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A Common Crisis: Female Identity and Human Frustration in Lorca's Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba
Understanding the Spain of the 1930s and the 1940s, one should recall the foregrounds, realities and consequences of the Spanish Civil War. The Civil-War period brought an imposed attitude towards the societal issues concerning the lives of the Spanish people. Michael Richards states that: "In Spain, as elsewhere, the relationship between war and postwar is at the heart of collective memories of the twentieth century"(Par. 5). These memories are the outcome of the strict and rigid atmosphere the Spanish people had to endure during and after the Civil-War. People in Spain are not free to remember anything that does not serve the oppressive system of society. Richards goes on to assure that no freedom of expression was allowed to describe the post-war period: "Tracing the fate of postwar collective memories shows that remembering could be imposed through forms of repression more than freely expressed in the public sphere" (Par.42). The effects of the Civil-War in Spain reflected in an enormous change in the social structure and values. Nothing remained the same; every aspect of life and society had a

profound transformation not only in form, but also in substance. According to Richards, "The Spanish Civil War was not only a focus of memories but also a turning point in social terms . . . Part of this was the gradual destruction of old communities (and cultural inheritance, values and forms of identity). . ." (Par.26). These huge social changes are portrayed in the writing of the Spanish poet and playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca who depicts the spirit of the period through his works. In his book, Love, Desire and Identity in the Theatre of Federico Garcia Lorca (2007), Paul McDermid asserts Lorca's concern with the social and political issues of his

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country: "It is as pointless to deny the profound roots of Garcia Lorca's theatre in traditional and conventional drama as it is to ignore any socio-political dimension to his work" (176). In his

two plays, Yerma (1935) and The House of Bernarda Alba (1933), Lorca shows how the pre- and post-war plight in Spain reflects in shaping female identity as a social-construct built on the repression of women and reducing their sense of humanity. The patriarchal society, represented by the Catholic Church, defines the role of women. Women are supposed to stay in the house. Being females in such a male-dominated society, women have to stick to their domestic duties inside the house. The main social difference in The House of Bernarda Alba is a one that ". . . portrays a society in which men and women live separate lives, have separate domains, and carry out different activities" (Corbin). Bernarda makes sure that her daughters stick to their feminine activities:
BERNARDA. . . . you can all start embroidering your hope-chest linens. I have twenty bolts of lines in the chest from which to cut sheets and coverlets. Magdalena can embroider them. ... MAGDALENA. . . . I'd rather carry sacks to the mill. Anything except sit here day after day in this dark room. BERNARDA. That's what a woman is for. MAGDALENA. Cursed be all women. BERNARDA. . . . Needle and thread for women. Whiplash and mules for men. That's the way it has to be for people who have certain obligations. (Lorca 157-58)

Women are products of their own society. Their whole being and existence should conform to the norms defined and imposed by the system. In such a case, women become stereotypes defined by what society demands of them. The role of women in the typical Spanish household is outdated, because "the prevailing feminine model continued being the nineteenthcentury traditional type, angel of the home, based on three fundamental pillars: love, marriage and maternity"(Nieva-De La Paz). Yerma is one of the many women who succumbs to the dominant patriarchal regime as Janet Prez proclaims: ". . . ]Yerma[ is also a product of her

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patriarchal culture and paternalistic upbringing. . ."(Par.7). Yerma's husband, Juan, plays his role as a patriarch very well. He makes it clear that Yerma should stick to her role as a woman:
JUAN. If you need anything, tell me, and I'll bring it to you. You know well enough I don't like you to be going out. YERMA. I never go out. JUAN. You're better off here. YERMA. Yes. JUAN. The street's for people with nothing to do. YERMA ]darkly[. Of course. (101)

The repression practiced by the patriarchal society imprisons women and bereaves them from any sense of freedom. Oppression of women in the house comes with the patriarch and goes with his death. However, this is not the case in the house of Bernarda. With the death of her husband, Bernarda inherits the role of the patriarch. She suppresses everyone in the house, who all happen to be women. Bernarda's house, according to Christopher G. Busiel, is ". . . a selfcontained society which ]she[ rules with an iron hand" (Par. 3). The house becomes a prison in which the daughters should live obedient to their mother's wishes. Bernarda assures that the house must not have any air, ". . . not a breath of air will get in this house from the street. We'll act as if we'd sealed up doors and windows with bricks. That's what happened in my father's houseand in my grandfather's house . . ." (157). It is the prevalent patriarchal system which used and continues to be the chief domineering power in society. Then it is true that the majority of critics understand The House of Bernarda Alba ". . . as a conflict between repression and freedom" (Corbin). Bernarda's occupation of the male-role manifests in her aggressiveness, and in the resultant frustration of her daughters. She always appears carrying a cane which is a means to threaten, to beat, and to significantly assure her superiority to other women in the house.

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Bernarda's cane implies a phallic image which metaphorically represents a metamorphosis from femininity to masculinity. Oppressing her daughters, Bernarda goes as far as to locking them up in the house. She prohibits all kind of human interaction when she orders the women who came to her husband's funeral: "Go back to your houses and criticize everything you've seen! I hope it'll be many years before you pass under the archway of my door again" (157). The prison-like house becomes a place in which the daughters are detainees. Bernarda, who believes that houses are for women and streets are for men, does not approve of men coming to her house: "Let them get out the way they came in. I don't want them walking through here" (155). The daughters are not even allowed to look out through the door's key-hole. Bernarda grows furious when she knows that Angustias, the forty-year-old single woman, is peeking through the door:
BERNARDA ]furiously[. Angustias! Angustias! ANGUSTIAS ]entering[. Did you want something? BERNARDA. For whatand at whomwere you looking? ANGUSTIAS. Nobody. BERNARDA. Is it decent for a woman of your class to be running after a man the day of her father's funeral? Answer me! Whom were you looking at? ]Pause[ ANGUSTIAS. I . . . BERNARDA. Yes, you! ANGUSTIAS. Nobody. BERNARDA. Soft! Honeytongue! ]She strikes her.[ (159)

The increasing heat inside the house arouses an unbearable feeling of frustration and uneasiness in its inhabitants. Martirio proclaims that the heat makes it difficult for her to sleep at night: "Last night I couldn't sleep because of the heat"(169), as she later says: "The heat makes me feel ill" (177). The agitated atmosphere of the house is therefore an antagonist of any

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endeavor towards self-fulfillment or personal growth. Consequently, the heat in the house becomes a physical as well as a psychological impediment for the daughters in that " ]it[ serves as a symbol for the sexual frustration of the daughters. . ." (Busiel). The struggle between human desires and the social barriers that prevent their consummation is of vital importance for Lorca: "The conflict between natural instincts and the forces that try to suppress them seems to be one of ]Lorca's[ favorite themes . . ."(Watts). Bernarda's suppression, not only affects her daughters, but it also extends to touch upon the other women in her house. The female servants in Bernarda's house suffer from her lack of compassion. These women are, like the daughters, victims of the patriarchal society which limits their freedom and obliterates their identity. The hostility practiced by the matriarch shows in the words of Poncia, one of Bernarda's maids: "Tyrant over everyone around her. She's perfectly capable of sitting on your heart and watching you die for a whole year without turning off that cold little smile she wears on her wicked face"(152). The class discrimination towards servants culminates in Bernarda's belittling of them: ". . . The poor are like animals they seem to be made of different stuff" (155). The dictator of the house, Bernarda, tortures her eighty-year- old mother, Maria Josefa, by locking her up in a room and exposing her to all kinds of maltreatment. The servant describes how heartless and inhuman is the way in which Bernarda treats her mother: "Several times during the wake I had to cover her mouth with an empty sack because she wanted to shout out to you to give her dishwater to drink at least, and some dogmeat, which is what she says you feed her" (158). The frustration and ignorance of women are products of the oppressive patriarchal system. In Yerma, women seem to lack sexual freedom. They are mere sensual instruments produced for the pleasure of men. A woman like Maria cannot understand nor can she

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comprehend the way in which she got pregnant: "I don't know. But on our wedding night he kept telling me about it with his mouth pressed against my cheek; so that now it seems to me my child is a dove of fire he made slip in through my ear" (103). In such a society, women cannot enjoy their individual identity because they lack freedom of choice. Women do not have a say even in matters related to their private life. As for Yerma, love does not count, and it is not an important prerequisite for marriage. She marries a man whom her father chooses: "My husband's something else. My father gave him to me and I took him. With happiness. That's the plain truth"(109). Yerma, asserts Catherine Arturi Parilla, conforms to the Catholic orthodoxy, which maintains the superiority of the patriarch: ". . . Yerma is caught up in the social and religious codes which limit and oppress her . . ." (Par.13). Making decisions and taking actions are the responsibilities of the male figures. When Yerma asks the girl in the field why she got married, the girl answers: "Because they married me off. Thy get everyone married"(111). Yerma's adherence to the codes of society leads her to a state of painful hopelessness. Yerma is a construct of her society. She lives to the fulfillment of her husband's identity, and she suffers in her faithfulness to the vows of marriage. Yerma bears her cross which gets heavier everyday of her married life: "I live obedient to you, and what I suffer I keep close in my flesh. And every day that passes will be worse . . . I'll learn to bear my cross as best I can . . ." (124). Yerma's truthfulness appears through the denial of her desires. The consummation of her love for Victor is not possible. She believes that there is nothing which can change the situation imposed on her: "Some things never change. There are things shut up behind walls that can't change because nobody hears them" (130). In this same spirit of hopelessness, Yerma believes that her

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role as a woman is not something optional, but it is rather a must: "With all the work, the men have to be in the olive groves, and we must take them their food . . ." (110). Silencing women is a technique and an outcome of the repressive patriarchal society. Silence of women becomes part and parcel of the social criteria and religious principles of the Catholic Church in the Spain of Lorca. In The House of Bernarda Alba, silence is imposed on women by the harsh imperative gestures of Bernarda. She uses her cane to hush up anyone who would speak up loud:
GIRL ]to MAGDALENA[. Magdalena . . . BERNARDA ]to MAGDALENA, who is starting to cry [. Sh-h-h-h! ]She beats with her cane on the floor. All the women have gone out.[ (157)

Michael Richards assures that: "This silencing was inevitably felt by many as repression of a sense of identity in many respects" (Par.39). Indeed, without speaking and sharing their

experiences, women cannot fulfill the meaning of their life, nor can they arrive at an obvious definition of their identity. Maria Josefa, the voice of wisdom in the house, is not allowed to articulate her conceptions, demands, and aspirations. She is vehemently locked up and bereft of her right of expression. Bernarda would not hesitates to silent her own mother:
BERNARDA. Hush, hush, Mother! MARIA JOSEFA. No, noI won' t hush. I don't want to see these single women, longing for marriage, turning their hearts to dust; and I want to go to my home town. Bernarda, I want a man to get married to and be happy with! BERNARDA. Lock her up! MARIA JOSEFA. Let me go out, Bernarda! ]The SERVANT seizes MARIA JOSEFA.[ (168)

Men can speak up and raise their voices, while women are directed and instructed to keep silent. Martirio questions the roles of both men and women. She envies men for they can go out

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to the fields, work, sing and enjoy themselves. She expresses her weakness as a woman in that she fears men; and therefore she incorporates silence as a part of her female identity: ". . . I'd see them in the yard, yoking the oxen and lifting grain sacks, shouting and stamping . . . God has made me weak and ugly and has definitely put such things away from me" (162). Lack of communication, manifested in the silence of women, is the main cause of their frustration. The need to interact with other people and acquire knowledge is a real concern for Yerma. She feels incomplete in a society that conceals realities from women and drives them into losing their sense of self. Yerma's desperation increases when she fails to gain help from the old woman who chooses not to speak, and refuses to give her answers:
FIRST OLD WOMAN. . . . Dont make me say more. I don't want to talk with you any more. These are matters of honour. And I don't burn anyone's honour. You'll find out. But you certainly ought to be less innocent. YERMA. ]sadly[. Girls like me who grow up in the country have all doors closed to them. everything becomes half-words, gestures, because all these things, they say, must not be talked about. And you, too; you, too, stop talking and go off with the air of a doctor knowing everything, but keeping it from one who dies of thirst. FIRST OLD WOMAN. To any other calm women, I could speak; not to you, I'm an old woman and I know what I'm saying. YERMA. Then, God help me. (110)

Attempting to defy silence and arrive at a way of communication, the socially automatized people give way only to the voice of gossip. The dangers of this endeavor promise more depression, because it lacks a real and sincere human interaction. In Bernarda's house, Poncia is the one responsible for spying on other people and bringing their news to Bernarda: ". . . Nights of watching when she had a cough. Whole days peeking through a crack in the shutters to spy on the neighbours and carry her the tale. Life without secrets one from the other" (152).

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In Yerma, the laundresses represent the voice of gossip in society. They question the issues relating to the relationship between Yerma and Juan, and the actualities of their everyday life:
THIRD LAUNDRESS. And they are in the house now? FOURTH LAUNDRESS. Since yesterday. Her husband's going back to his fields afain now. FIRS LAUNDRESS. But can't anyone find out what happened? FIFTH LAUNDRESS. She spent the night before sitting on her doorstep in spite of the cold. FIRST LAUNDRESS. But why? FOURTH LAUNDRESS. It's hard work for her to stay in the house. (117)

The sudden silence of the voices of society becomes indicative of their discussing other people's affairs. Juan observes the hints of gossip when he perceives that people fall silent whenever he is present: ". . . When I come on a group, they fall silent; when I go to weigh the flour, they fall silent, and even at night, in the fields, when I awaken, it seems to me that the branches of the trees become silent too" (136). Thus, the human frustration arouses when the absence of truthful communication is prevalent among people. Breaking the silence, and going out of the house are ways of challenging the patriarchal system. Although women are supposed to be silent and stay locked up inside their home, some of them stand up against the suppression they are exposed to. Bernarda's youngest daughter, Adela, rejects the domination of the masculine society. Adela refuses to conform to the restrictions imposed by her mother in the house: ". . . I can't be locked up. I don't want my skin to look like yours. I dont want my skin's whiteness lost in these rooms. Tomorrow I'm going to put on my green dress and go walking in the streets. I want to go out!"(165). Adela understands the roles of men and women in society. She is aware of what society demands of women, and she refuses to accept that a woman should live obedient to her husband: ". . . All ]men[ care about is lands, yokes of oxen, and a submissive bitch who'll feed them" (162). According to Adela, it is not anybody else's business to decide for her what to do with her life: "I do what I can and what

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happens to suit me" (185). Adela celebrates the necessity of individuality for women living under the mercy of a male-dominated society. In Yerma, the voice of defiance in society is heard through a nineteen-year-old girl whom Yerma meets in the fields. This girl, like Adela, rejects the stereotypical image drawn for women to imitate. Her sense of individuality reveals that there is no reason for a woman to do what she does not feel like doing: "I'm nineteen and I don't like to cook or do washing. Well now I have to spend the whole day doing what I dont like to do. And all for what? . . ." (111). Yerma's growing desperation culminates in her breaking the silence. Fed up with her husband, Yerma articulates the fears, mischiefs, and aches she has to put up with every day of her marital life. The nights that she spends alone proceed to guarantee a deep feeling of sexual frustration that makes her suffer a bitter sensation of incompleteness: ". . . Women in their homes. When those homes aren't tombs. When the chairs break and the linen sheets wear out with use. But not here. Each night, when I go to bed, I find my bed newer, more shiningas if it had just been brought from the city" (124). The silence imposed by her husband Juan is no more an obstacle in the way of conveying her concerns openly. Yerma becomes indifferent to the voice of gossip in society. She longs for freedom and self-fulfilment. Opposing Juan's commands to be quiet, Yerma raises her voice to let everyone hears what she wants to say:
YERMA. I don't care. At least let my voice go free, now I'm entering the darkest part of the pit. ]She rises[ At least let this beautiful thing come out of my body and fill the air. ... JUAN. Silence. YERMA. That's it! That's it! Silence. Never fear. (137)

Both plays support the idea that motherhood, not marriage and sexual affairs, is the only way for a woman to fulfill her identity. The male-advocate society considers the marriage

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institution as a basic tool to appease the needs of men. Through marriage, a woman shifts from living under the repression of the first patriarch, the father, to live in the house dominated by the second patriarch, the husband. In The House of Bernarda Alba, the story of Adelaida, who lives with her beau, strikes Bernarda's daughters. They notice the difference in Adelaida's physical appearance as well as in her behavior before and after moving in with her lover:
AMELIA. Did you notice? Adelaida wasn't at the funeral. MARTIRIO. I know. Her sweetheart doesn't let her go out even to the front doorstep. Before, she was gay. Now, not even powder on her face. (161)

In a society that supports men's causes and ignores women's requirements, men can suppress their women and go free of blame. Poncia assures that women are invisible is such a society. Their demands are not heard nor are they taken seriously. Talking about marriage, Poncia expounds to the daughters her own understanding of marital life relying on her personal experience. She explains to them how her husband, a short while after their wedding, becomes indifferent to what his wife needs: ". . . two weeks after the wedding a man gives up the bed for the table, then the table for the tavern, and the woman who does not like it can just rot, weeping in a corner" (171). Motherhood is the only way that qualifies women to fulfill their identity in society. However, having children outside marriage is a great mischief for women. John Corbin argues that the people have to suppress their sexual desires lest they transgress the laws of the Church and weaken their moral values: "Sex may be a natural force, but in this culture it was one that people should, could, and usually did control. If sometimes they did not, that was a sign of human fallibility and irresponsibility, a shortcoming that became an aspect of the person's identity. It meant a loss of standing. . ." (Par.5). Librada's daughter, in The House of Bernarda Alba, commits adultery in an attempt to conceive a child. Nonetheless, she fails to conceal her

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shame even after she kills the child. Society condemns her misdeed and submits her to the sentence of death:
BERNARDA. What's happening? PONCIA. Librada's daughter, the unmarried one, had a child and no one knows whose it is! ADELA. A child? PONCIA. And to hide her shame she killed it and hid it under the rocks . . . Now they want to kill her. They're dragging her through the streetsand down the paths and across the olive groves the men are coming, shouting so the fields shake. BERNARDA. . . . let them all come and kill her! (185)

Silencing the voice of the old women's wisdom contributes in obliterating the female identity as a mother. These women hold the facts and realities of history. They are the ones who know very well the actualities and consequences of marriage. Maria Josefa realizes that the dim atmosphere of the house brings a profound feeling of frustration to Bernarda's daughters. She understands their need for fulfilling their identity by getting married and having babies: "It's true, everything's very dark. Just because I have white hair you think I cant have babies, but I can babies and babies and babies. This baby will have white hair, and I'll have this baby, and another . . ." (196). According to Maria Josefa, having children is the ultimate aim for women, because without procreation women will remain incomplete. Therefore, the truth in such a limiting society is that ". . . Babies are the reason for sex and marriage; motherhood is the fulfillment of women" (Corbin). Marriage for Yerma is only a social obligation that limits and suppresses women. Yerma denies her sexual desires, because the Church forbids the concept of sex for the sake of sensual pleasure as Catherine Arturi Parilla writes: "Yerma's thinking is rooted in a Catholic orthodoxy which claims sexual intercourse must be open to the transmission of life. . ."(Par.12). Yerma's marriage does not help to complete nor define her identity as a woman. She rather feels reduced

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in the eyes of her husband Juan: ". . . And I could see myself in his eyes. Yes, but it was to see myself reflected very small, very manageable, as if I were my own daughter" (109). The marriage institution runs for the benefit and grandeur of men, and it goes to underestimate, if not to blur, women's identity. Motherhood is Yerma's only chance to establish her identity in society. Under the oppressiveness of the patriarchal authority, Yerma has to endure a husband who seems unable to comprehend his wife's need for children. Juan fails to observe that "female identity is the cornerstone of Yerma's existence. Motherhood is the only thing that can define her; denial of it becomes a denial of self" (Parilla). Juan thinks that after the passage of five years of marriage, Yerma will give up her endeavors to be a mother. As a patriarch, he can practice his role in society with the blessings of the Church which stands faithfully to the side of men:
JUAN. Is it because you need something? Tell me. Answer me! YERMA. ]deliberately, looking fixedly at her husband [. Yes, I need something. JUAN. Always the same thin. It's more than five years. I've almost forgotten about it. YERMA. But I'm not you. Men get other things out of life: their cattle, trees, conversations, but women have only their children and the care of their children. (125)

Lorca proposes that "Yerma's longing for a child is a need to comprehend her other self or catch hold of her 'shadow' . . . Yerma has a sense of intergrity that is part of the desired dimension of depth identity which the 'child' represents" (McDermid 159). Yerma identifies herself with the baby she longs for. This child represents her other self: "I'll end up believing I'm my own son" (128). Yerma's desperation grows to the point that her feminine identity is totally contaminated. She believes that all women have to dedicate themselves to having babies, because if they do not, their blood will be impure and filthy: "We must suffer to see them grow. I sometimes think half our blood must go. But that's good, healthy, beautiful. Every woman has blood for four or five

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children, and when she doesn't have them it turns to poison . . . as it will in me" (104). The contamination of the patriarchal society causes Yerma to lose her femininity. At one point she says to Juan: "I wish I were a woman" (115). Yerma's womanhood is related to her motherhood, and with the loss of the later, she no more considers herself a woman. Yerma feels that she is turning into a man, because her barren condition seems to be perpetual: ". . . Many nights I go down to feed the oxenwhich I never did before, because no woman does itand when I pass through the darkness of the shed my footsteps sound to me like the footsteps of a man" (128). Both plays end with the death that promises a new beginning and a new hope. The poet and critic Pedro Salinas, a contemporary of Lorca, states: "The vision of life and man that gleams and shines forth in Lorca's work is founded on death. Lorca understands, feels life through death" (qtd. in Gonzlez-Gerth). It is true that despite the loss of life at the end of the two plays, there is a glimpse of hope. In The House of Bernarda Alba, Adela's death plants the seed of revolution in her submissive sisters. In the tragic death of Adela, Lorca seems to prove that ". . . sex and marriage should be means, not ends . . . sex was suppressed in favour of maternity. The 'perfect' woman was thus the 'virgin mother', projected culturally in the Virgin Mary" (Corbin). Likewise, the tragic end of Yerma avows a new start. By killing her husband, the patriarch, Yerma can have a rebirth of her identity. The cross she wears is now removed, and her resurrection promises a new life. All in all, Lorca's writings reveal a great deal of the social and political backgrounds in the Spain of his time. His two plays, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba, are manifestations of the realities of women's lives and human interaction. Lorca's concern for the oppression of women leads him to identify with them and write about their everyday problems, fears and troubles. The repression of the patriarchal society makes the lives of women difficult. Female

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identity is defined only through women's subservience to men. Marriage does not guarantee to fulfill the need of women for being mothers. It rather imprisons them inside a house that is ruled by the close-minded husband. The Catholic Church takes the upper hand in reducing women's sense of humanity by forbidding them from enjoying their natural desires, and killing them brutally for committing adultery. Eventually, the accomplishment of feminine identity in such a male-centered society does not seem to be credible.

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Works Cited
Busiel, Christopher G. "An overview of The House of Bernarda Alba." Drama for Students. Detroit: Gale. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 June 2011. Corbin, John. "Lorca's 'Casa'." The Modern Language Review 95.3 (2000): 713. Literature Resource Center. Web. 17 June 2011. Gonzlez-Gerth, Miguel. "The Tragic Symbolism of Federico Garca Lorca." The Texas Quarterly 13.2 (Summer 1970): 56-63. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 49. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 June 2011. Lorca, Federico Garcia. Three Tragedies: Blood Wedding/Yerma/The House Of Bernarda Alba. Trans. James Graham-Lujan and Richard L. O'Connell. Introduction by Francisco Garcia Lorca. Middlesex: Penguin, 1961. Print. McDermid, Paul. Love, Desire and Identity in the Theatre of Federico Garcia Lorca. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer-Tamesis, 2007. Google book search. Web. 3 June 2011. Nieva-De La Paz, Pilar. "Identidad femenina, maternidad y moral social: Yerma (1935), de Federico Garca Lorca." Anales de la Literatura Espaola Contempornea 33.2 (2008): 155/373+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 Mar. 2011. Parilla, Catherine Arturi. "A Reading of Yerma." A Theory for Reading Dramatic Texts: Selected Plays. New York: Peter Lang, 1995. 105-134. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 181. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 Mar. 2011. Prez, Janet. "Yerma: Overview." Reference Guide to World Literature. Ed. Lesley Henderson. 2nd ed. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 Mar. 2011. Richards, Michael. "From war culture to Civil society: Francoism, social change and memories of the Spanish Civil War *." History and Memory: Studies in Representation of the Past (2002): 93+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 17 June 2011. Watts, Richard, Jr. "The Grim House of Bernarda Alba." the New York Post (8 Jan. 1951). Rpt. in Drama for Students. Ed. David M. Galens. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 June 2011.