Chronicle Of Death Foretold Feminist Analysis

Gabriel Garcia-Marquez’ novel, Chronicle of Death Foretold, portrays women in roles that can be compared to the roles of women in past and present societies. In many Latin American families, past and present, men are led to protect their families and preserve the family honor. If a woman loses her virginity before marriage, she is a great dishonor to her family, therefore forcing her to marry the same man to restore the family honor. A fine example of this would be that of Angela Vicario, a character in Marquez’s novel. Angela Vicario lost her virginity before she married to whom she said was Santiago Nasar. This accusation eventually leads to his death and Angela Vicario’s shame upon her family. Angela Vicario’s mother, Purisima del Carmen, had raised each of her …show more content…
Women in these countries would be stoned to death if they were accused of cheating on their husbands or losing her virginity before marriage. Each of the women in this novel seem to represent a different type of female role in society. Angela Vicario’s role is to show how women are often exploited in society for being immodest or impure while men are not necessarily punished for being indecent. Angela Vicario is thought of as more of a sex symbol than a person in the novel, since the entire novel is based upon whether someone took her virginity or not. Her social class is what determined her fate with Bayardo. If the Vicario family was higher up in society, they would have had other options other than forcing Angela to marry Bayardo San Roman. There have been many times in present society where women of lower status use their bodies to gain a higher place in society or to perform disreputable acts without consequences. Throughout history, women have been taught to follow men and act under a man’s