The 'Revenge' theme in "Chronicle of a Death Foretold"

The Importance of the 'Revenge' theme in the society in "Chronicle of a Death Foretold"

'Revenge' is everywhere in the book!!

I started reading a book called the "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's the first time I'm reading a book by this author. Well, I didn't read it by choice but I had to, because it was part of my syllabus in school. It was the first book I did in the 11th grade and I am glad I actually found it quite spellbinding. There were many interesting things which struck my mind as I read this. Every element stood out in this book and are interlinked to make the story the way it is; but the manifest themes appealed me most. Each character had a purpose in the story and has been incorporated in the book quite; each character is uniquely placed in the apt part of the book.

The fact that I like this book is because there so many significant themes which change the course of the story every now like the ups and downs on roller coaster rides. If there weren't so many gripping themes, then the book wouldn't even be half as interesting as it is now. And there is an element of mystery throughout the book which keeps the reader thinking about what is going to happen next or what type of change there would be to the story; this keeps the reader completely engrossed into the story. 

The main theme of the book is the revenge. The whole story is linked to this theme. REVENGE IS EVERYWHERE IN THIS BOOK! It's as if revenge is the reason why the story began. If it wasn't for revenge, Santiago Nasar wouldn't have been killed. If Santiago wasn't killed, the brothers wouldn't have gone to jail. If the brothers wouldn't have gone to jail, the Vicario family wouldn't have shifted out of the town. If all this didn't happen, the story wouldn't have gone on! So all this was because of a dull-witted term known as REVENGE! How unbelievable?! But ironically that is the main theme in this book. The theme revenge sets the story rolling here.

Out of the blue, someday I started thinking about how revenge would build the story. First of all, revenge comes in because Angela Vicario alleges that Santiago Nasar had "stolen" her virginity. As a result of that horrendous lie, she was sent back to her parents’ house by her husband, Bayardo San Roman. This got the Vicario family into disgrace and fired up every member of the family to take REVENGE! That’s how this whole story rolls ahead.

While the Vicario brothers claim that the murder was imperative to restore the honour to their family, many others opposed this and said that it was a cruel act of revenge. Incidentally, the court agreed with the brothers too. The brother were so cruel that the twins were covered in Santiago's blood when they stabbed him with vengeance.

After this revenge, the Vicario twins were afraid of another revenge which would be taken on them. This fear was because they thought the Arab community would try to get their revenge on them for the death of Santiago Nasar.

Soon the brothers were sent to jail. When the brothers are in jail, Santiago takes a revenge of sorts. He comes and disturbs the twins in their dreams. This makes the twins very uncomfortable. They are not at all comfortable in jail. I really think Santiago wants to torture them in the name of revenge (yet another instance of revenge). And soon Pablo becomes very ill in jail. He remains sick for quite a few days that Pedro is convinced that the Arabs have taken their revenge. 

Another thing which got me thinking was the fact that so many people knew about the Vicario brothers’ plan but everyone failed to bring this to Santiago's notice. I have a feeling that this could be some sort of revenge, again, on Santiago as well. I doubt this is true as it isn't specifically mentioned in the book, but I just keep wondering if this could be one of the unexpectedly true possibilities. This revenge could have also been because he was very disobedient and disrespectful towards the women in the society. He even tried to indicate his interest in having an act of love with his servant’s daughter, Divina Flor, the morning he got killed. Since his behavior was like that towards women, there is a possibility that this is one reason why people did not tell Santiago. There is just revenge everywhere. Even if the society doesn't tell Santiago, it’s quite understandable. Strangely, his mother hadn't told him about it too! Was there some revenge behind that as well? But one person who tried to help Santiago, without his notice, was the owner of the milk shop; but why wouldn't she tell him directly instead of failing miserably in her plan to get the Vicario twins drunk?

Bayardo San Roman didn't read Angela Vicario's letter for 17 years! “He was carrying a suitcase with clothing in order to stay and another just like it with almost two thousand letters that she had written him. They were arranged by date in bundles ties with colored ribbons, and they were all unopened.” Now that's a long time. So I think this is some kind of revenge taken by Bayardo on his wife. He probably wanted to make Angela wait for as long as he could stay away from her for that lie back when they got married.

This probably sums up the entire series of revenge in this book. Now wasn't that gripping?