Chronicles Of A Death Foretold By Gabriel Marquez

In Chronicles of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Marquez illustrates an elaborate story incorporating the invaluable theme of theatricality. The excessive pride expressed by the males in the Colombian society indicates their wish to stand out and be prominent. The dramatic actions taken by men to preserve their honor dramatically involves the whole community in their affairs. As well as the male bravado put on in the society, where the theatrical actions garners attention from the community. The theatricality of the men is shown often in everyday Colombian society, so they could gain significance within the community due to the cultural standards.
The excessive pride and actions taken to initiate and prove their worth to society implied the value
The cane with a national shield is provocative to the community because the town was filled with rebellious inhabitants. This in turn shows the over the top actions through accessories putting attention onto General San Petronio. Dressed to impress, General Petronio San Roman took care in his image even wearing “high-laced cordovan shoes” (37), where this extravagant choice of words highlights his wealth and superiority illustrated through his monetary assets. This exaggerated care in General San Petronio’s image garners the society’s attention where then he is noted for his wealth. The superiority of certain characters is noted, illustrated when the “didn’t get off his boat” (17), which shows a pretentious diction where bishop is considered of higher status. The bishop not stepping of his boat signified the superiority that the bishop abused making him untouchable as royalty flaunting his superiority to others. This superfluous pride is the reason that the people were only able to interact with the bishop from afar, as he saw himself as a superior entity to the townspeople. Bayardo
When talking about the amount of money spent, usually one would talk about this matter cautiously, but “Bayardo … took it very graciously” (48), the pretentious tone shows the pride and honor that Bayardo San Roman took in talking about spending of money. The topic of money was sensitive to the other characters, but Bayardo San Roman talked about his monetary spending habits without any qualms, displaying his confidence and his pride in his money which in a sense could be interpreted as the origin of his honor. Also Pura Vicario when hearing the sound of knocking on the door, had a feeling of a “strange touch of bad news”, a woeful foreshadowing of the bad news pertaining to the honor of Bayardo San Roman. Since honor was such a seriously taken aspect of Colombian society, the daily lives of the people revolved around the concept of honor which in this case was the retainment of the virginity of the women. Father Amador also conducts an autopsy on Santiago Nasar’s body using “craftsmen's tools” (74), showing the crude word choice which trashes the honor of Santiago Nasar treating his body like trash. The craftsmen’s tools as well as the mayor's orders to conduct an autopsy was an extreme action defiling the honor of Santiago’s dead body. The Vicario brothers when committing an immoral act protests saying, “We killed him … we’re innocent” (55), showing