Religion and Superstition in Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a fiction, magic realism novella written by Gabriel Marquez and published in 1981. It follows the events, though not in chronological order, of the murder of Santiago Nasar, by the Vicario twin brothers (Pablo and Pedro). He is killed because of the assumed deflowering of their sister, Angela Vicario, who was married to Bayardo San Roman, but was returned to her family the night of the wedding for her prior deflowering. It is made aware to us readers that almost the whole town knows what is going to occur, but Santiago, and why no one tells him we may never know.

Many themes are present throughout this book, but two that are made very apparent are that of Religion and Superstition.

There is first evidence of superstition in the first few pages with Santiago’s mother having a “well-earned reputation as an accurate interpreter of other people’s dreams, providing they were told before eating” (pg.

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4). There was no proof that her interpretations were correct, but the town had formulated this belief that she was an interpreter of dreams - and a good one - so they stuck with it and it became a part of the town. This shows the townspeople’s sheer trust in something there is no proof of - also called superstition - for no other reason than interpreting dreams. If they were to believe this, then what else would they believe just because someone told them it was true? Not only was there no proof it was correct, but it was also faulty and did not work in high pressure situations.

“She hadn't noticed and ominous augury” in Santiago's dream the night before his death. If she was supposed to be the best shouldn't she be able to interpret some danger in her own son’s future?

There is also early evidence of Religion, namely Christianity, being of importance to the townspeople. The story starts off with the day that Santiago is killed. Santiago was “up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on” (pg. 3). This shows that the bishop was a man of great significance to Santiago because he was up early preparing himself and other things for his arrival because he wanted everything to be in order for him. Part of Santiago’s preparations were dressing himself, in which he did with a shirt and pants of “white linen…just like the ones he’d put on the day before for the wedding” (pg. 5). Weddings are special occasions and people dress their very best for them, so the fact that Santiago is dressing the same for the bishop as he did for the wedding shows the importance of the bishop to him.

Bayardo San Roman, the wealthy bachelor that is new to the town, has also caused arise in some superstitions. There is an idea that Bayardo was marrying Angela because of how deeply he loves her and those feelings are not reciprocated by her, but she is almost forced into marrying him because he “had bewitched the family with his charm” (pg.34). He seems more invested into getting the girl because he needs a wife and Angela is a beautiful woman, but Angela does not love him back and does not want to marry his and if forced to hide her secret of not being a virgin so she can marry him and become wealthy and reek all of the benefits. Angela had no say in this marriage, but was forced into it under the superstition that her family will finally not be impoverished. This shows the town's values that even though you might not want to do something, you should if there is any chance that a greater good will come from it - even when there is no proof of it.

A greatly significant part of the story, the divorce between Angela and Bayardo is due to religious reasons. Bayardo divorces her for her lack of virginity, and premarital sex is seen as wrong in the eyes of the Church, thus adding to the religious theme. Bayardo and the town are in awe to the “fact that Angela dared put on the veil and the orange blossoms without being a virgin” (pg. 41) because that seems ludicrous for her to have done that because of the religious beliefs of not only her family, but the whole town she grew up as a part of.

There are also many uses of religious words such as “saint”, “nun”, “angel”, and more, which describes the way people were characterized in the town. They were compared to the good and bad people in the eyes of the Church.

Because of the magic realism this book is written with, there are many different themes to uncover and there are different interpretations of signs and symbols, and even the themes themselves. There are many complex levels to these novella, and it takes time to understand them and it can, at times, be challenging. We may never really know who, or if anyone, deflowered Angela, and caused the whole mess to happen, but that almost makes it better - it's up to you to create your ending with what you think what happened.