Chronicle of A Death Foretold Summary

Chronicle of a Death Foretold Summary
Summary
Chapter 1
Santiago Nasar has been murdered. He'd gotten up early to go and see the bishop who was
arriving on a boat that morning. The day before there had been a large and lavish public
wedding celebration in honor of the marriage of Angela Vicario to Bayardo San Román.
Unknown to Santiago, Bayardo had dragged his wife back to her parents' home the night
before because he discovered she was not a virgin. When her twin brothers demanded to
know who had deflowered her, Angela said it was Santiago. Her brothers Pedro
Vicario and Pablo Vicario swear to murder Santiago as revenge for dishonoring their sister.
The narrator, who grew up in this town, has returned 27 years later as a professional
investigative journalist to uncover the truth about why and how Santiago was murdered.
Unfortunately, most townspeople have confused memories of what happened. Still, the
narrator is determined to unearth the reason that although most of the people in the town
knew of the Vicario brothers' plot to murder Santiago, no one warned him or did anything to
stop the killing.
Chapter 2
Bayardo is handsome and rich. He arrived in town in August to look for a bride. The moment
he sees Angela Vicario walking with her mother, he falls in love with her. The couple gets
married in February. Bayardo's wedding feast is the most lavish and expensive the town has
ever seen.
Angela does not want to marry Bayardo because she does not love him, but because she
had a strict upbringing, she must do what her parents tell her to do—and they want her to
marry Bayardo. When Bayardo brings her home after discovering her dishonor, Angela's
mother beats her. When the townspeople find out about her dishonor, they're amazed.
Angela has always been closely controlled by her mother. How had she found a way to have
sex with a man before her wedding?
The narrator, his brother, his friend, and Santiago spend the entire night of the celebration
together. Santiago is delightful and carefree. The narrator is certain it could not have been
Santiago who had sex with Angela. She must have lied when she named him.
Chapter 3
The Vicario brothers, who are twins, must avenge the lost honor of their sister. They go to
the pig butchery where they work and get two long slaughtering knives. They go to the meat
market to sharpen their knives, and they boast to all the butchers there that they're going to
kill Santiago Nasar. Then they go hunting for him. They roam the town looking for Santiago,
and along the way, they tell everyone they meet about the murder they are about to
commit. No one in town takes them seriously, so no one bothers to warn Santiago, his
mother, or anyone else who might prevent the crime. People think the twins are either too
drunk to be taken seriously or that they're just bluffing.
While the Vicario twins hunt Santiago, he, the narrator, his brother, and his friend go up to
the newlyweds' house to serenade the couple. They are unaware that Bayardo is alone in
the house, having already returned his bride to her family.
The Vicario twins finally wait for Santiago to return home. They sit in the milk shop, which is
across the street from Santiago's house, and plan to attack Santiago when he returns. They
tell each person who comes into the milk shop of their murderous plan. Again, no one takes
them seriously or does anything to prevent it. The owner of the shop tells a beggar woman
to go to warn Santiago's mother, but it's not known if she gets the message.
Chapter 4
The Vicario brothers have killed Santiago Nasar with their butcher knives, nearly hacking
him to pieces. He dies in front of his home. The mayor orders the town priest to conduct an
immediate autopsy, as the body reeks in the heat. The mishandle autopsy leaves Santiago's
body even more mutilated. The priest concludes that Santiago died of seven fatal stab
wounds.
The Vicario brothers turn themselves in to the church. They show no remorse because they
feel an honor killing is not a sin. The priest, like most other men in town, seems to agree.
Because of an unwarranted fear of revenge by the town's Arab community, however, the
Vicario brothers are moved to a jail some distance away. Angela Vicario, her mother, and
the rest of her family also move out of town, fearful of Arab revenge.
Decades later when the journalist narrator comes to investigate the crime, he tries to
interview Bayardo, who refuses to discuss the incident. The narrator locates Angela Vicario
living on her own in a distant town, and she agrees to speak with him. She discusses many
details of the event but will not say who had sex with her before her wedding day. She tells
the narrator that, since the incident so many years earlier, she has fallen in love with
Bayardo. She has written him frequent letters for many years, even though he never
answers her.
Chapter 5
The people of the town are obsessed by the murder that took place so many years ago.
They want to understand how and why it happened—why no one warned Santiago—but
they can make no sense out of the senseless accidents and wrong choices that failed to save
him.
A few weeks after the murder, a magistrate shows up in town to investigate. He, too, is
puzzled by what happened. He cannot understand how everyone in town knew the murder
was about to take place but no one warned Santiago or did anything to stop the crime.
The narrator goes on to describe the mischances, misunderstandings, miscommunications,
unlucky choices, coincidences, and accidents that seem to have made a whole host of
townspeople unable or unwilling to warn Santiago to save him. Perhaps they could not
believe he would really be murdered, but it is his fate to be murdered. His fate is foretold
when Angela names him and in the inaction of those who know about the killing but do
nothing. Santiago meets his fate at his front door where the Vicario brothers butcher him.

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