There are no men seen on the stage in the play, yet they are never far from the action. How does the playwright contrast women and men in act one?

Lorca's primary identification was always with female characters, and all the plays in his late trilogy are about the plight of Spanish women. The House of Bernarda Alba bears the explicit subtitle "Drama about Women in the Towns of Spain," and there are more frustrated women in it than in any other Lorca play, perhaps than in any other modern play in the world theater. In Lorca's view, men and freedom are mutually exclusive for Spanish women. Although no male characters appear in the play, it is clear that the women's feelings of isolation are largely the consequences of men's actions and attitudes. In depicting sexual frustration, Lorca maintains the masculine mystique by keeping Pepe from appearing. Pepe acts only on instinct, his desires pit mother against daughter, sister against sister. Magdalena curses womanhood if it consists of nothing more than being bound by tradition. A woman has little control in achieving personal satisfaction and in determining the course of her own life, and therefore must often resort to desperate measures. The three plays of the trilogy dramatize tragic attempts by women to free themselves from impossible situations: the Bride runs off with Leonardo in Blood Wedding, Yerma kills her husband, and Adela kills herself.