The
Burial of the Sardine
(L’Enterrement de la sardine) by Fernando Arrabal - Summary
Fernando Arrabal’s The
Burial of the Sardine presents a strange and disturbing sequence of events
centred on a small, isolated room and the mysterious man who lives inside it.
The central figure is Hieronymus, a dwarf who is confined to a bare
room. He spends much of his time near a large open window, through which he
watches the strange world outside. His confinement is never fully explained,
and neither the reason for his imprisonment nor the circumstances that brought
him there are clearly revealed.
Hieronymus is
visited regularly by two women, Altagora and Lis. Their visits become a
repeated part of his existence. They talk to him, instruct him, and introduce
him to different experiences of life. Their relationship with him is
complicated. At times they appear to care for him and educate him; at other
moments their behaviour becomes controlling, cruel, and sexually disturbing.
Hieronymus accepts these encounters as part of the strange routine of his life,
and the visits continue in a repetitive pattern.
Altagora and Lis do
not simply teach Hieronymus about ordinary practical matters. Their
conversations and actions open before him a strange world of ideas,
imagination, sexuality, fantasy, and mysterious knowledge. Hieronymus
experiences these lessons in his own unusual way. His understanding of the
world remains simple and childlike, even when the situations around him become
increasingly disturbing. His room therefore becomes the centre of a peculiar
existence in which ordinary distinctions between education, affection,
domination, cruelty, and fantasy become difficult to separate.
While these
encounters take place inside the room, another spectacle is continually
unfolding outside. Through the open window, Hieronymus watches a huge
procession moving through the street. The procession is associated with the Burial
of the Sardine, the carnival ceremony that marks the end of the
festivities. Instead of witnessing an ordinary funeral, he sees an
extraordinary and grotesque parade filled with strange figures, vehicles,
masks, coffins, and people behaving in bizarre ways. The procession gradually
becomes as important to him as the two women who visit his room.
Hieronymus observes
the procession carefully from his window. The spectacle outside seems to pass
before him like a succession of disconnected scenes. Cars move slowly through
the street, horns sound loudly, and grotesque faces appear from the vehicles. Among
the procession are two hearses carrying coffins. The entire scene has the
appearance of an enormous, dreamlike funeral in which ordinary rules no longer
seem to apply.
Inside the room,
meanwhile, the visits of Altagora and Lis continue. Hieronymus remembers their
earlier encounters and the experiences through which they have taken him. Their
presence has become so deeply incorporated into his life that even his memories
of them have the quality of repeated ritual. He remains uncertain about the
larger world beyond his room, just as he remains uncertain about his own
situation.
As the carnival
procession continues, the boundary between what Hieronymus remembers, imagines,
and actually sees becomes increasingly unclear. The strange events outside
appear to correspond with the strange experiences inside the room. Yet
Hieronymus continues to observe everything with a peculiar innocence. He does
not provide a conventional explanation for what is happening. Instead, he
simply watches, remembers, and recounts the events surrounding him.
The procession
eventually reaches its conclusion. The carnival festivities come to an end, and
the strange funeral spectacle passes beneath Hieronymus’s window. Two skeletal
figures appear, each carrying a coffin. In one coffin lies Altagora, apparently
lifeless, while Lis appears in the other and looks toward Hieronymus with a
smile.
The sight profoundly
changes the situation. The two women who have dominated Hieronymus’s life are
now themselves part of the funeral procession that he has been watching from
his room. The outside world, which had seemed distant and mysterious, has suddenly
become connected with his private existence.
At this point,
Hieronymus finally breaks away from his confinement. He leaves the room and
goes down into the street, joining the procession that he has watched for so
long from his window. His movement from the enclosed room into the public world
brings his long period of isolation to an end.
The carnival itself
is now finished. The Burial of the Sardine marks the closing of the strange
procession, and Hieronymus has become part of the crowd rather than remaining
merely a spectator behind the window. The story ends with him entering the
world outside, leaving behind the room, the repetitive visits, and the
mysterious existence that had confined him there.
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