Adela and Pepe el Romano-A Relation in The House of Bernarda Alba | Readify Wiki: A Better Way to Explore Books

Adela and Pepe el Romano’s relationship is a clandestine affair that turns private desire into open defiance of the household’s rules and the village’s sexual honour code. Adela claims that Pepe wants her and that she has taken what she wanted; when their relationship is exposed, Bernarda responds with a gunshot and, after Adela’s death, insists on a public account that conceals their intimacy. The relationship therefore links Adela’s assertion of personal choice to the secrecy and punishment imposed by the world around her.

Discovery and Warning

Poncia recognizes that Adela’s attraction to Pepe has become more than an unspoken feeling. She questions Adela about getting up at night and recalls seeing her nearly naked, with a lamp lit and the window open, when Pepe passed on his way to speak with Angustias. Adela denies Poncia’s accusation, but the older woman’s observations make clear that the affair has already begun to shape Adela’s conduct within the house.

Poncia tells Adela to leave her sister alone and to resign herself if she likes Pepe. Yet her warning is mixed with an imagined future in which Angustias might die in childbirth and Pepe, as a widower, might then marry Adela. Poncia presents this as a reason to wait rather than defy the household, while also invoking the will of God. Adela rejects the counsel and tells Poncia to be quiet; Poncia refuses. Their exchange exposes the conflict between Adela’s desire for Pepe and the compromises by which others try to contain it.

Adela’s Claim and Martirio’s Challenge

The relationship becomes explicit during Adela and Martirio’s confrontation. Adela says that Pepe wants her for his house, while Martirio replies that she has seen him embrace Adela. Adela’s account of herself is not one of detached calculation: she says she has had the strength to take what she wants and that, after seeing death under the same roof, she went out to claim what she regarded as hers. Her words make the affair an act of resistance to the life imposed on the women in the house, as well as a relationship with Pepe.

Martirio challenges Adela’s interpretation of Pepe’s intentions. She argues that he came for another woman and that Adela has come between them; Adela answers that he came for Angustias’s money but had always looked at her. When Adela insists that Martirio knows Pepe loves her, Martirio admits that she knows it and confirms that she has seen his feelings for Adela. The admission changes the quarrel: Martirio’s opposition is not simply a defence of Angustias’s engagement, because she too loves Pepe and is pained by Adela’s claim.

Adela tries to embrace Martirio and says that she is not to blame. Martirio rejects the embrace, saying that she no longer sees Adela as a sister but as a woman. Adela then insists that Pepe is hers and says that he takes her to the reeds by the shore. She declares that, having experienced his affection, she cannot endure the house’s oppressive atmosphere as before. She also recognizes that the village may condemn and pursue her for being loved by a man promised to another woman. Her defiance is thus inseparable from the risks attached to a relationship that violates the household’s public respectability.

Exposure and Aftermath

The affair reaches the wider household when Adela openly identifies herself as Pepe’s woman and tells Angustias to go outside and tell him that she knows. Adela says that Pepe is waiting outside, and Bernarda immediately demands the gun and runs out. The relationship, previously monitored through suspicion and argument, has become an open challenge to Angustias’s engagement and Bernarda’s authority.

A gunshot is heard. Bernarda returns, and Martirio announces that Pepe is finished, but then reveals that he escaped on horseback. Adela rushes out after hearing his name. The shot does not end the relationship through Pepe’s death: he survives and rides away, while the household is left to face the consequences of Adela’s disclosure.

After Adela’s death, Bernarda refuses to pursue Pepe and instead orders that her daughter be dressed and presented as a virgin. She commands the household to keep silent and forbids weeping in public. Her insistence turns the affair into a secret to be covered over, restoring the appearance of family honour at the cost of acknowledging the relationship that had defined Adela’s final resistance. The contrast between Adela’s public claim to Pepe and Bernarda’s final insistence on concealment gives the relationship its tragic significance.

Public Exposure and Aftermath

The affair moves from covert knowledge to an open household crisis when Adela declares herself Pepe’s woman and tells Angustias to go outside and tell him that she knows. Adela says Pepe is waiting outside; Bernarda immediately demands the gun and runs out. What had been watched and disputed in private now directly confronts Angustias’s engagement and Bernarda’s authority.

A gunshot is heard. Bernarda returns, and Martirio announces that Pepe is finished, but then reveals that he escaped on horseback. Adela rushes out when she hears his name. The shot does not end the relationship through Pepe’s death: he survives and rides away, leaving the household to face the consequences of Adela’s disclosure.

After Adela’s death, Bernarda refuses to pursue Pepe and instead orders that her daughter be dressed and presented as a virgin. She commands the household to keep silent and forbids public weeping. The final concealment reverses Adela’s open claim: Bernarda protects the family’s public honour by denying the intimacy that had shaped Adela’s last acts of defiance.

The Affair and the Village’s Honour Code

The relationship’s danger extends beyond the household. When Poncia reports that an unmarried woman has killed her newborn and hidden the body, only for dogs to uncover it and leave it at her door, Bernarda urges the villagers to kill her. Adela protests against that punishment. The episode places her own secret relationship in a community where sexual transgression can provoke collective violence, and foreshadows the social condemnation she recognizes as a possible price of loving Pepe.