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On the morning of Santiago Nasar’s murder, the Bishop is visiting the town to deliver his blessing. He is less a character than he is a stand-in for some sort of abstract, unattainable holiness. He never sets foot in the town, choosing instead to deliver his blessing from afar, waving from the deck of his steamboat as it churns ominously upriver. The snub seems to be a snub from God himself, and in his wake town is left to moral decay.
The Bishop Quotes in Chronicle of a Death Foretold
The Chronicle of a Death Foretold quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Bishop. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1
Quotes
What happened, according to her, was that the boat whistle let off a shower of compressed steam as it passed by the docks, and it soaked those who were closest to the edge. It was a fleeting illusion: the bishop began to make the sign of the cross in the air opposite the crowd on the pier, and he kept on doing it mechanically afterwards, without malice or inspiration, until the boat was lost from view and all that remained was the uproar of the roosters.
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Chapter 3
Quotes
“The truth is I didn't know what to do,” he told me. “My first thought was that it wasn't any business of mine but something for the civil authorities, but then I made up my mind to say something in passing to Plácida Linero.” Yet when he crossed the square, he’d forgotten completely. “You have to understand,” he told me, “that the bishop was coming on that unfortunate day.” At the moment of the crime he felt such despair and was so disgusted with himself that the only thing he could think of was to ring the fire alarm.
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The Bishop Symbol Timeline in Chronicle of a Death Foretold
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Bishop appears in Chronicle of a Death Foretold. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...and apparently unaware of the danger he is in. He is excited to see the Bishop, who is supposed to visit the town that morning on his riverboat. Santiago has had...
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...opens onto the town square, while the back door opens onto the docks, where the Bishop is meant to arrive. Santiago exits through the front door. Given that he is going...
(full context)
...knows their plan, begs them to leave him for later, out of respect for the Bishop. Miraculously, they listen, and sit back down.
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The docks are crowded with people waiting for the Bishop. Many have brought gifts: roosters, because the Bishop loves cockscomb soup, and loads of wood....
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...the riverbank, where crowds of people have brought out food to offer up to the Bishop—in vain, however, as the Bishop passed by without stopping. Now no longer distracted by the...
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Chapter 2
...Dr. Dionisio Iguarán escaping on a boat so as not to be seen by the Bishop the next morning, people tripping over poor old blind Poncio Vicario, the Narrator himself proposing...
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