In what ways does García Márquez imply criticism of the Catholic Church in Chronicle of a Death Foretold?

The concept of honour presents a peculiar scenario of moral relativism, melding the ubiquitous nature of moral law with the idiosyncratic interpretations of individuals, which inherently fosters a degree of ambiguity across different contexts. The novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez explores the notion of honour multidimensionally, persistently interweaving an investigative style and biblical allegory, which ultimately allows him to adopt a sociocritical stance towards the Catholic Church. García Márquez grounds his social criticism in the reoccurring motif of hypocrisy, capitalising on magical realism to challenge accepted realities in an implicit manner. Through the symbolic characterisation of the bishop, recurrent use of biblical allusions and the depiction of Santiago Nasar’s pungent smell as a symbol of guilt, García Márquez implies multi-faceted criticism of the Catholic Church.

García Márquez employs the use of outer dialogue to characterise the bishop, which unveils an

antithetical conflict between his conduct and Christian morality. At his arrival, ‘the bishop began to make the sign of the cross in the air opposite the crowd on the pier, and he kept on doing it mechanically afterwards, without malice or inspiration’ (p.16), which reflects blatant disinterest in the people he was appointed to serve. The juxtaposition of ‘inspiration’ and ‘malice’ in negation highlights the bishop’s lack of fervour and emotion through contrast, which is tautologically reinforced by the adverb ‘mechanically’, underlining the bishop’s superficial and somewhat constrained conduct. His evidently apathetic attitude towards the community stands in sharp contradiction to his doctrinal duties and responsibilities as an ordained minister, elucidating hypocrisy in the demeanour of high-ranking church officials. This idea is further emphasized by the bishop’s failure to acknowledge and appreciate the great lengths gone to by the town to prepare for his arrival. The unmarked dialogue between the first-person narrator and Plácida Linero reveals that ‘he [the bishop] won’t even get off the boat [...]. He’ll give an obligatory blessing, as always, and go back the way he came. He hates this town.’ (p.6), exemplifying the author’s use of anaphora to structurally depict the bishop’s visit as a procedure rather than a festivity, which accentuates the bishop’s emotional detachment from the townspeople. The phrase ‘obligatory blessing’ implies a sense of compulsion, which highlights his disinterest and lack of personal engagement, underlining a clear disconnect between the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and believers. As an overseer of a diocese, the bishop should lead by example, following the principles enshrined in the Bible with meticulous care, yet his dispassionate conduct and indifferent attitude towards the community underlines a clear breach of biblical teachings, namely the love for one another. The fact that the bishop doesn’t descend from the platform on his boat to greet the townspeople reflects a patronizing attitude, as he physically sets himself above the other believers, which reinforces the divide between the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and the commoners. Such a self-imposed sense of superiority is condemned in the Christian faith, as the Bible preaches that everyone is equal before God, which shows that the core doctrinal values don’t lie close to the bishop’s heart. Through the characterization of the bishop, Márquez thus implies criticism of the Catholic Church, reprimanding the hypocritical conduct of its high-ranking figures and the superficiality of Catholic doctrine.

This idea is further buttressed by García Márquez’s use of biblical allusions to imply the innocence of Santiago Nasar, hence underscoring the hypocritical behaviour of the ostensibly pious townspeople through irony. Throughout his novel, García Márquez employs a non-discursive and journalistic style, utilizing succinct descriptions to facilitate an allegorical depiction of Santiago Nasar and his death. In the opening chapter, the first-person narrator recalls Santiago Nasar wearing ‘white linen that had been washed in plain water’ (p.5), which draws a symbolic parallel between him and Christ, depicting Santiago Nasar as a sacrificial lamb for the sins of his community. The adjectives ‘white’ and ‘plain’ symbolise purity and moreover embody the biblical principle of integrity, implying that Santiago Nasar, like Jesus Christ, was innocent on the day of his death, which foregrounds the vicarious nature of his demise. This reoccurring motif is further accentuated through the use of a spiral narrative structure, allowing for intricate details to be emphasized, such as the fact that Santiago Nasar is impaled on a wooden door and suffers a ‘deep stab in the right hand’ (p.76), which engenders an allegorical depiction of him as the crucified Christ. García Márquez draws these biblical parallels to depict the flagrant breach of Christian teachings by the town, ironically juxtaposing Santiago Nasar’s brutal murder with biblical narrative to imply the superficiality of Catholic doctrine. The Vicario brothers asseverate that they ‘killed him [Santiago Nasar] openly’ (49), yet contend that they are innocent ‘before God and before men’, as ‘it was a matter of honour’, showing complete ignorance of intrinsic Christian principles. The Bible preaches that life is a sacred gift, which ought to be sanctified and perpetually honoured as the greatest good by humanity, yet the fact that the Vicario brothers are blinded by their idealistic perception of honour and feel more inclined to adhere to a social code than the principles of Catholicism is a blatant attest of a dearth of profound faith. Despite the grotesquely brutal description of ‘Pablo Vicario [giving] him [Santiago Nasar] a horizontal slash on the stomach and all his intestines [exploding] out’ (p.121), the townspeople and even Father Amador appear accepting of the Vicario brothers’ justification, whereby García Márquez underscores the superficiality of Catholic belief; the fact that the Vicario brothers break multiple of the Ten Commandments to restore the honour of their family and use biblical values to rationalize the brutal murder emphasizes that the piousness of the town is merely an outer façade. As true Christians, the townspeople would have endeavoured to follow the Catholic doctrine of love and altruism by warning Santiago Nasar and the Vicario brothers would have refrained from taking matters into their own hands, astutely leaving all judgement and punishment to God alone. Through the use of biblical allusions and parallels, García Márquez thus emphasizes the fundamental disconnect between the conduct of the ostensibly pious townspeople and cardinal Christian principles, criticising the lacking depth of Catholic doctrine.

García Márquez furthermore depicts the pervasion of Santiago Nasar’s illusory scent as a symbol of communal guilt to accentuate the blatantly unregenerate attitude of the townspeople through juxtaposition, thus tacitly criticising the disproportionate importance placed on church pomp and outward appearance by the Catholic Church. The first-person narrator recounts that ‘everything continued smelling of Santiago Nasar that day’ (p.78) and moreover recalls Pedro Vicario mentioning that ‘no matter how much [he] scrubbed with soap and rags [he] couldn’t get rid of the smell’ (p.79), which metaphorically underscores the ubiquitous shadow of guilt that tenaciously looms over the town, following the murder of Santiago Nasar. The diction choice ‘scrubbed’ suggests an act of vigour and thus figuratively limns the Vicario brothers’ desperation of vindicating themselves of the moral culpability, yet instead of turning to Christ and his atoning sacrifice, as envisaged in Catholic doctrine, Pedro Vicario ‘[convinces] his brother that they [have] nothing to repent’ for. This juxtaposition of antithetical ideas fosters an ironic undertone, allowing García Márquez to criticise the void created by the prioritisation of superficialities by the Catholic Church, as evident in the town’s reliance on superstition and the supernatural, as opposed to faith. Despite Colonel Làzaro Aponte being apprised of the Vicario brothers’ grievous intentions by Officer Leandro Pornoy, he ‘[gets] dressed calmly, [ties] his bow several times until he [has] it perfect, and around his neck he [hangs] the scapular of the Congregation of Mary, to receive the bishop’ (p.56), which epitomises his faithless betrayal of Santiago Nasar to ironically preserve an outwardly illusion of sanctimony and piousness. Through the use of the diction choice ‘calmly’, García Márquez depicts Colonel Aponte as seemingly unaffected by Santiago Nasar’s impending fate, as he appears to resume his preparatory routine without skipping a beat. The fact that Colonel Aponte’s preparation to greet the bishop is solely concerned with his outward appearance underlines the lack of importance placed on profound belief, which is further accentuated by the casual undertone of the diction choice ‘hang’, thus highlighting that the scapular of the Congregation of Mary merely serves a decorative purpose in the eyes of Colonel Aponte. Through the use of antithetic juxtaposition, García Márquez thus foregrounds the townspeople’s divergence from Catholic doctrine to accentuate and criticise the religious void resulting from the prioritisation of outwardly superficialities over true Christian belief by the Catholic Church.

Although García Márquez conveys his criticism of the Catholic Church implicitly throughout, his animadversions shape the figurative meaning of the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold, prompting the audience to reflect on the notions they are presented with. García Márquez’s criticism is multi- facetted in nature and transcends the pages of the novel by addressing multiple aspects of Catholic Church, grounded in biblical allusions.

Word count: 1480

Bibliography

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Penguin Books: London, United Kingdom; 2014.