INFORMATION ON BLOOD WEDDING
Federico Garcia Lorca, the playwright:
Main and Secondary Characters: Mother, Father, Bridegroom, Bride,
Leonardo, Leonardo’s Wife, and Leonardo’s Mother-in-law.
“Lorca’s play departs from Realism—it returns “drama” to drama by making
the event (the play) into a feast for the senses and the deepest emotions.”
Blood Wedding is a tale of landed gentry, small ranchers, and landless
peasantry, where the core of unhappiness is family wealth. It’s a play about
family murders and forbidden love, a classic tragedy where characters can’t
escape a predestined fate. Blood Wedding is a play where the protagonist
makes a difficult and otherwise destructive choice, followed by a change
from ignorance to self-knowledge, a play where the Moon, the Horse, and
Death are symbols of madness, lustful passion, and the price paid when
social conventions and family interests are not obeyed. It’s a story filled
with conflict, of a man’s alienation and his tendency toward self-destruction
and misguided affections. Finally, it is a tale of society’s vengeance against
Leonardo which is seen to represent extremism, intolerance, and inflexibility.
The title “Blood Wedding” relates to the death of the groom after the
wedding; it also relates to the other true “blood” marriage between Leonardo
and his soulmate, the Bride.
Themes: 1) the individual vs. society, and 2) death: a) death as in the end
of life and b) death-in-life.
Style:
a) Structure: 3 Acts, 7 Scenes. In Act 1, Scene 2 is strategically placed
between Scenes 1 and 3 to disrupt the harmony of the plans for
renewal of the tribe through the marriage.
b) Setting: The stage directions indicate settings that are simple, stark,
and highly symbolic. Set in 18th century rural Spain-a provincial
farming community where community wealth and stability derive from
the agricultural potential of the land.
c) Modernism: Stream of consciousness technique.
d) Uses elements of Greek classical drama
1) Chorus: Group of commentators, chanters, or singers not directly
involved in the play’s action. The Chorus’s role: to comment on the
action; to present the views of the community; and/or to lyrically
accompany action. Choruses of all of these types were common in
Classical-age Greek plays.
2) Violence occurs offstage and is recounted by a minor character
3) Cartharsis: excites pity/fear in the audience. Ex. Bride’s internal
conflict. Audience is completely drained of emotion. Ex. When
bodies of Leonardo and Bridegroom are brought in to be morned by
bereaved women onstage.
4) Hamartia (flaws of main characters)
e) Playwright used music: Used song, chant, poetry, music, and rhythm.
1) lullaby; 2) prothalamion; 3) love-duet; 4) Choral odes; 5) dirge.
f) Poetry-wedding scene and in last scene—almost all of last scene is in
verse.
Literary Devices:
a) Symbols: a gun, flowers, colors, the moon, the Beggar Woman,
Woodcutter, blood, the horse, the knife, and summer and winter.
b) Irony: 1) the Mother tells the Bridegroom that she wishes he had been
born a girl; however, she’s gained a daughter (in-law) at the end when
he is dead. 2) the fact that Christianity teaches “free will” but that the
play is written as a classic tragedy where the characters can’t escape a
predestined fate. 3) In Act II, Scene 1, the Bride asks Leonardo to
leave after they have a heated exchange. Just previous to this, minor
characters chant romantic reports of the wedding in verse.
c) Personification: the moon and death.
d) Allusions: biblical and mythological.
e) Imagery
Historical Context:
Spain entered the 20th century as a constitutional monarchy. People had
little faith in this regime because the country had persistent and grave
economic problems. The people wanted change in spite of the fact that the
aristocracy and educated classes were against it. However, the new working
class which now comprised the middle class was made up of former peasants
who would no longer tolerate the old class hierarchy. These new social
groups were against the monarchy and were more secular in their
viewpoints than the old regime made up of the aristocracy and the Catholic
Church. This new middle class represented a drastic and fearful break from
centuries of tradition, whether in social, cultural, or political terms.
The Old Regime (Right-wing) wanted to maintain the status quo,
meaning that they favored the succession of kings and queens and the
Catholic Church as a central vehicle for shaping social and educational areas.
On the other hand, the new social groups of the middle class were on the
side of change—they wanted a left-wing socialist government. Garcia Lorca
was on the side of change, too. As a result of a coup d’etat in 1936 and a
bloody civil war from 1936-1939, General Francisco Franco came into power,
and Garcia Lorca became a political target for publically declaring solidarity
with the workers and the republic. He was murdered as an act of terror.
Garcia Lorca reminds the readers of Blood Wedding that while social living
is natural, it is still made up of laws, mores, and regulations that are made
and shaped by human beings. When these laws become oppressive, they
must be contested so that they will be changed.