Yerma (meaning ''Barren'') is one of three tragic plays about peasants and rural life that make up Lorca''s ''rural trilogy''. It is possibly Lorca''s harshest play following a woman''s Herculean struggle against the curse of infertility. The woman''s barrenness becomes a metaphor for her marriage in a traditional society that denies women sexual or social equality. Her desperate desire for a child drives her to commit a terrible crime at the end of the play.
