Themes

Question 1

The Pagan Elements

Answer 1

• Appear frequently in the play and are known to represent the 4 seasons of the year OR the 4 human temperaments.
• Yerma frequently uses them but cannot understand them/ relate to them = irony.

Question 2

Earth

Answer 2

• Connected with the character of Yerma.
• The element that relates to fertility and nurturing.
• Noted when Yerma talks about how she goes outside just to feel her bare feet on the ground.
• Could also be used to refer to Juan, in how he fertilises the earth in his role as a farmer.
• Juan can fertilise everything except Yerma.

Question 3

Water

Answer 3

• Most connected to the character of Victor.
• Connotes virility and sexual abundance, and something that can make someone fertile e.g. make Yerma fertile.
• Victor sings “like a stream of water filling your mouth”.
• Juan lacks this the most -> he only has a limited supply of water, and that goes to irrigate his fields instead of Yerma, or quenching her thirst for a child via sex.
• Yerma “would like to see [Juan] going to swim in the river” i.e. wishes that he was more fertile.

Question 4

Fire

Answer 4

• Seen as a male element.
• Connotes passion, or lack of in Yerma’s case.
• Juan is significantly lacking in fire due to how he is “white, as if you’ve never been in the Sun” i.e. the Sun’s fiery rays have not touched him.
• Victor’s inner fire and passion is seen: he has “a bit of sunburn”.
• Yerma has inner fire; she “longs to be a mountain of fire”, in her fiery desire for a child, which eventually manifests itself in her fiery frustration when she kills Juan.

Question 5

Air

Answer 5

• Seen as a male element with its association as the ‘breath of life’.
• Connotes movement, and within which sexual embraces take place.
• Linked with Victor and his strong masculinity which permeates the air -> when he leaves, Yerma deeply inhales the air he was just breathing as if to inhale his virility.

Question 6

The Role of Nature

Answer 6

Yerma is surrounded by nature, and the cycle of growth and reproduction.
a) by other women e.g. Maria having children.
b) the rural and agricultural society she lives in, where life e.g. crops and baby animals is always around.
Thus, she constantly feels the pressure to reproduce.
Use of flowers illustrates fertility and growth.

Question 7

Fertility and the Unborn Child

Answer 7

• All characters are firmly placed positively or negatively in a cycle of fertility and fecundity.
• Lorca’s was aware that he would never have a child of his own, adding a poignant layer to the theme.

Question 8

Isolation

Answer 8

• Yerma experiences increasing isolation.
• Juan pressures her to stay indoors.
• Victor leaves abruptly in Act 2.

Question 9

Passion

Answer 9

• Yerma’s act of killing Juan in Act 3 is the most significant act of passion in the play.

Question 10

Honour

Answer 10

• Honour is introduced as the seemingly insurmountable obstacle to Yerma’s desire.
• Yerma’s decision to uphold honour establishes her as a tragic heroine.
• Aligns with Aristotle’s concept of a tragic hero suffering with honour.
• The tragedy in Yerma’s story is rooted in the conflict between her honour and unfulfilled desires.

Question 11

Marriage

Answer 11

• Yerma vividly remembers and calculates the days she has been waiting for a child since the first day of her marriage.
• Accepts an arranged marriage obediently, hoping to find her anticipated fulfilment in becoming a mother (which is cruelly denied to Yerma)
• Society mocks her for a perceived failing, and she is incapable of correcting it by any means.
• Men dominate with unquestioned authority.
• Societal expectations - women’s sole duty is to procreate.
• Adultery is considered a crime for women.