The Colombian society of the 1950s had imposed many different gender roles on the men and women who inhabited it, and the characters in the story “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” do not suffer a different destiny. Men were expected to be macho men - to care for the family and take care of its dignity and honor - while women were expected to be of a meek and submissive nature - to be perfect wives, caregivers and to maintain the family. Marquez explores these roles in his story through the use of the various characters employed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Vicario family is used many times as an example to explore the various gender roles imposed on men and women. A great example of this would be the twins: Pablo and Pedro. The twins were expected to defend the family's honor after Angela was returned because she was supposedly not a virgin, and once she named her perpetrator, Santiago Nasar, everyone expected the twins to kill him to restore honor to the family. Even though the twins were raised in the same culture and raised in the same way, they approached the whole affair differently, showing the different thoughts the community may have had on the whole scenario: Pedro Vicario, "the strongest of the brothers" , almost refuses to carry out the plan to kill Santiago, and the twins even have the first set of knives taken away by the mayor (which in Pedro's eyes was enough of a signal not to carry out the plan (murder) however Pablo steps forward and convinces his brother to agree to the plan, almost dragging him forward to carry it out. They even revealed their plan to almost 22 people, but no one really stopped them, thus demonstrating how everyone, while obviously refuting the murder, expected it. the twins brought honor back to the Vicario family. This internal struggle brings out another role imposed on men - machismo expected men to be "macho men" - aggressive, violent, ready to defend honor at any cost, strong and. , of course, sexually aggressive - however, because of this, they were not expected to show "weak" emotions (such as remorse, regret, love), per se, and so this struggle between the twins and their feelings shows the roles gender of men in that community at that time, and how men were expected to act despite their internal struggles and uphold a certain image, otherwise they would not accept it. Despite their internal struggles, defending their sister's honor was important, and it was not seen as 'murder' by them, because after killing Nasar, they immediately went to church to confess, and believed they were innocent 'before God and before men” since the murder had been a “matter of honor.” The Vicarios are primarily concerned with matters related to family reputation, while Pablo's fiancée and other members of the community were concerned with being associated with them, the which shows that cultural norms came before the emotional well-being of the twins, and Prudencia Cotes (Pablo's girlfriend) even states that she "would never have married him if he hadn't done what a man should do", because after all it was their job to honor the family. Furthermore, the role of machismo in men brings out another role: the way in which men are expected to be dominant (and therefore "keep women in their place"). An example of this would be Bayardo San Roman: although the book never really delves into his character, he is shown to decide to marry Angela based on her looks(as based on his conversations with various different characters - “remind me to marry her when I wake up” and also as he reveals that he has been traveling from city to city, looking for someone to marry.) He buys her many gifts and when the twins go to return the music box he had given her, they return the next day with him and the box in tow. The Vicario family was so fascinated by it that they agree to rent Angela to marry him (and since she came from a rich, or at least "known" family, they were grateful. that such a high-ranking person had "chosen" their daughter), and this brings out the dominance role expected of men since Bayardo expects Angela herself to be flattered (even if he was "too much of a man" for her) and he expects her to marry him based on all these gifts, his money, his looks and his social status. After all, as Pura Vicario states, love can be learned - and that was exactly what the family expected from Angela. This brings out the expected dominance role of men, as the Vicario family (or anyone in the community, really) does not feel that this behavior is out of the norm (aside from the fact that a person of such high status would wish to marry someone from a middle class family) and instead almost encourages it to a certain extent - as seen when Pura Vicario states that the girls were raised to marry. Another character who encompasses the role of machismo is none other than Santiago Nasar. While it has never been revealed whether Nasar is actually guilty of deflowering Angela, his reputation in the city doesn't help his case: he is known to have made sexual advances on young women, including Divina Flor, a daughter of Victoria Guzmán (the his servant). Divina's name is symbolic for her "purity", as opposed to Santiago Nasar's aggressive sexuality, and Santiago Nasar can be said to embrace the sexual aggression that was expected to be shown by men at the time - and also demonstrates two different roles of men. and women in society: how men were almost expected to use women as objects (thus linking back to the earlier described role of how men were expected to be dominant), and how women were therefore expected to be submissive in nature and take it all with a smile and more. The women of the Vicario family also highlight some important gender roles that were depicted in the novella and an example of this would be Angela Vicario. Her name literally translates to "angel" - and while many argue that this was against her nature as they say she was the one who sent Santiago Nasar to his death (but she could be an angel of death) - and this was a role there he expected women to be angelic in nature, implying that they must be "pure", "good wives", and, above all, "virgins". Purity and angelic qualities mostly had to do with how women were raised to be good wives and also whether they were virgins or not, because after all, that was one of the most important qualities a woman could have. at that time, especially if she was not married. This then brings out another role expected of women: marriage. Women were expected to get married and leave their jobs after getting married (Angela's mother is a great example of this: she left her job as a school teacher immediately after getting married), since in this society the role of the woman was that of be a woman. caregiver and be the best wife possible. Furthermore, marriage was held in such high regard that if a woman was not married (or did not want to be married), it was seen that there was something "wrong" with her - and love was not a factor in marriage since " love can be learned', as Pura states)).