.Although no specific time sequence was given, based on the events of the play you get the idea that the whole stroy unfolds over a couse of a few days to a week. It flows logically from beginning to end, there are literary devices that make it anything other than strait realism. Lorca himself said, "Not a drop of poetry! Reality! Realsim!" It was meant to be as real as a "photographic document." The locale of the play is very specifically done. It all takes place inside of Bernarda's home. She demands that all of her daughters remain away from the world and mourn their father's death for eight years. It is her way of keeping away disparaging remarks towards her or her family. It is a play that only deals with women, and hos truly awful their lives have been histroically. They were not looked at as individuals, but entities which should be molded into one specific thing. They were basically prisoners of their own homes. Forced to either stay home and take care of their mother, or forced to stay home for another circumstance. There are many allusions to bars in the play, which suggest at a prison like atmosphere. There isn't much known as fact concerning the background of the story before the play begins. We do know that the father was alive and that with the exception of Magdalena, no one really seemed to care about his death. Even Bernarda's mourning seemed more like an obligation than anything else. With Bernarda being such a tyrant, I assume that the father was a pushover. That he just went along with what she said and had no impact on his daughters lives. The only daughter that he could relate to was Magdalena, who has the same kind of passive demeanor. It can be assumed that these girls lives were similar to as they are now. They never got the opportunity to get out and experiment. The "Poncia" or the maid gives a lot of background information at the opening of the play. A great impression of what life is li...
