Yerma's Sudden Ending

Yerma was interesting because, as Christopher Maurer says in the introduction, "nothing happens (p. x)." The plot can be summarized - and not even in much oversimplification - as Yerma constantly bemoaning her lack of child to her unsympathetic husband until she suddenly - and somewhat anticlimactically - kills him. The ending itself, in the last five minutes is where any actual action seems to be, and it is the death of Juan.

I have mixed feelings about this ending because while I think that it embodies the despair and frustration that Yerma feels, it happens so suddenly and without much, if any, resolving event (for the play ends simply a paragraph after Juan's death) that I feel almost like I'm left hanging. It feels like something else should happen.

At the same time, I can see that leaving the audience in that sort of limbo where Yerma's actions cannot be changed, is evidence of Yerma's concluding remark: "I myself have killed my own son! (p. 188)" There will be no resolution to her conflict of wanting a child, now that Juan is dead.

Maybe I just don't like unhappy - or at least unresolved - endings, and that’s definitely the ending that Yerma has.