Honor In Chronicle Of A Death Foretold

In the world of social media, a popular quote is “An honorable man restores the dignity of others.” This quote shows how in society, once a person loses something so vital to their well being--their honor--they need an honorable man to help restore it. This is the case in Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel García Marquez, and characters do anything to protect their honor. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, characters experience problems with honor as wealth, with honor as social status, and with honor as gender. First, characters have to deal with honor as a sign of wealth. Bayardo uses his wealth to act honorably and tries to get Angela the widower Xius’ house, which she wants; he is not concerned about a price, and just wants the

First, Angela’s parents want her to marry wealthy Bayardo, and they say, “a family dignified by modest means had no right to disdain that prize of destiny” (34). Although Angela does not love Bayardo, her parents make her marry him for his high, honorable social class. The honor Bayardo has from being in the upper social class is higher than Angela’s poor family could ever give her and would help the family out a significant amount. Also, social status creates a separation in the society. The working class, specifically Clotilde Armenta’s husband, says, “Those two [Pablo and Pedro Vicario] aren’t about to kill anybody, much less someone rich” because they doubt that poor men will murder a wealthy member of the upper class (55). Here, the social classes are separating them, and the Armentas believe Santiago is too honorable to be killed by two members of the lower class. Generally, the upper class in their society, like Santiago, is separated from those of the lower class, like Angela, Pablo, and Pedro by their

Angela is not a virgin when she gets married and her mother beats her “with such rage” that she thought “she was going to kill” her (46). Angela is so harshly punished for having premarital sex because her honor is ruined, but men can have sex with whomever whenever they want without any judgment or destroying of their honor. Here, a woman’s honor is determined by her virginity, while men can go about as they please and still be considered honorable. Also, men’s’ honor is affected by their expectations to defend the women in their lives. For example, “the Vicario brothers had told their plans to more than a dozen people” about killing Santiago in hopes of someone stopping them, because it is not in their character to murder a man. However, because society expects men to act honorably and defend their loved ones, the Vicario brothers have no choice but to go against their character and defend Angela’s honor. At one point Pablo’s fiancé, Prudencia even mentioned that she would not have married him if they had not gone and killed Santiago on behalf of Angela and her honor. This shows how far men are expected to go to defend a loved one’s honor. Overall, the gender of the character seriously affects their honor and what is expected of them to be considered an honorable person among society. Overall, characters in Chronicle of a Death Foretold are strongly impacted by honor.