The work being used to answer this question is ‘The House of

Bernarda Alba’. This is the story of a woman whose tyrannical

oppression of her daughters, to protect the family’s honor,
transforms her house into a powder keg of tension, jealousy,
anger, and fear.

In the play “The House of Bernarda Alba,” the playwright

effectively uses the character “Adela” to convey the conflict
created when the will of the individual opposes the will of the
majority. This is shown through her characterization as a young,
naïve and yet rebellious girl in opposition to the subdued nature
of her sisters, as well as her outward expression of her sexuality,
arguably the ‘tragic force’ of the play. The will of Adela therefore
strongly opposes the will of her sisters, them being a
representation of the society created by the author, the major
source of conflict throughout the play. This essay will attempt to
analyze the moral and ethical implications Adela’s
characterization and her ’tragic force’ has on her as well as her
society as a whole.

The characterization of Adela plays a large role in allowing the

audience to gain a sense of how Adela’s youthfulness and naïvety
opposes the will of the society she lives in.
For example, the very fact that Adela is the youngest sister, the
‘baby’ of the family, helps the author convey her interpretation as
a beautiful, innocent, child-like character more effectively to the
audience.
This is further supported by her sisters talking about her as
though she is still untouched by the reality of the world the sisters
live in: one of oppression and repression of their womanhood and
freedom. This is best portrayed by Magdelina’s line in Act 1 when
she says
“Poor little thing. She’s the youngest of us and she has dreams.”
This helps support the idea of Adela being a naive child
untouched by the harshness of reality, and represents the core
conflict between her as an individual and the society she lives in:
Her want for freedom vs. the structure and tradition of the
repressive society she lives in.
This argument is further supported by Adela’s tone throughout
Act 1, a harsh juxtaposition to that of her sisters.
While at her father’s funeral, her sisters adopt a sombre tone. For
example, Magdalena had even fainted and cried because of her
father’s death. The atmosphere created in scene 1 is one of high
tension and seriousness, with the funeral goers dressed in sombre
clothes and Bernarda’s yelling and insistence of a mourning
period adding to the uneasy atmosphere.
This atmosphere is completely juxtaposed by Adela, who puts on
a green dress and goes out to play with chickens, a sign of
outward rebellion (because of the enforced mourning period) and
a stark contrast to the seriousness of the environment she is in.
This helps reinforce the idea that Adela is in conflict with societal
norms, and is willing to break them to achieve freedom, or what
she believes is morally right.
This is further enforced by Adela’s own line, “I will not be locked
up!” “I want to get out!”.
This clearly shows the audience the moral implications of Adela’s
conflict with the society she lives in. It leads her to be in open
rebellion and defiant at all times, regardless of whether or not it is
ethically right for her to do the same.
Her conflict also leads to her death at the end of the play, as
because of her absolute desire for freedom, (something her
society believes is naïve thinking), she runs to Pepe, claiming she
does not want to be ordered around. This shows the moral
implications her conflict with society has on her.

Adela’s outward expression of her sexuality can also be said to be

a source of conflict that has moral and ethical implications for her
and for her society.
In the world Adela lives in, Bernarda Alba has restricted her
daughters’ sexuality, refusing to allow even a little bit of freedom
for them. This can be seen when Angustias is beaten for wearing
make-up, and in the fact that Martirio’s relationship in the past
had been ruined by Bernarda.
As a result, the daughters are extremely repressed and
unexpressive of their sexuality, for example, as Martirio says, “It’s
better to never lay eyes on a man.”
However, Adela, unlike her sisters, is extremely outward about
her sexual desires, as shown her torrid affair with Pepe El
Romano.
This is the ‘tragic force’ of the play, the main conflict that sets the
plot in motion.
Adela is also the only character that truly acknowledges the
presence of her, as well as the other girls’ sexual desires
throughout the play. This can be seen in, for example, Adela’s
comment on Martirio stealing Angustias’ photo, saying Martirio
had something “Burning in her breast.” This is also seen when
Adela says, at the end of the play, that she will support Pepe El
Romano’s wedding to Angustias, so long as she can continue
being his mistress. This acknowledgment of a purely sexual desire
toward someone is something unheard of in her society,
something that creates conflict between her and the world she
lives in.
This is further seen in Adela’s sympathy toward the woman who
has a child out of wedlock. While Bernarda wishes to ‘Kill the girl!’
Adela is anguished by this, showing both her recognition and
acceptance of others’ sexuality as well as foreshadowing
something that could potentially happen to her. This makes her
despair about the society she lives in, creating conflict.
It is due to this conflict with her society that Adela eventually
hangs herself, her inability to control her sexual desires due to a
lifetime of repression, eventually resulted in her death, the true
implication for her conflict with society.

In conclusion, the author has used characterization and the ‘tragic

force’ of the play to effectively show that conflicts between a
characters and the society they live in, in terms of freedom and
sexuality, can have great moral and ethical implications for the
character as well as the society they live in. The repression of
sexuality is particularly effective as it runs as a motif throughout
the play, reminding the audience the truly stifling atmosphere
present in the ‘House of Bernarda Alba,’ and that freedom, of self
and of one’s sexuality, is important in any society- as the
repression can lead to rebellion, despair, and death.