Yerma

Subject:

First I would like to assert that I enjoyed reading this play very much. Yerma’s pain and hardships with being childless is something that most women can identify with. Juan seems to be a very honorable man who lives by the land. He is constantly busy with his farming duties and leaves Yerma alone all day to do her wifely jobs. Though Juan definitely has some feelings for Yerma, whether physical or otherwise, Yerma makes it clear that she has no feelings for him at all.

When it becomes obvious that the two of them will never have children, Yerma resorts to voodoo-like rituals for fertility. The strange thing about these rituals is that the women pray to God, saints, and also pagan gods. Yerma’s desperation for motherhood leads her to these sacrilegious sessions. Her desire for having children drives her to obsession and pain. As a woman myself, I understand how much being barren would drive one mad, especially in those days. In present times, if a woman is unable to bear children, she can simply adopt. However, Yerma makes it clear that she does not want to care for another person’s child. She simply wants her own.

At the end, when she kills Juan, I see it as her last resort. She is driven crazy by the fact that she knows she will never have children, and all that she sees she can do is to kill the reason for her not having babies.