Supervised Writing – ‘Blood Wedding’14/08/2015 12:31:00 AM
PROMPTS:
SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING PROMPTS FOR YOUR SUPERVISED
WRITING.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Discuss the use of one or more symbols or images in the work.
What is the role of journey’s and geography in this work?
What contribution does one of the minor characters play in this work?
Why might elements of style be important to the ideas explored in the
play?
5. In what way is this a play about darkness and light?
6. What elements of every day life are important in the presentation of
the play?
HOW TO DO THE SUPERVISED WRITING14/08/2015 12:31:00 AM
 The purpose of the supervised writing is to generate ideas without
worrying too much about the structure of your content.




It is a really good idea to re-read the text before you write.
Remain focussed on the prompt!
Use Literary language
Explore HOW rather than WHAT… sentences should be written to
reflect what impact the HOW has on the AUDIENCE
 There is no word limit
 Consider the possibilities of your prompt
WHAT MIGHT A PIECE OF SUPERVISED WRITING LOOK LIKE?
PROMPT: In what way is atmosphere important in the development of
ideas in this play?
The play centres around a small community, presumably an
Andalusian town where Lorca spent much of his formative years. Much
of the action pivots around every day rituals that are specific to Spain
in the early 20th century. There is bloody and violent death, passion,
melodrama and tragic destiny. Many of these atmospheric elements
are derived from ancient drama where symbolism operates in much
the same way.
It is interesting to see how the atmosphere was constructed through
various symbols specifically the bull as a symbol of fertility and the
Felix family – Leonardo and the moon as a symbol of the changing
aspects of the life-force – here the wedding moon and then the moon
of death.
To create the atmosphere of passion and violence, the allusion to the
archetype of a bull fight is fundamental in Spanish culture. The mother
tells the Bridegroom that he, like his father before him, is a bull-man, and
she calls the Felix family matadors. The wedding of the Bride and
Bridegroom arises, as the handmaidens sing, ‘‘like a bull,’’ a bull that is
destined to be destroyed by the matador, Leonardo. Those characters
representing the ‘bull’ have no identity. The matadors, on the other hand,
do have individual identity; they are the Felix family, their name
expressing the irony of their destinies. Leonardo Felix, still more precisely
identified, is the matador, a solitary figure who is the antagonist of the
society’s order, or the character who stands against the social economic
structure of class and marriage. At the moment of truth the matador
confronts societal constructs, challenges them and fails. Perhaps the
message for the audience here is that Spain is like the ‘bull’ and not ready
for change.
One of the other ways the atmosphere is constructed is through the
themes of life and death. The themes of honor and passion are similarly
linked with that of life-death in many passages in which recurrent images
of water and blood are the unifying principle, as, for example the Mother
says, ‘‘There are two groups here. My family and yours.… The hour of
blood has come’’ and in the scene by the arroyo where the blood is spilled
and ‘‘two great torrents are still at last.’’ The Woodcutters anticipate the
spilled blood and link it with the tainted passion of the lovers. SECOND
WOODCUTTER. You have to follow your passion.... FIRST WOODCUTTER.
They were deceiving themselves but at last the blood was stronger.
THIRD WOODCUTTER. Blood!
8/14/2015 12:31:00 AM