Chronicle of a Death Foretold

The killing of Santiago Nasar is all anyone ever talks about in the town, the narrator explains, because “none of us could go on living without an exact knowledge of the place and the mission assigned to us by fate” (97). People claim that intervention was impossible because “affairs of honor are sacred monopolies” (98). Plácida Linero still blames herself for “having mixed up the magnificent augury of trees with the unlucky one of birds” (99), meaning that she did not warn her son about his impending death. She incorrectly believed that her dream prophesized good health for him.

Almost two weeks after the murder, a magistrate arrives to investigate. The narrator constructs an understanding of the magistrate based on the notes in the margins of the magistrate’s report, read 20 years later in the library of the Palace of Justice. The magistrate is concerned that there is not a “single indication” that Santiago was actually the man Angela had sex with (100). Though Angela says that this is the case, she has never given any firm details about the encounter. In the magistrate’s opinion, the twins murdered Santiago without Santiago ever knowing what he did to pique their rage.