Irony In Chronicle Of A Death Foretold

Gabriel Garcia Marquez effectively incorporates irony in the novel “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” with the objective to depict hypocritical values and views on the Latin Culture. Gabriel Marquez uses this technique to portray his views on; the role of women, the honour killing actions taken by the Vicario twins, the society in Latin America, the role of Santiago 's mother and the role of the Church. Irony is used to demonstrates the views presented by Gabriel Marquez on the role of women. Gabriel provides the reader with his views on the role of women by demonstrating the irony of the role of virginity in valuing a woman; in this town and in Latin America virginity is the women honour. Before the wedding Angela´s friend 's advice

When Santiago Nasar dies, his death had to be determined. In the Catholic religion, it is forbidden to do anything with the deceased. Nevertheless, Father Amador results on performing the autopsy of Santiago. Such autopsy can be interpreted as a “second killing”, taking away Santiago 's honour and his identity of a rich man; where Santiago 's “lady-killer face that death had preserved ended up having lost its identity”(Marquez 76), unrecognisable inside a luxurious coffin. Irony plays the role on criticising the church, it questions religion and illustrates the hypocritical values and role of priests in Latin American society. What was also ironical was the fact that the priest did not know what he was doing, he threw the intestine into “the garbage pail”( Marquez 76) after giving them “ an angry blessing”(Marquez 76). The fact that Father Amador firstly volunteers to perform the autopsy, something he is not allowed to do and secondly does not know what he is doing, demonstrates the presence of irony, a direct example which demonstrates the presence of irony is when Dr Dionisio Iguarán states that “Only a priest could be so dumb”( Marquez 76). Gabriel Garcia Marquez attempts to use irony in the church when the Vicario twins say “We killed him openly, but we 're innocent”( Marquez 32) and the church responds by forgiving them due to the fact that according to the church, they are innocent “before God”(Marquez 32). The irony of religion forgiving the Vicario twins after committing this serious crime positions the church in a vulnerable spot where the authoritarian and moral values of the church are