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Theme Of Honour Is Love By Márquez

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If one were to pinpoint one overriding theme of the narrative, it would be the irony of coincidences. The motive and perpetrator of the real murder is known to all, and witnessed by many. The Vicario Brothers murder Santiago Nasar, to avenge the spoilt honour of their sister Angelica, whose virginity he has allegedly deflowered. The real enquiry is about how the murder could happen despite everyone knowing about it, and the numerous ways it could have been prevented. By some series of coincidental events, the only one who is not warned about the murder of Santiago Nasar, is Santiago Nasar himself. It is this overlapping of coincidences and exceptions, which can be said to be subject of Márquez’ chronicle.

The narrator calls them …show more content…

Honour is love’, says the narrator’s mother (Márquez). Márquez uses this to draw the reader’s attention to the societal codes and cultural constructs under which the crime occurs. The Vicario brothers are bound by codes of honour, to avenge their sister. As brothers of the victim, they must avenge the insult to honour. This code of honour is essentially masculine and patriarchal. It projects the women as properties of husbands and fathers, which must be guarded by the brothers. This inherently misogynistic culture makes ‘affairs of honour, sacred monopolies’. By treating it as a monopoly, the community turns a blind eye on itself. If the
Vicario brothers are mere tools for the community to carry out a sentence decided by the code of honour, then it is the society which bears the burden of guilt.

Márquez uses the journalistic and investigative style to build the case and slowly reveal facets of the crime, while at the same time makes a subtle commentary on the society as a cultural unit that influences individual behavior and subsequently, even an individual’s fate. He uncovers the theme of moral obligations as set by societal notions of honour, and uses this as the ball that sets the chain of events in motion, thus making society the actual ‘murderer’ of Santiago

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