Line #17 Literature/ChronicleOfADeathForetold


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3	''Chronicle of a Death Foretold'' is a 1981 novella written by Colombian author Creator/GabrielGarciaMarquez (of ''Literature/OneHundredYearsOfSolitude'' fame) that tells the story of a man named Santiago Nasar who was brutally murdered by twin brothers named Pablo and Pedro Vicario the day after their sister Angela's wedding. The narrator tries to find out the reason behind the murder and the sequence of actions that lead to it.
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5	Since the death itself is [[ForegoneConclusion hinted in the title]], there '''will''' be spoilers ahead.
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8	!!This work shows examples of the following tropes:
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10	* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The twins' knives, sharpened to the point Santiago gets gutted open in a single swipe. See The Butcher, below.
11	* AmbiguousSituation: A lot of it, with several characters. The most obvious is probably whether or not Santiago took Angela's virginity or not. Everyone in town thinks that he didn't, though Angela never even hints about anyone else.
12	* ArrangedMarriage: Bayardo San Roman’s wedding with Angela Vicario was arranged by her family. Her opinion has no relevance here.
13	* AssholeVictim: Santiago Nasar. The village is split between those who believe he deserved it for being a well-known (and highly annoying) ladies' man and those who at least believe he didn't deserve to be overkilled in the fashion the brothers gave him.
14	* BecauseDestinySaysSo: This is the argument the townspeople use to shake their guilt because of Santiago’s death off. The fact that a lot of {{Contrived Coincidence}}s (acknowledged by the townspeople) allowed it to happen serves them as a good excuse.
15	* BookEnds: The story begins and ends with narrations of Santiago's murder -- the one at the beginning provides the more basic facts and the one at the end is much more descriptive (not to mention gory).
16	* TheButcher: The twins are actual butchers. The relationship between their job and their murders is lampshaded upon. Interestingly, the other, less-murderous butchers, are somewhat personal and amiable towards their animals and do things like giving them human names and cannot bring themselves to sacrifice an animal they've interacted with (like drinking their milk).
17	* CaptainObvious: Santiago’s last words: “They’ve killed me, Little Wene.” Consider that, at that point, his guts were [[{{Squick}} hanging off his stomach]].
18	* TheCasanova: Bayardo San Roman is a charming man who came to town seemingly with the sole purpose of finding a bride. Not much else is known about him.
19	* TheCassandra: Clotilde keeps warning the other townspeople about the twins' murder plans, but barely anyone pays attention until it's too late.
20	* ConsummationCounterfeit: Part of the plan to keep rich suitor Bayardo San Román from finding out that Ángela Vicario (who he had just married) is not a virgin. Unfortunately, the plan needed him to fall asleep drunk for Ángela to perform the simulated motions... and his high tolerance to alcohol became a SpannerInTheWorks, and the ensuing panic over the loss of honor became the trigger for the titular murder.
21	* ContrivedCoincidence: Many of the events that ultimately led to Santiago's death are these.
22	* ConvictedByPublicOpinion: The town's reaction to Santiago Nasar's murder is mixed. On the one hand, it's generally agreed that the [[HonorRelatedAbuse honor-based killing]] is justified, and his own crime would be posthumously forgiven as a result...but pretty much everyone agrees that he didn't really take Angela's virginity, even though she insists that he did.
23	* TheDitz: The twins, and part of the reason almost nobody believes they'll end up killing Santiago.
24	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: The book starts with Santiago's ominous dream the morning before his murder. Through his mother who had an uncanny ability to interpret omens from dreams, he unsuccessfully tries to learn what it meant.
25	* DoubleStandard: Angela losing her virginity before the wedding is reproachable, but the men going constantly to a brothel is completely acceptable.
26	* EarnYourHappyEnding: Angela’s happy ending with Bayardo.
27	* EvilDetectingDog: After Santiago’s murder, the dogs start howling uncontrollably.
28	* ForegoneConclusion: Please see [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the title]]. Also, the first line of the book tells us clearly that Santiago Nasar is going to be murdered.
29	* {{Gorn}}: Santiago’s murder and autopsy.
30	* GossipEvolution: The tale has been debated by the townspeople for so long that, when the narrator tries to put the pieces back together, realizes that the people cannot agree what the weather was like, let alone the exact details of the murder.
31	* GossipyHens: Men ''and'' women; this is how eventually the entire town (bar Santiago) knows what’s gonna happen.
32	* HighPressureBlood: One of Santiago's stabs results in this.
33	* HonorBeforeReason: The Vicario twins’ motive.
34	* HonorRelatedAbuse: Angela Vicario's new husband rejects her and returns her to her mother upon finding that she isn't a virgin. Upon learning this, her mother flies into a rage and beats her.
35	* INeverGotAnyLetters: Though that doesn’t stop Angela to keep writing to Bayardo.
36	* IneffectualDeathThreats: Subverted. The twins tell everyone about their plan, but almost everyone thinks they’re just bluffing and don’t do anything to stop them (or can’t do it, the few who took them seriously). At the end, they seem to be almost forced to do it.
37	* TheInsomniac: Pedro Vicario suffers from this for eleven months after the murder.
38	* JigsawPuzzlePlot: The story says from the get-go some details about Santiago's death, and spends the rest going back and forth in time trying to put together the available details. The narrator makes clear, though, that after so much time all witnesses are highly unreliable.
39	* KarmaHoudini: The twins are let off after three years. Pedro leaves for the armed forces and his fate isn't certain, but Pablo goes on with his life as a husband.
40	* LampshadeHanging: The judge in charge of investigating the murder apparently "never thought it legitimate that life should make use of so many coincidences forbidden in literature."
41	** Similarly, the narrator compares Angela Vicario's happy advent with bad literature.
42	* MagicRealism: The book has less and more subtle use of it than in other novels (like ''Literature/OneHundredYearsOfSolitude''), but still it appear here and there, like for example the fact that the twins smell of Santiago during days after killing him.
43	** In a plot-critical detail, Divina has some sort of vision of Santiago returning home just before the murder; as a result, she tells Placida that he's home, and Placida locks the door, trapping him outside. Divina's vision ([[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane assuming that she's telling the truth about it]]) is never explained.
44	* MeaningfulName: Placida. There are also, a lot of people with purity-based titles, like Purisima, Divina, Cristo, Indalecio and Prudencia, playing with the theme that the entire town is guilty at some point.
45	* MyBelovedSmother: Pura Vicario is extremely strict and overbearing towards her daughters.
46	* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Angela Vicario turns out to not be a virgin after she marries Bayardo San Roman. Drama ensues: they divorce, her mother abuses her, and the twins set out to kill whoever took it.
47	* MyGodYouAreSerious: A lot of the townspeople don’t believe the twins at first, thinking it might be just drunkards’ boast, until later when they realize they’re serious.
48	* MythologyGag: Bayardo’s father, Petronio, met [[Literature/OneHundredYearsOfSolitude Colonel Aureliano Buendia]]. Also, the narrator's family are related with Gerineldo Marquez, who appeared in the same novel than Colonel Buendia.
49	* NauseaFuel: In-universe, Santiago's horribly botched autopsy leaves everyone present shocked and nauseated. One person faints, and Lázaro Aponte can't bring himself to eat meat anymore after the experience.
50	* NeverBringAKnifeToAFistFight: Subverted; Santiago ends up fighting the twins only with GoodOldFisticuffs, while they have {{Absurdly Sharp Blade}}s. [[ForegoneConclusion Guess who loses]].
51	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: A lot of people end up contributing to the murder. The most notable, however, is Santiago’s mother, Placida, who, thinking Santiago had already taken refuge in the house, blocked the main door to stop the twins from entering. Unfortunately for her, Santiago not only was still outside, but he also was just a few steps from the main door.
52	* NoDeadBodyPoops: Averted.
53	* NoNameGiven: The narrator. However, by the end it can be deduced that the narrator is Marquez himself - he mentions that "his aunt, Wenefrida Marquez" saw Santiago moments before his death.
54	** The narrator refers repeatedly to "my sister, the nun" without naming her.
55	* NunsAreFunny: The narrator's sister is a nun, but dances ecstatically at the wedding.
56	* OddNameOut: Angela is the only member of the Vicario family whose given name doesn't start with a P.
57	* OhAndXDies: The very first sentence of the novel is this.
58	* ParentalAbandonment: Santiago's father died at an early age.
59	* PoliceAreUseless: Lázaro Aponte (mayor and retired colonel) acts as one when he takes away the twins' knives and simply orders them home. This is as close as it gets to stopping the twins, but nonetheless is just a useless slap on the wrist.
60	* RashomonStyle: Somewhat. The narrator is trying to reconstruct the weird circumstances surrounding the honor murder of a childhood friend, so he investigates the surviving witnesses and the court records. However, only the main facts remain with each retelling, as people can't even remember what weather was that day.
61	* RasputinianDeath: Santiago's murder results in this, both in the sense that the twins hate him enough to do this and in the sense that it takes a lot for him to die.
62	* ARealManIsAKiller: This is what the whole town supposedly thinks; the twins '''must''' kill Santiago to regain their honor. Prudencia, Pablo’s fiancée, even admits she wouldn’t have married him if he hadn't killed Santiago.
63	* RecurringDreams: The twins have dreams about the murder, preventing them from sleeping.
64	* RiddleForTheAges: Though it’s possible that Santiago was indeed the one who took Angela’s virginity, especially considering his behavior, we never find out the truth. Angela insists it was him, but a lot of characters cast doubt on that, since they rarely saw each other, even less spoke.
65	* SarcasticConfession: Either the twins unwittingly announced their intentions to kill Santiago not expecting anybody to stop them, or they secretly hoped for somebody to stop them and used this trope to attain that. Either way, their confession comes out as this.
66	* SmallTownBigHell: In the story, all the crime and their related events occured in a small town where all the villagers know each other and the rumors and sayings are known for everyone.
67	* UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo: While Bayardo has LoveAtFirstSight for Angela, their ArrangedMarriage occurs despite her own feelings. After her rejection, however, she becomes obsessed with him, sending about 2,000 letters over the course of decades. [[spoiler:He never read them, but eventually reciprocates]].
68	* TagTeamTwins: Pedro and Pablo Vicario.
69	* TurnOutLikeHisFather: Santiago is a lot like his father, Ibrahim, including some of his less likable attitudes.
70	* WifeHusbandry: In one instance, the narrator affirms that during the wedding party he proposed marriage to a girl who was still in elementary school; he did not raise her, but they eventually married.

Context Literature / ChronicleOfADeathForetold