In the novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Marquez critiques the 1950s Colombian society of Sucre despite the fact that he was not actually present during the events that are described throughout. Within the entire text Marquez subtly uses the characterization of different individuals to comment on the varying problems present in society during the time period. Marquez defines the concepts of “machismo” and “marianismo” through the interactions and embellishments of the characters devised by Marquez. Marianismo is used to develop Angela Vicario as she is dishonored for allowing herself to be deflowered before marriage; Machismo dominates the story as two brothers (Pablo and Pedro Vicario) must restore their sister’s/family 's honor …show more content…
Marianismo comes into play as it determines the roles of women and allows for the deflowering of Angela to play such a vital role in the events of Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Pura del Carmen Vicario is known to have frequently said "Any man will be happy with them because they 've been raised to suffer.” in reference to her daughters who in this sense were raised in such a way as to be the perfect wives and be instilled with the aspects of Marianismo (representation of feminine purity and morality as determined by the Vatican) despite what they may personally wish to do with themselves as individuals. Angela, however defies this idea initially by making no efforts to hide her virginity despite the assistance of her friends as they “had instructed her to get her husband drunk… turn out the light… give herself a drastic douche of alum water to fake virginity… stain the sheet with Mercurochrome”(53) only to realize the drastic consequences it would hold as she claimed her mother began “beating [her]... with such rage that [she] thought [her mother] was going to kill [her]” before demanding that she “tell us who it was” (28) in reference to herself and Angela’s brothers as she knew the next steps that must be taken to enforce the codes of honor on the