Bernarda’s pursuit of Pepe and the gunshot

Bernarda’s pursuit of Pepe el Romano and the gunshot is the decisive turn in the final sequence of The House of Bernarda Alba: Bernarda discovers Adela’s secret relationship, rushes out after Pepe, and fires, but he escapes. Martirio’s false claim that he is dead leads Adela to believe that the relationship has ended in catastrophe; her subsequent death by suicide is followed by Bernarda’s order to conceal the truth and preserve the family’s public honour.

Discovery and Pursuit

The crisis breaks into the open after Adela and Martirio’s argument brings Bernarda out of bed. Martirio tells her that Adela has been with Pepe in the stable. Bernarda responds not by confronting the relationship within the household but by rushing out in search of Pepe. The pursuit turns the private conflict into an immediate threat to life and makes Bernarda’s authority an instrument of action rather than merely command.

Bernarda fires at Pepe, but the shot does not kill him. When she returns, she insists that he has escaped through the dark trees and warns that he may fall another day. The gap between the apparent force of the gunshot and its actual result is crucial: Bernarda has tried to stop Pepe, but has not reached him, while the household is left to absorb the consequences of what Martirio says happened.

The False Report and Adela’s Death

After Bernarda and Martirio return, Martirio claims that Pepe is dead. She later reveals that he survived and escaped, but Adela has already run in anguish to another room and locked the door. The false report changes the meaning of the failed shot inside the house: although Pepe lives, Adela acts on the belief that he has died. When the door is opened, Poncia’s gesture and words make clear that Adela has hanged herself.

The sequence links Bernarda’s unsuccessful pursuit to the tragedy without suggesting that the gunshot killed Pepe or that Adela knows the truth before locking herself away. Her death follows Martirio’s deception and the shock of the report; Pepe’s escape is disclosed too late to undo its effect. The scene therefore turns on a sharp reversal between what the household believes and what has actually happened.

Honour, Violence, and Concealment

The pursuit belongs to a wider village culture in which sexual reputation is policed through public threats and collective violence. Earlier, Poncia reports that Librada’s unmarried daughter killed her child and hid the body, which dogs uncovered. A crowd is dragging the woman through the street, while men run in from the paths and olive groves. Bernarda urges the villagers to come armed with olive switches and pick-handles and kill her; Adela cries out against the killing, while Martirio agrees that they should go out too. This episode places the household’s private crisis alongside the community’s willingness to punish a woman for sexual and maternal transgression.

The play’s commentary connects Bernarda’s concern with family honour to a history in which law and reputation could intersect without being identical. Spain’s Penal Code of 1870 allowed a husband to cleanse his honour with blood in specified circumstances; that provision was not abolished until 1963. The commentary cautions that the precise legal situation does not occur in the play, but identifies Bernarda’s mentality with the same fanatical concern for honour. Her pursuit of Pepe is therefore distinct from a formal legal proceeding: it is a personal act within a social order that legitimizes the policing of women’s sexuality and makes reputational harm a source of danger.

After Adela’s death, Bernarda immediately directs how it must be understood outside the household. She orders that Adela’s body be cut down and taken to her room, commands that she be dressed as a virgin, and insists that the story told to the villagers is that her daughter died a virgin. She also orders that the bells ring twice at daybreak and begins a new period of mourning. These instructions do not change what happened; they attempt to control what the family and village will be permitted to say about it.

Dramatic Function and Aftermath

The gunshot is a failed intervention with an irreversible consequence. Pepe survives Bernarda’s pursuit, but Martirio’s false report converts his escape into the apparent loss that precipitates Adela’s suicide. Bernarda’s response then shifts from pursuit to control of the story: she cannot retrieve the truth of the crisis or reverse its outcome, but she can impose silence and dictate the public account of her daughter’s death.

The ending sharpens the contrast between visible authority and hidden reality. Bernarda’s commands are forceful and precise, yet they cannot restore Adela or erase the secret relationship; they can only enforce a version of events for the household and its neighbours. The failed shot thus leads not to the capture of Pepe but to death, renewed mourning, and a final attempt to protect family reputation by declaring Adela’s sexual innocence.