"Those Five Glenties Women"echoes of Lorca in "Dancing at Lughnasa"

Resumen

This essay will attempt to show the numerous points that Lorca's La casa de Bernarda Alba and Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa have in common. Both plays create an intense rural atmosphere in their respective countries -Ireland and Spain- with echoes of the tragic days of 1936; and both introduce us to the rarefied community of five single women dominated by sexual repression and enclosed in the narrow confines of domestic space. The role of women at home was strongly emphasized by the papal encyclicals Castii Connubbi (1930) and Quadragesimo Anno (1931), highly influential in both countries. Interrogations and redefinitions of the female domestic space have been a central issue in gender studies, and so from this perspective we approach both plays as evidence of feminine oppression and its representation in the house, which stands for the five women's honour. The strict law of space will prove an obstacle for their sexuality, marriage and motherhood and its transgression will be severely punished. The sexual morality imposed by the Catholic Church will make the five women lifelong prisoners and will preside over the claustrophobic society they belong to.