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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 nineteenth-

century 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 Pérez 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 self-

contained 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

house—and 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 what—and at whom—were 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, no—I 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. . . . Don’t 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 don’t 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 don’t 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 shining—as 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 streets—and 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 can’t 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

Koudmani 14

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 oxen—which I never did before, because no woman does it—and 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 González-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

Koudmani 15

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.

Koudmani 16

Works Cited

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Corbin, John. "Lorca's 'Casa'." The Modern Language Review 95.3 (2000): 713. Literature Resource Center. Web. 17 June 2011.

González-Gerth, Miguel. "The Tragic Symbolism of Federico García 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 García Lorca." Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea 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.

Pérez, 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.