se bajari del buque-le dijo-. Echarai una bendici6n de compromiso, como siempre, y se ira por donde vino. Odia a este pueblo.

Santiago Nasar sabia que era cierto, pero los fastos de la iglesia le causaban una fascinaci6n irresistible. "Es como el cine," me habia dicho alguna vez (p. 15).

This interesting passage is packed with meaning. What appears as cynicism on the part of Placida Linero proves to be simple realism. Hoping against all odds, Santiago remains in town chiefly out of love of excitement. The passage further suggests that though the Church still has the power to mold conduct, this power is seriously undermined by in- credulity and doubt; the perfunctoriness of the people's faith matches that of the bishop's blessing as he passes by without stopping: Fue una ilusi6n fugaz: el obispo empez6 a hacer la sefial de la cruz en el aire frente a la muchedumbre del muelle y despuds sigui6 haci6ndolo de memoria, sin malicia ni inspiraci6n, hasta que el buque se perdi6 de vista y s61o qued6 el alboroto de los gallos (p. 27).

There is no explanation of why the bishop hates the town, but if he does-and his pass-

ing by reveals at least indifference- such an attitude is at odds with the Christian doctrine of love and forgiveness. The town's perfunctory faith and the bishop's perfunctory per- formance of his duties are but two of many details revealing the Church's decadence. The decline of the Church's hold on the townspeople's imagination underlies their ambivalence, with regard to the cult of virginity and the code of honor.

Both humorous and ironic, the cocks pre- pared for the bishop's arrival play a significant role in the novel's symbolism. The townspeople, including Santiago, go to considerable trouble to gather scores of cocks and wood to prepare the coxcomb soup of which the bishop is so fond. When the bishop fails to stop, even to indulge in his favorite repast, the cocks, in seeming protest and provoked by the tooting of his boat, raise a cacophony of crowing. In a more serious vein, however, what the cocks really symbolize, echoing Peter's betrayal of Christ, is the bishop's, and by extension, the Church's betrayal of Christ's mission of love. In a sense, the cocks announce the Church's decadence, that is, its moribund status as an institution. Of course the Church's emphasis on the denial of the body contrasts sharply with the bishop's volup- tuous refinement of taste and the "fastos de la iglesia" which so fascinate Santiago.

As if it were not clear enough that the Church's ideal of instinctual renunciation, exemplified directly in the Vicarios and indirectly in their fellow citizens, was a sufficient cause of Santiago's death, the novel presents additional evidence in the autopsy. The twins' gruesome murder of Santiago involving mutilation and seven major wounds, any one of which could have been mortal, symbolizes the Church's hostility toward the body, and in the last analysis, toward life itself. Father Carmen Amador performs the autopsy in the absence of Dr. Dionisio Iguarin. Notwithstanding the fact that he performs it reluctantly, at the order of Mayor Lizaro Aponte, it cannot be accidental that the town priest, whose derelic- tion of duty contributed in the first place to Santiago's death, should perform the autopsy. This fact and the manner in which the autopsy is performed clearly symbolize the Church's hostility toward the body, and its cult of death. Speaking of the autopsy, Father Amador ex- laims: "Fue como si hubidramos vuelto a ma- tarlo despu6s de muerto ..." (p. 95). The



space dedicated to the descriptions of the mutilations of Santiago's body during the murder and afterward during the autopsy is point- edly large (pp. 95-102, 151-55). Of the autopsy, the narrator says: "Fue una masacre

. ." (p. 98). He later adds:

Nos devolvieron un cuerpo distinto. La mitad del craineo habia sido destrozada con la trepanaci6n, y el rostro de galin que la muerte habia preservado acab6 de perder su identidad. Ademis, el pirroco habia arrancado de cuajo las visceras destazadas, pero al final no supo que hacer con ellas, y les imparti6 una bendici6n de rabia y las tir6 en el balde de la basura (p. 100).

Finally, the narrator describes his own thoughts regarding Santiago's fate: "Pensaba en la ferocidad del destino de Santiago Nasar, que le habia cobrado 20 afios de dicha no s61o con la muerte, sino adem is con el descuartizamiento del cuerpo, y con su dispersi6n y exterminio" (p. 102).

Although the descriptions of Santiago's murder and autopsy have additional literary functions, only indirectly unrelated to this analysis, the length of the descriptions, the insistent focusing on the gruesome mutilations, and the loss of identity and extermination are designed to present the Church's extreme denial of the body. Not content with killing the body, the Church feels compelled to destroy it completely until it loses its identity through dispersal. In a way the novel con- stitutes a reductio ad absurdum of the Church's traditional mortification of the flesh. Of course such a metaphorical exaggeration is also characteristic of Garcia Mirquez's other fiction.

A final ironic twist delivers the bitterest of the messages of the Church's betrayal of its mission. Several circumstances associate San- tiago with Christ. If valid, this interpretation means that the Church is presented as having strayed so far from its original teachings that it has symbolically slain its own founder. But what evidence do we have that Santiago is a Christ figure?14 First the religious and biblical associations of many characters' names set the stage for such an interpretation. More- over, some of these names possess, as indi- cated above, symbolic significance within a religious framework. Consider the following names: Pedro, Pablo, Poncio, Angela, Vicario, Cristo Bedoya, Lizaro Aponte, Magdalena, and Escolistica Cisneros. More importantly, consider the name Santiago Nasar. Ironically, Santiago's namesake is the patron saint of

Spain, whose name was invoked by the Chris- tians who battled his Moorish ancestors.15

Not only is Santiago, like Christ, of semitic origin, but his surname, Nasar, suggests Nazarin. Although there appear to be many coincidences in the sequence of events, some of which undoubtedly reflect the role chance plays in human affairs, it is no coincidence that Santiago's constant companion almost to his last moments of life, is Cristo Bedoya. Cristo's role as alter ego explains why he knows Santiago's house so well when he en- ters to see if Santiago has returned: Cristo Bedoya no s61o conocia la casa tan bien como la suya, sino que tenia tanta confianza con la familia que empuj6 la puerta del dormitorio de Plicida Linero para pasar desde alli al dormitorio contiguo (p. 138).

As Santiago and Cristo approach the square, the onlookers stare at the two as if they were to share the same fate: "Tambien Cristo Be- doya recordaba una actitud distinta hacia ellos. 'Nos (italics mine) miraban como si Ilevaramos la cara pintada"' (p. 134). Moreover, the walk toward the square and the public nature of the murder emulate the circumstances of Christ's crucifixion: La gente dispersaba hacia la plaza en el mismo sentido que ellos. Era una multitud apretada, pero Escolistica Cisneros crey6 observar que los dos amigos caminaban en el centro sin dificultad, dentro de un circulo vacio, porque la gente sabia que Santiago iba a morir, y no se atrevian a tocarlo (p. 134).

Additional details confirm Santiago's status as a Christ figure. The insinuation throughout the text that he is innocent of the violation imputed to him are reinforced by the narrator's judgment: "Mi impresi6n personal es que muri6 sin entender su muerte" (p. 132). Another supporting bit of evidence is a detail in the autopsy report: "Tenia una punzada profunda en la palma de la mano derecha. El informe dice: 'Parecia un estigma del Crucifi- cado' " (p. 99). This detail fits with the impression the brothers create momentarily during their attack that they are nailing Santiago to the wooden door. The twins are surprised at how long it takes their victim to fall: "En realidad Santiago Nasar no caia porque ellos mismos lo estaban sosteniendo a cuchilladas contra la puerta" (p. 154). Also, the crowing of the cocks, discussed above, clearly relates Santiago's death to that of Christ.

It should be noted, finally, that both Christ's and Santiago's premature deaths are foretold, albeit in different ways. Christ's death is said



by many interpreters to have been prophesied in the Old Testament, as well as by Christ himself in the New Testament. Santiago's death is announced or foretold in myriad ways. Both were victims of the multitude's ignor- ance and fear of life. Both deaths were announced in the sense of being the logical consequence of perverted values.

The strong Dionysian element in Crdnica contributes in a complex manner to the novel's meaning. Representing the instinctual and unconscious side of human nature, which seeks expression in an uninhibited and spontaneous fashion, the Dionysiac is the primary source of human vitality. It can be constructive or destructive depending on how its energies are channeled. Nietzsche viewed it as com- plementary to the Apollonian side of human nature, which consists of intellectual and ra- tional strivings. The Apollonian element is conspicuous for its absence in the novel. For good or evil the Dionysian element dominates the townspeople's individual and collective psyches.

My chief concern at this point is the role the positive manifestations of the Dionysiac plays in the novel. Reflecting the novelist's technique of dissociating clues to the novel's meaning from their referents, the name of the town physician, Dionisio Iguarin, as indi- cated above, serves to alert the reader to the importance of the novel's Dionysiac element. The positive aspects of this element are found in subtle, but unmistakable juxtaposition to its negative forms throughout the novel.

As a substitute for their waning faith, the men of the town find a new faith in what at first appears to be mere hedonism. The high priestess of this hedonism is Maria Alejan- drina Cervantes who, as the narrator says, "arras6 con la virginidad de mi generaci6n" (p. 87). Maria Alejandrina offers precisely what the Church would deny: instinctual fulfillment, tenderness, and consolation. Like the bad women in Cien anos de soledad and Garcia Marquez's other writings, Maria Alejandrina symbolizes fertility and the fullness of life, but, unlike the other bad women, her functions take on a quasi-religious significance. The first inkling of this religious context appears early in the novel when the narrator explains his whereabouts at the time of San- tiago's murder: "Yo estaba reponidndome de la parranda de la boda en el regazo apost61ico de Maria Alejandrina Cervantes ..." (p.

11).16 If the word "apost61ico" is not sufficiently convincing, it should be noted that both her baptismal names possess strong religious associations. Maria, of course, represents the care and tenderness of the loving mother in Catholicism, Alejandrina, the feminine equivalent of Alexander, suggests (especially because of the adjective "apost61lico") the seven popes who early in the history of Christianity assumed the name of Alexander. "

The surname Cervantes is not religious, but the author of El Quijote is venerated in a quasi-religious fashion as representing the highest spiritual accomplishment of Hispanic civilization. Each of her names could be considered ironic or parodistic given her profession, but such an interpretation would be in utter disregard of the evidence that she plays a positive role in the novel.

While the church officials are shown as inept, trivial, uncaring, and, ultimately, destructive of human fulfillment, Maria Alejan- drina is shown meeting human needs (not solely sexual). The following passage reveals some of her beneficent qualities: Maria Alejandrina Cervantes, de quien deciamos que s6lo habia de dormir una vez para morir, fue la mujer mis elegante y la mis tierna que conoci jamais, y la mis servicial en la cama, pero tambidn la mis severa. Habia nacido y crecido aqui, y aqui vivia, en una casa puertas abiertas con varios cuartos de alquiler y un enorme patio de baile con calabazos de luz comprados en los bazares chinos de Paramaribo. Fue ella quien arras6 con la virginidad de mi generaci6n. Nos ensefi6 mucho mis de lo que debiamos aprender, pero nos ensefi6 sobre todo que ningfin lugar de la vida es mis triste que una cama vacia (pp. 86-7).

The witticism about Maria Alejandrina's going to sleep only once refers on the first level of meaning, of course, to her profession. Does it also suggest the eternal vigilance of a deity? It is interesting--and perhaps meaningful-that while Maria Alejandrina seems never to sleep, Santiago's mother remains sleeping almost up to the moment of his death.

Significantly, after murdering Santiago, Pedro and Pablo Vicario go directly to the church (the parish house) where they surrender to Father Amador. In hot pursuit is "un grupo de irabes enardecidos" (p. 66). The priest recalls the surrender "como un acto de una gran dignidad," though the brothers ar- rived soaked in sweat and fresh blood (pp. 66-7). Showing no remorse or repentance, the twins tell Father Amador that they killed Santiago deliberately, but claim innocence



because it was a matter of honor. The priest virtually absolves them then and there for guilt before God (p. 67). Father Amador's ex- culpatory reception is decisive in determining the type of defense they use in the trial: "Fue- ron ellos quienes vislumbraron el recurso de la defensa [based on honor] desde que se rindieron ante su iglesia pocos minutos des- pues del crimen" (p. 66). The brothers never show the least conscious signs of repentance during the three years they spend in jail awaiting trial.

The narrator, on the other hand, overcome with grief after witnessing the autopsy, takes refuge and seeks consolation in "el regazo apost61lico" of Maria Alejandrina Cervantes. He and Maria Alejandrina are as inconsolable for the loss of their friend and the brutal manner in which his life was taken as the Vicario brothers are unrepentant. Maria Alejandrina can express her grief only through overeating. When the narrator, after observing the autopsy, entered her house, Maria Alejandrina "estaba sentada a la turca sobre la cama de reina frente a un plat6n babil6nico de cosas de comer: costillas de ternera, una gallina hervida, lomo de cerdo, y una guarnici6n de plaitanos y legumbres que hubieran alcanzado para cinco. Comer sin medida fue siempre su

tnico modo de Ilorar, y nunca la habia visto hacerlo con semejante pesadumbre. Me acos- te a su lado, vestido, sin hablar apenas, y llorando yo tambien a mi modo" (p. 102).

The narrator falls asleep and dreams; he is awakened by Maria Alejandrina:

Sofi6 que una mujer entraba en el cuarto con una nifia en brazos, y que 6sta ronzaba sin tomar aliento y los granos de maiz a medio mascar le caian en el corpifio. La mujer me dijo: "Ella mastica a la topa tolondra, un poco al desgaire, un poco al desgarriate." De pronto senti los dedos ansiosos que me soltaban los botones de la camisa, y senti el olor peligroso de la bestia de amor acostada a mis espaldas, y senti que me hundia en las delicias de las arenas movedizas de su ternura. Pero se detuvo de golpe, tosi6 desde muy lejos y se escurri6 de mi vida. - No puedo- dijo-- ; hueles a 61 (pp. 102-03).

This dream expresses Maria Alejandrina's in- ability to console herself by eating. She appears in the dream as a helpless child anx- iously (breathlessly) chewing hard kernels of corn, which she cannot swallow; her grief is overwhelming. "Los dedos ansiosos" which awaken the dreamer are the "real-life" equivalent of the anxious child in the dream. Maria Alejandrina's intention is to console herself and her friend by making love. In mourning,

Maria Alejandrina has closed her house to the public and her mulattoes have dyed their clothes black as a sign of mourning.'" From the Church comes the cult of virginity, tacit approval of the crime, excuses for failing to prevent it, and a horrible mutilation of the victim's body during the autopsy. Associated with Maria Alejandrina, on the other hand, are authentic grief, humane feelings, and an effort of tender consolation. This juxtaposition of values is meaningful. It is also meaningful that these values are associated with a woman who ministers to the needs of the body, and symbolically to the needs of the whole person. The fact that Maria Alejandrina is completely naked (as she usually is when no stranger is present) and her attempts to assuage her grief first through eating and then by making love demonstrate the primacy of the body and its inseparability from the human spirit.'"

The widower Xius's role in the novel places the opposition between denial and celebration of the body in historical perspective. The name Xius appears to be a transformation of "Zeus," the Greek god who dwelt on Mt. Olympus. Like his presumed namesake, Xius resides in a choice location: high on a hill with a magnificent view. The house is suggestively described as commanding a view of a paradise: Estaba en una colina barrida por los vientos, y desde la terraza se veia el paraiso sin limite de las cidnagas cubier- tas de an6monas moradas, y en los dias claros de verano se alcanzaba a ver el horizonte nitido del Caribe, y los trasatlhnticos de turistas de Cartagena de Indias (p. 49).

Xius's glory, like that of the Greeks, lies in the past, in memories of his happy life with his wife, Yolanda, in this house on the hill. His role is to evoke Hellenic civilization or perhaps, because of the Latinate form of his name, Graeco-Roman culture and the pagan glorification of the body. When Bayardo buys the house from Xius and occupies it, he, however, cannot find happiness there. It is there that he discovers that his bride is not a virgin and returns her to her home. Symbolically, Roman Catholicism with its emphasis on instinctual renunciation has proved in this respect an unworthy replacement for the pagan religion of ancient Greece. While the pagan gods no longer inspire admiration and belief, their respect for and celebration of the body is worth salvaging. For this reason Xius's happiness lies in memories of the past and Bayardo cannot find happiness in the present.

A possible indirect contribution to the polar-



ity of denial vs. celebration of the body is the reference to Nietzsche. Commenting on the presiding judge's marginal notes, the narrator says of him that "conocia muy bien a Nietz- sche, que era el autor de moda entre los ma- gistrados de su tiempo" (p. 129). This allusion should not be taken lightly since the judge is a very learned man and has meditated long on the events surrounding the crime. The allusion to Nietzsche serves as a clue to the importance of the denial-celebration dichot- omy: the most insistent theme in Nietzsche's philosophy is the desirability for man of the uninhibited expression of his instincts. An- ticipating Freud, he illuminated the consequences and implications of instinctual renunciation. Moreover, he viewed Christianity as the chief advocate of instinctual renunciation and the originator of a "slave morality.""2

If, as I submit above, the town itself is the novel's collective protagonist, it makes sense to clarify the nature and consequences of the town's communal values. The discussion above of the Church's contribution to the for- mation of the townspeople's values and the alternative values symbolized in the portrayal of Maria Alejandrina Cervantes has in large part accomplished this task. Here, my concern is to analyze further the psychology of these communal values and the mythical context in which they appear. The analysis above clearly reveals the presence of conflicting values in the town and, as will become evident, this split is reflected within individual characters. Since Santiago's death is the main event in the novel, the focus will remain on the values that translate into his murder. Clearly, these values are under attack, despite all the camouflage about fate and coincidences. The opposing values are important too, serving by contrast and comparison to throw in relief the values under attack and also to point the way to positive alternative modes of living and being.

The wedding and the anticipation of the bishop's arrival coincide to produce a high level of excitement in the town. Manifestly a communal event, the wedding creates great excitement partly because of its magnitude and the fact that everyone participates in it. So fascinated is Santiago with its size that he spends many of his last hours calculating the costs:

Cont6 que se habian sacrificado cuarenta pavos y once cerdos para los invitados, y cuatro terneras que el novio

puso a asar para el pueblo en la plaza ptiblica. Cont6 que se consumieron 205 cajas de alcoholes de contrabando y casi 2.000 botellas de ron de cafla que fueron repartidas entre la muchedumbre. No hubo una sola persona, ni pobre ni rica, que no hubiera participado de algtin modo en la parranda de mayor escindalo que se habia visto jamis en el pueblo (p. 28).

The wedding party gives outlet to positive Dionysian energies, providing healthy and innocent pleasures: music, fireworks, abundant food and drink, dancing, and camaraderie. Even Santiago's pleasure of calculating the wedding costs seems innocent enough. Con- fessing to only a confused recollection of the party before retrieving it from other people's memories, the narrator specifies two memories kept alive in his household: Durante afios se sigui6 hablando en mi casa de que mi padre habia vuelto a tocar el violin de su juventud en honor de los recien casados, que mi hermana la monja bail6 un merengue con su hibito de tornera ... (pp. 59-60).

On the other hand, Bayardo's motives for planning such a prodigal wedding cast little favorable light on his character. The passage cited earlier about his attempting to buy happiness discloses that his conspicuous con- sumption is owing not only to an attempt to buy admiration and friendship but also is a compensation for the absence of love. It is likely that the novelist meant for the reader to perceive Bayardo's wedding through the prism of "Trimalchio's Banquet" in Petronius's The Satyricon. The dissociated clues here are Bayardo's father's name, Petronio, and the narrator's opinion, based on his reading of the presiding judge's marginal notes, that the latter knew Latin literature (p. 129). A nou- veau riche, Trimalchio tries to win and impress friends with an exorbitantly expensive banquet featuring a great variety of human pleasures. The banquet ends on a morbid note with the host entertaining thoughts of death. Ba- yardo's status as a newcomer in the town, the exorbitant expenditures on his wedding, and his efforts to win friends and impress the townspeople with his wedding all echo Petro- nius's satire of the vulgar Trimalchio. Present- ing Bayardo's wedding against the perspective of "Trimalchio's Banquet" not only enriches Bayardo's characterization but also adds to the significance of the wedding by revealing its universal archetypal dimensions.2

Several circumstances suggest that San- tiago's death is intended to be perceived as a communal sacrifice, containing both Christian



and primitive elements." The cult of virginity, the symbolic role of the Church, and San- tiago's status as a Christ figure are the principal Christian elements. For the most part the psychology and the form of the sacrificial rites are primitive. The atmosphere of almost or- giastic excitement occasioned mainly by the wedding, but intensified by the anticipation of the bishop's arrival, prepare the multitude psychologically for the culminating and most exciting event of all: the sacrifice of Santiago. Ironically, Santiago cannot include the incal- culable value of his own life in his calculations of the wedding costs. Santiago's probable innocence corresponds to the need in such rites for an innocent or pure victim (the scapegoat of primitive Dionysian rites). The public nature of Santiago's death, the widespread announcement, the public complicity through tacit acceptance of its inevitability, the dense multitude accompanying Santiago as he walks to the place of his death and witnessing his death, and the consensus after his death that honor has been restored and equilibrium re- gained (except for Bayardo) all point to the sacrificial nature of the event. Moreover, both the execution of the murder and the perform- ance of the autopsy suggest a frenzy of blood- lust characteristic of primitive sacrificial rites. Finally, the eagerness of the townspeople to view Santiago's mutilated body (p. 96) and their insistence on certifying their presence at his death by appearing as witnesses at the trial (p. 121) suggest the communal nature of the sacrifice.

What appears to be an act of solidarity from one perspective, more closely viewed, metamorphoses into symbolic self-immola- tion. Santiago, with his promising youth, his Hispano-Arabic heritage, his elevated position in the community, and his status as a Christ figure, symbolizes the future of his race and culture. What the town achieves with its twisted values, culminating in the sacrifice of Santiago, is the sacrifice of its own best future. This is the meaning of the narrator's anguished reference to the ferocity of San- tiago's destiny "con el descuartizamiento del cuerpo, y con su dispersi6n y exterminio" (p. 102). Mutilation and dispersal of the body symbolize disunity. "3 The chief message here is that the inhumane and barbaric values un- derlying this disunity (or solitude) will lead to the extermination of the race - as they do in Cien aiios de soledad.

Fear of "el que dirin" is a potent force in the town, insuring that the townspeople adhere to their traditional values.24 This fear colors nearly all the Vicarios' acts. Two years after a daughter's death, they observe, as noted earlier, a relaxed mourning at home and a rigorous mourning in public (p. 43). When Pura has the twins return the music box Bayardo gave to Angela, she times the return so that everyone who knew about the gift also witnesses its return (p. 42). Pura's attempt to bury Angela in life after the tragedy further illustrates this fear. The advice Angela's friends give her to deceive her husband about her virginity reveals the importance of appearances in the town: "Le insistie- ron en que aun los maridos mis dificiles se resignaban a cualquier cosa siempre que nadie lo supiera" (pp. 52-3). Even though Angela would have been glad had Bayardo not shown up at all for the wedding, she refused to put on her wedding dress until he did appear: "Su cautela pareci6 natural, porque no habia un percance ptiblico mis vergonzoso para una mujer que quedarse plantada con el vestido de novia" (pp. 56-7). Of course the brothers' observance of the code of honor initially is due obeisance to appearances. In view of their obvious reluctance to carry out the murder and the hypocrisy in the townspeople's values, honor becomes little more than an institution- alization of the fear of "el qu6 dirin" One of the most revealing passages describes the return of Bayardo's mother and sisters to take him out of the town after the tragedy: Vinieron en buque de carga, cerradas de luto hasta el cuello por la desgracia de Bayardo San Roman, y con los cabellos sueltos de dolor. Antes de pisar tierra firme se quitaron los zapatos y atravesaron las calles hasta la colina caminando descalzas en el polvo ardiente del medio dia, arrancandose mechones de raiz y llorando con gritos tan desgarradores que parecian de j6bilo. Yo las vi pasar desde el balc6n de Magdalena Oliver, y recuerdo haber pensado que un desconsuelo como ese s6lo podia fingirse para ocultarse otras vergienzas mayores (pp. 111-12).'"

Attempting to establish Santiago's innocence deductively, the narrator makes the following remarks which serve also to charac- terize the townspeople and Bayardo: La mafiana de su muerte, en efecto Santiago Nasar no habia tenido un instante de duda, a pesar de que sabia muy bien cuil hubiera sido el precio de la injuria que le imputaban. Conocia la indole mojigata de su mundo, y debia saber que la naturaleza simple de los gemelos o era capaz de resistir al escarnio. Nadie conocia muy bien a Bayardo San Roman, pero Santiago lo conocia bastante para saber que debajo de sus infulas mundanas estaba



tan subordinado como cualquier otro a sus prejuicios de origen. De manera que su despreocupaci6n consciente hubiera sido suicida (pp. 131-32).

Remember also the presiding judge's marginal note: "Dadme un prejuicio y movere" el mundo" (p. 131).

The townspeople, to use David Riesman's terms, are an other-directed, lonely crowd: As weak as their traditional values are they do provide standards to live by, but the forces for change and renewal are even weaker. Their conduct revolves around negative axes; it is based on taboo morality. They have no positive center; nor is there positive leadership in the town. Unable to act, they can only react to events. Though chance does play a part in their lives, what they consider fate or destiny is principally a projection of their own passivity. The feeling of inevitability displayed by the crowd accompanying Santiago to the plaza re- flects this passivity. The references to fate and chance mainly serve an ironic intention. The closer one examines the forces producing Santiago's death the smaller the role one as- signs to chance. The town's collective character is its fate as well as Santiago's.26 As the judge and the narrator's perceptions suggest, the town's traditional values are unexamined, which means they are prejudices. Naturally they are prejudices of origin, and their origin is amply documented above.

The community's indulgence of its prejudices paradoxically occasions the disclosure of a repressed set of values which, had they found timely expression would have avoided the situation that cost Santiago's life. If the town's unquestioning acceptance of ready- made values signifies its enslavement to unconscious forces, or forces of which it is only half conscious, this healthier potential set of values exists at an even greater remove from their consciousness. Exceptions are the characters who either do not know of the threat or are ineffectual, despite worthy efforts, to prevent the murder. While the superior, humane values signal their presence in various ways, their chief manifestations are psychosomatic and involuntary. All the signs of reluctance to carry out their announced intention that Clotilde Armenta observes in the Vicario brothers originate in their instinctive aversion to taking the life of another human being. Expressing no repentance of their crime and comforted by the feeling that they have ful- filled their duty, the twins nevertheless reveal

an unconscious revulsion to the murder through the psychosomatic disorders they suf- fer. In jail awaiting trial, they cannot rest because each time they fall asleep they repeat the crime in dreams (p. 103). They are unable to rid themselves of the odor of Santiago's body until they wash themselves thoroughly (p. 104). Pedro is overcome by pain extending from groin to neck, and he cannot urinate (p. 105). Pablo is afflicted with a case of cholera so severe that he cannot stop urinating and thinks, consequently, that the Arabs may be poisoning him (p. 105).27 The tone of the description is hyperbolic, but the psychosomatic nature of the disorders clearly signals to the reader, though not to the brothers themselves, their revulsion on a deeper psychic level at what they have wrought. Their inabil- ity to perceive the meaning of these symptoms is a product of a combination of their simplemindedness and the pressure of communal values. The body nonetheless repents of what the mind cannot repent of. The mind has become dissociated from the body's elemental wisdom. The twins cannot believe what they feel because their feelings are at odds with the communal values they have as- similated.

Other examples of psychosomatic or involuntary reactions to the murder include "los gritos del pueblo entero espantado de su propio crimen" (p. 135), the death of Clotilde Armenta's husband, don Rogelio de la Flor, on witnessing the murder (pp. 127-28), Laiza- ro Aponte's conversion to vegetarianism after witnessing the autopsy, and Hortensia Bau- te's sudden insanity after seeing the murder weapons (p. 127).28 In a general way the weakness and the belated expression of these healthy tendencies in individual townspeople parallel their weakness and belated expression in the town as a whole. Logically enough, the denied body, whose rejection has led in the first place to the perversion of values, points the way back to sound values rooted in an understanding and acceptance of the primacy of the body, but which (nota bene!) by no means reduce to bodily needs.29

Angela's rebirth years later, triggered by a sudden insight into her mother's character, marks the clearest path to the development of sound values. The insight comes when Angela observes her mother's trivial, but quite human vanity about her new glasses: Pura Vicario habia acabado de beber, se sec6 los labios



con la manga y le sonri6 desde el mostrador con los lentes nuevos. En esa sonrisa, por primera vez desde su nacimiento, Angela Vicario la vio tal como era: una pobre mujer consagrada al culto de sus defectos. "Mier- da," se dijo. Estaba tan trastornada, que hizo todo el viaje de regreso cantando en voz alta, y se tir6 en la cama a llorar durante tres dias.

Naci6 de nuevo. "Me volvi loca por 61 [Bayardo]- me dijo-, loca de remate" (p. 121).

This is the moment she begins writing the two thousand letters to Bayardo, which he never opens but whose writing culminates in their reunion. Angela's rebirth takes the form of a psychological awakening; dependent upon and submissive to her mother, who still beats her, she becomes independent and self-re- liant. The following passage describes her transformation and her new understanding of love: Duefia por primera vez de su destino, Angela Vicario descubri6 entonces que el odio y el amor son pasiones reciprocas. Cuantas mas cartas mandaba mais encendio6 las brasas de su fiebre, pero mAs calentaba tambi6n el rencor feliz que sentia contra su madre. "Se me revolvian las tripas de s6lo verla--me dijo-, pero no podia verla sin acordarme de 61." Se volvi6 Iticida, imperiosa, maestra de su albedrio, y volvi6 a ser virgen s6lo para 61, y no reconoci6 otra autoridad que la suya ni mais servidumbre que la de su obsesi6n (p. 122).

Angela's awakening to autonomy occurs in two stages. First, she recognizes the illegitimacy of her mother's authority and breaks that authority. Second, now the lucid, self-conscious mistress of her own fate, she replaces her mother's stifling authority with that of the man she loves.3" Her love of Bayardo rein- forces her independence from her mother and all that she represents. Passionate, concrete, and creative, her love makes possible the reunion with Bayardo and both exemplifies and symbolizes positive human fulfillment.

Angela's rebirth demonstrates what the town needs. Her submission to her mother's values parallels the town's submission to the perverted values of its culture. Before her rebirth, Angela possessed what Erich Fromm calls an "authoritarian conscience," that is, a conscience whose content is composed almost wholly of the largely unconscious "do's" and "don'ts" of parents and other authority figures.:" Her real autonomy begins only with the development of a "humanistic conscience," that is, a conscience which takes into account individual circumstances, individual needs, and the probable consequence of an act. Angela's passage from dependence and submission to autonomy illustrates Fromm's

concepts in exemplary fashion.

he town's crime is principally the result of its subjugation to the collective con-

science of its forebears. Liberation from this authoritarian conscience requires recognition of its inadequacy and its destructiveness. It requires a larger role for the Apollonian side of man's nature. Like Angela, before her awakening, the town's collective behavior is largely determined by unconscious forces.": The town is asleep and, to combine the insights of Goya and Ortega, the "sleep of vital reason brings forth monsters."

0 NOTES

*A brief version of this article was presented at the Inter- national Symposium on Gabriel Garcia Marquez at Missis- sippi State University in April 1984.

'Gabriel Garcia Marquez, El olor de la guayaba: Con- versaciones con Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza (Barcelona: Bru- guera, 1982), p. 38.

2Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cr6nica de una muerte anunciada (Bogoti: Oveja Negra, 1981). Subsequent references are to this edition.

?See Graciela Maturo, Claves simb6licas de Garcia Mdrquez, 2nd ed. (Buenos Aires: Fernando Garcia Cam- beiro, 1977), for a sound and insightful discussion of the symbolic function of literature and the ample cultural contexts of Garcia Marquez's fictional worlds (pp. 13-14, 68-72).

4The novelist makes remarks in El olor that can only encourage his readers to search for cryptic meanings in his works: "- Si, creo que novela es una representaci6n cifrada de la realidad, una especie de adivinanza del mundo" (p. 48).

"This sort of displacement is frequent in dreams. For a convincing comparison of the novelist's fictional world to the world of dreams, see Carlos Martinez Moreno, "Paritorio de un exceso vital: Psicoanilisis y literatura en cien anos de soledad," Cuadernos de literatura, 14 (1969), 59-76.

6See Simon O. Lesser, Fiction and the Unconscious (New York: Random House, 1957), chs. IV & V, and passim. Lesser's brilliant analysis of the psychology of reading illuminates how fiction appeals to all three psychic functions: id, ego, and superego.

7See Richard Predmore, "El mundo moral de Cr6nica de una muerte anunciada, " Cuadernos Hispanoamerica- nos, 390 (1982), 703-12; D. Keith Mano, "A Death Foretold," rev. of Chronicle ofa Death Foretold, by Gabriel Garcia MArquez, National Review, 10 June 1983, pp. 699- 700; Jonathan Yardley, "Garcia MArquez and the Broken Mirror of Memory," rev. of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel Garcia Mirquez, Book World, 27 March 1983, p. 3; R. Z. Sheppard, "Where the Fiction is Fantdstica," Time, 7 March 1983, p. 79; Peter S. Prescott, "Murder and Machismo," rev. of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Newsweek, 1 November 1982, p. 82; Leonor Alvarez Ulloa, rev. of Cr6nica de una muerte anunciada by Gabriel Garcia Mirquez, Critica literaria, 4 (1982), 183; Nina M. Scott, "Destiny and Causality," rev. of Cr6nica de una muerte anunciada, by



Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Amiricas, Jan.-Feb. 1982, p. 60.

"Mano, p. 700. "In view of Bayardo's strong feelings about virginity,

it seems feasible that he chooses Angela because she appears to be one of the most virtuous women in town. Impressed when he sees Angela and her mother dressed in mourning crossing the square in the heat of the day, Bayardo declares then and there his intention of marrying the young woman.

"'The cult of virginity has, of course, appeared in numerous cultures throughout history; the focus here is on its manifestation in a particular religion and a specific culture.

"It is quite possible that the remarks on the wisdom of keeping the pistol and its bullets separated provide a subtle clue to the novelist's technique of radical dissociation of allusion from their referents. After all, only when the pistol is loaded with the bullets does it become possible to hit the target. Only by bringing together dissociated elements can the reader hit the critical target.

"1Remember Bernarda Alba's depressing remark on her daughters' prospects in life: "Hilo y aguja para las hembras," in Federico Garcia Lorca, Obras completas, 15th ed. (Madrid: Aguilar, 1969), p. 1452.

"'Leonard Michaels, "Murder Most Foul and Comic," rev. of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, New York Times Book Review, 27 March 1983, views the murder as one of the most "powerfully rendered" in modern literature (p. 37).

"Evoking mankind's first recorded murder (also of an innocent victim), Cristo Bedoya, frantically searching for the murdered Santiago, shouts to the narrator's mother: "-Luisa Santiago-le grit6-: d6nde esti su ahijado" (p. 144). The biblical prototype reads: "And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?" (Gen. 4:9).

'"The Arabs pursuit of Pedro and Pablo evokes the historical conflict between Christians and Moors in Spain (p. 66).

'"Michaels says that Maria Alejandrina Cervantes "is a magnificent, animalish whore whose lap is 'apostolic' in that it carries a message of erotic faith to the town, what Garcia Mirquez calls 'the disorder of love.'" (p. 36).

'"Predmore advances another opinion on the origin and moral implications of her name: "Es probable que se eligi6 el nombre de Alejandrina para recorder a la c6lebre pecadora de Alejandria, que acab6 convirtiendose en San- ta Maria Egipciaca. Asi entre burlas y veras, Garcia Marquez empieza a revelarnos un mundo en que la moral suele presentarse trastrocada" (p. 707).

'"Maria Alejandrina's deeply-felt and privately-ex- pressed grief contrasts markedly with the San Romans' ostentatious expressions of grief after Bayardo's misfor- tune (pp. 111-12).

"'Garcia Marquez coincides in general with Freud in stressing the primacy of the body and in particular in the strength he attributes to the sexual drive. For both men excessive repression is the enemy.

""Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945), pp. 765-68.

"'Yardley thinks that the name Bayardo is part of a subtle tribute to Faulkner, since this "name recurs fre- quently in Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County" (p. 3). While feasible, the name also has other associations. Its sound suggests boyardo, 'boyar,' a Russian feudal lord. Typically, the word boyardo is dissociated from its refer- ent. The narrator tells us that Victoria Guzmin wakes

up Santiago herself, "pues no perdia ninguna ocasi6n de preservar a la hija contra las garras del boyardo" (p. 91). The rarity of both "Bayardo" and boyardo point to an intentional association in the novel.

"In view of Santiago's fate, it hardly seems accidental that the account of the wedding costs evokes the image of a sacrifice: "Cont6 que se habian sacrificado cuarenta pavos y once cerdos . .." (p. 28).

23:J. E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols, trans. Jack Sage (New York: Philosophical Library, 1962), pp. 79-80.

2"The novelist's comparison of Soviet and Spanish vil- lage morality in De viaje por los paises socialistas, 15th ed. (Bogota: La Oveja Negra, 1980), is germane to this analysis: "De una manera objetiva nada se parece tanto a la moral cristiana como la moral sovi6tica. Las muchachas en sus relaciones con los hombres tienen las mismas vueltas, los mismos prejuicios, los mismos recovecos psicol6gicos que son proverbiales en las espafiolas. Se comprende a simple vista que manejan los asuntos del amor con esa simplicidad conflictiva que los franceses Ilaman ignorancia. Se preocupan del que dirin y hacen noviazgos regulares, largos y vigilados" (pp. 160-61).

"5The San Romans' theatrical mourning is comparable to Amaranta's theatrical death in Cien anos de soledad, 15th ed. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1969), in which she demands of Ursula a certification that she is dying a virgin, a certification which also conceals shame- ful acts (p. 240).

2"The affinities of Cr6nica with Lope de Vega's Fuenteo- vejuna are sufficiently strong to suggest that the novelist consciously moulded elements of the Spanish Golden Age classic into the novel. This influence is the likely significance of the narrator's remark that the judge had read Spanish classics (p. 129).

"The disappearance of the twins' major symptoms when they take a concoction recommended by the cen- tenarian Arabic matriarch, Suseme Abdala, suggests that they unconsciously feel forgiven by the Arabic community through this merciful act (pp. 107-08).

"For further examples, see pp. 127-28. 2"Lest the impression be left that the novelist's implicit

advocacy of greater sexual freedom is only metaphorical, consider these remarks in El olor: "Todos somos rehenes de nuestros prejuicios. En teoria, como hombre de men- talidad liberal, creo que la libertad sexual no debe tener ningiin limite. En la prActica, no puedo escapar a los prejuicios de mi formaci6n cat61lica y de mi sociedad bur- guesa, y estoy a merced, como todos nosotros, de una doble moral" (p. 161). The presence of such a conflict within the novelist himself and his perception of its presence in his society--and undoubtedly others- provides a clue to the importance of the sexual element in his fiction.

:"In La casa de BernardaAlba, in similar circumstances and for similar reasons, Adela replaces her mother's authority with that of Pepe el Romano.

:"See Erich Fromm, Man for Himself An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics (New York & Toronto, Rinehart, 1947), pp. 143-72. The term "humanistic conscience" is also Fromm's.

'"The frequent images of and references to sleep rein- force the impression of a town asleep, that is, a town driven by unconscious forces. The dreams, the Vicario brothers' drunken, sonambulistic state (pp. 24-5), Bayardo's semiwakeful state when he decides to marry Angela (p. 40), the dreamlike atmosphere which envel- opes him when he returns Angela to her mother (p. 63),



and the fact that Plicida Linero was sleeping almost up to the time of her son's death, all symbolize the role the unconscious plays in determining what happens in the town. It is interesting that while Maria Alejandrina is reputed never to sleep, Santiago's mother sleeps in more than one way. Perhaps her name, Plicida, suggests that she is too complacent about her son's welfare. Her failure to notice the ill omen in the dreams and her inadvertent

closing of the door to the house when Santiago was trying to enter suggest the torpor of sleep. In passing, it should be noted that, according to Cirlot, both house and door are feminine symbols (pp. 81 and 146). Does her failure to provide for the security and welfare of her son symbolize Hispanic culture's failure to provide for the security and welfare of its sons and daughters--its complacent torpor?

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jspArticle Contentsp. [753]p. 754p. 755p. 756p. 757p. 758p. 759p. 760p. 761p. 762p. 763p. 764p. 765p. 766Issue Table of ContentsHispania, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Dec., 1985), pp. 695-966+i-lxviVolume Information [pp. 956-966]Front Matter [pp. 807-857]O Visitante Revisitado: um caso adulterado de patriarcalismo num romance de Osman Lins [pp. 695-699]Joo Do Rio: O Esboo de um Retrato e Espelhos de iluso [pp. 700-708]The Practical Mysticism of Clarice Lispector's Uma Aprendizagem ou o Livro dos Prazeres [pp. 709-715]Deus, deuses e deus ex machina n'os Lusadas e na fico contempornea de Jorge Amado [pp. 716-723]El Arte de marear, de Antonio de Guevara, y la autonomizacin del texto literario [pp. 724-732]Max Aub's Magical Labyrinth of Exile [pp. 733-739]Literature and Society: Madame de Stal and the Argentine Romantics [pp. 740-746]Nellie Campobello's las manos de mam: A Rereading [pp. 747-752]The Sleep of Vital Reason in Garca Mrquez's Crnica de una muerte anunciada [pp. 753-766]ReviewsPeninsular LiteratureReview: untitled [pp. 767-768]Review: untitled [pp. 768-769]Review: untitled [pp. 769-770]Review: untitled [pp. 770-771]Review: untitled [pp. 771-772]Review: untitled [pp. 772-773]Review: untitled [pp. 773-774]Review: untitled [pp. 774-775]Review: untitled [p. 775]Review: untitled [pp. 775-777]Review: untitled [pp. 777-778]Review: untitled [pp. 778-779]Review: untitled [pp. 779-780]Review: untitled [pp. 780-781]Review: untitled [pp. 781-782]Latin American LiteratureReview: untitled [pp. 782-783]Review: untitled [pp. 783-784]Review: untitled [pp. 784-785]Review: untitled [pp. 785-786]Review: untitled [pp. 786-787]Review: untitled [pp. 787-788]Review: untitled [pp. 788-789]Review: untitled [pp. 789-790]Review: untitled [p. 790]Review: untitled [pp. 790-791]Review: untitled [pp. 791-793]Review: untitled [pp. 793-794]Review: untitled [pp. 794-795]Pedagogy, Linguistics, TextsReview: untitled [pp. 795-796]Review: untitled [pp. 796-797]Review: untitled [pp. 797-798]Review: untitled [pp. 798-799]Review: untitled [pp. 799-800]Review: untitled [pp. 800-801]Review: untitled [pp. 801-802]Review: untitled [pp. 802-803]Review: untitled [pp. 803-804]Books Received [pp. 804-806]EditorialHispania in Its New Format: Problems and Opportunities [p. 808]Letter to the EditorOn the "State of the Art" among Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese [pp. 808-809]Professional News [pp. 809-811]The Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian World [pp. 811-825]Chapter News [pp. 825-830]List of Active Chapters of the Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica as of 30 June, 1985 [pp. 831-848]Official Announcements [pp. 849-855]Applied LinguisticsStrategies for Accessing Bilingual Dictionaries: A Question of Regulation [pp. 858-864]Pedagogy: Community CollegesElementary Texts Written Entirely in the Foreign Language: Their Use in the High School and Community College [pp. 865-867]Audio-Visual Instructional MediaReview: untitled [pp. 868-869]Review: untitled [p. 869]Computers in Research and Teaching[Introduction] [pp. 870-872]The Emergence of Microcomputing in Latin America [pp. 873-876]Nota Bene: Caveat Scriptor [pp. 877-879]Making the Grade: Programs for Monitoring Students' Scores [pp. 880-883]The Quickening Tempo [p. 884]Software ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 884-886]Review: untitled [p. 886]Review: untitled [pp. 887-888]Review: untitled [pp. 888-889]Back Matter [pp. 890-lxvi]

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The Sleep of Vital Reason in García Márquez's Crónica