The House of Bernarda Alba
What are the motifs in The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca?
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Wealth and poverty are recurring ideas. Angustias suffers because she knows Pepe is only marrying her for her money, that even when they are together his thoughts are far from her. Land is the source of wealth throughout the three plays of the trilogy, and wealth creates stature. When Bernarda judges the men of the area as unfitfor her daughters, she does so not on their individual merits, but because as shepherds and laborers they are all beneath her economic ideal. In such circumstances, wealth controls fate. Not only does Pepe become engaged to Angustias because of it, but the play is rich with other symbolic battles over money. Prudencia's family, for example, is torn apart by a struggle over money: a disputed inheritance.