A Death Most Foretold: Class Passage Writing

In this passage from Gabriel García Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death

Foretold, we are introduced to the aftermath of Santiago Nasar’s murder.

Following the chaotic disemboweling of Santiago, the Vicario twins—sodden

with blood and perspiration—relinquish their blades to Father Amador,

swearing by both their righteousness and guiltlessness (an affirmation which

is later upheld by the court “in good faith”). The surfeit of counterintuitive

elements in this passage is remarkable—there is dearth of congruence in

almost every aspect of the chronicling of Nasar’s demise. Following this trend

of inconsistency, Marquez insightfully addresses the dissonance between the

twins’ “spoken” versus their “genuine” intentions, as well as shrewdly detailing

the incongruities between their original scheme of vengeance and the one they

actually employed to find and kill Santiago. Throughout the passage, Marquez

also substantiates the inconclusiveness of the formal investigation of Nasar’s

death. These elements all serve call attention to the preventability of Nasar’s

death. Artfully, Marquez establishes that, through flaw of their inaction, the

townspeople hold responsibility for Santiago Nasar’s demise. No death had ever

“...It seemed that the Vicario brothers had done nothing right with a

view to killing Santiago Nasar immediately and without any public spectacle, but

had done much more than could be imagined to have someone stop them from

killing him...” (18-20). Though the Vicario brothers proclaimed they were going

to take Santiago’s life in order to salvage their integrity, there appears to be a

permanent discord between what their “claimed” intentions, and their actual

objectives. It was after discovering—through a fairly questionable confession—

that Santiago Nasar had deflowered their younger sister, that the Vicario

brothers took it upon themselves to recuperate the family’s honor by taking his

life. Brazen and indomitable, the brothers took their gutting blades and

commenced their pursuit. Taking to the streets, they ostentatiously broadcasted

their plan of revenge to all who were there to hear it, decreeing absolute

blamelessness in the name of morality. “...The twins declared at the end of the

trial that they would have done again a thousand times over for the same reason.”

(2-3) Assuming that this was true, such a barefaced proclamation of murderous

intentions suggests very tough, cold characters. However, it is also incompatibly

indicated that “...They were remembered for their good character and

sociability...” (16) by the elder prisoners of Riohacha, who spent three years in

their company, as they awaited trial. As the passage progresses, the twins’

audacious attitudes become a vessel of their ego. In effect, the narrator even

states “...With the reconstruction of the facts, they had feigned a much more

unforgiving bloodthirstiness than was really true...” (12-13). It’s feasible that the

Vicarios’ parading of their brutal act had the aim of attesting to the nerve it took

to actually follow through with it—something they might not have always had

the intention to do. Up until the moment they accosted Santiago, it appeared as

though the brothers were doing all that was in their power to caution as many

people of Santiago’s looming death, and to look for him in all the places he

wouldn’t be. “On the other hand, they did go to wait for him at Clotilde Armenta’s

place, where they knew almost everybody would turn up except Santiago Nasar.”

(26-29). It was a murder begging to be stopped. The notion of the townspeople’s

culpability in not obstructing the murder is plainly demarcated, seeing as the

murderers themselves gave them innumerable opportunities to safely alert

Santiago. In this passage we realize that in a way, through collective non-
intervention, the townspeople obligated the ego-hungry Vicario brothers to

follow through with their “honorable scheme”, thus leading to Santiago’s slaying.