Abstract
This article about Gallegos's play proposes the interpretation of the intra-textual elements to determine some extra-textual circumstances that identify social, cultural and economic conditions of patriarchal 1925 Costa Rica, wherethe play is set and those experienced in 1964, when it is published. These are reflected in a number of situations whichalter the relationships between the characters that inhabit La casa. The moral and generational struggle unleashedamong some members of the family, composed by the widow and her four children, seeks to subvert the power of thename of the father, leading to family quarrels in which the mother loses the domain she previously exercised overthe life of her children. In the end, the renewed appearance of the house hides the moral and social decompositionof those who occupy it, in a parallel to the crisis in the country.