The story begins in the square just outside the cigarette factory in front of the guardhouse. There, the soldiers are hanging around waiting for the factory girls t

o come back to work. A young woman in a blue skirt and long blonde braids arrives asking Morales if he knows where she could find Corporal Don Jose (Bleiler 40). Morales informs Micaela that he is in another division, but will be back soon, so Micaela tells him she will be back when Don Jose’s shift starts. When Don Jose arrives Morales let him know that a young women with Micaela’s description was looking for him. Don Jose immediately knows whom Morales is talking about and takes his post at the guardhouse. Meanwhile the factory bells rings and hordes of men line the square awaiting the arrival of the girls as they go back to work. The men and women flirt together until Carmen strolls in nonchalantly dressed in gypsy attire with a flower between her teeth (Bleiler 41). All the men have their eyes fixed on her and she loves it, all but Don Jose, which makes Carmen want him even more than the other men. Carmen prances over to him and asks what he is doing, he tells her and she laughs throwing her flower at his chest and walks away as everyone is laughing. The factory bell rings yet another time and the girls disappear into the factory. All he soldiers revert to the guardhouse except for Don Jose who is thinking about his occurrence with Carmen. Just then Micaela shows up for a second time with a note form Don Jose’s mother in which she tells him to ask Micaela to marry him, and he is all ready to do so until a brawl breaks out in the factory and off to duty he goes. Zuniga knows that it has to have something to do with Carmen since she is such a troublemaker, and he was right. Carmen got into a verbal argument with one of the other girls until Carmen lost her temper and threw the girl to the ground slashing each cheek open (Bleiler 41). Zuniga tries to question Carmen but all she does is spit out gypsy ballads at him (Bleiler 41). He is about to order Carmen to prison when she breaks away and assaults yet another women. Zuniga ties her hand behind her back and hands her over to Don Jose to take her to the guardhouse. On the way there Carmen convinces Don Jose not to take her to prison. Because of his attraction with her, he agrees and they come up with a plan for her escape. As he unites her hands she knocks him down and escapes making the plan look as authentic as possible.

Nearly one month later Don Jose is being released from prison, he was ultimately sent there for facilitating Carmen’s escape. He was demoted from corporal to private for his disobedient acts. Carmen is at the Lilla’s Pastinas establishment, which is a mixture of a brothel, boozing ken, and tavern (Bleiler 42). Carmen joins the other girls in dancing for the men; Zuniga flirts with her, knowing that she has a grudge towards him because of what happened the month before. As the soldiers are about to leave they hear cheering from the street, it’s Escamillo the prize winning toreador, thus then they invite him for a drink and a toast (Bleiler 42)Escamillo is immediately attracted to Carmen but she makes it clear that for the time being she is with another man (Bleiler 42). The gypsy leader asks Carmen and her friends to help them smuggle textiles from Gibraltar, she informs them that she will do no such thing because she is waiting for a soldier who did her a favor to get her out of prison. The girls hear a soldier ballad from the street and run off to find out who it is, of course its Don Jose, they go to inform Carmen and she leaves to greet him outside. She asks him why he didn’t escape with the file and piece of gold she sent him; he replies that he could not abandon the prison (Bleiler 43). As they prepare to make love, Jose in infuriated as he finds out that she was dancing for other men, therefore she offers a da

Some topics in this essay:
Don Jose, Composers Bizet, Merimee Bizet, Lilla’s Pastinas, don jose, Zuniga Carmen, Dragoons Navarre, Dancairo Remendado, Don Jose’s, Carmen Carmen, Carmen Escamillo, carmen don jose, carmen don, piece music, don jose’s, basso continuo, bleiler 41, bleiler 40, watch yourself, upper class, particular piece, particular piece music, don jose leave, don jose’s mother,