NOTES FROM INTERACTIVE ORAL
BLOOD WEDDING
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GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
Born in Spain and grew up in Spain.
Visited Cuba.
The novel reflects the country’s specific
landscape while still being a surreal
exploration of ideas.
The heat and dependence on crops for
life are typical of the Andalusian area
Lorca lived.
Blood Wedding was not limited in its
discussion of life and social class as it
was written in the time when Spain was
practically free from political
interference.
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As Lorca was free to write
what he wished, his play
examines cultural rituals and
‘blood ties’ while criticising the
class system and lack of
equality embedded within
society.
Heat pervades the play and is
symbolic of the passion and
violence that exists beneath
the surface.
There is a divide between the
land owned by the bride’s
family and the bride-groom’s
family – possibly
foreshadowing the fact that
they were not meant to be
together.
The bride-groom’s family
travels to the bride’s home and
the mother mentions the ‘hills’
and difficulty they had in
getting there. Perhaps this
reference to the difficulty in
the hill mimic the rising
tension with the union, or
foreshadow the impending
struggle.
POLITICAL CONTEXT AND ECONOMIC
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1928 (when the play is set)
There’s true love between
“the rich were rich and the poor were
Leonardo and the Bride, but
poor”
because Leonardo comes from
When Locra was growing up he was
a poor family, whereas the
lucky enough to be very rich. His
bridegroom comes from the
parents owned a sugar plantation and as poorer family (Ox vs. Vinyard)
Spain had recently had its sugar source
they are not able to marry.
cut – they became very wealthy.
Marriage is seen to be an
Surrounding Lorca were the poor.
economic union rather that
Everywhere he went he saw their
one based on feelings. It was
suffering and this impacted on his
important to marry within you
NOTES FROM INTERACTIVE ORAL
BLOOD WEDDING
Thanks Grace for the quick typing and the class for such a lively discussion!
beliefs greatly. He saw it as unfair and
spent much of his life supporting the
Republican movement and desire for
change and equality within Spanish
society.
Lorca was practically disgusted by how
big the difference was
“Until the economy is fixed its
impossible for us to think freely”
Cuba had been taken by America and
that meant that Spain lost their sugar.
Mexico’s revolution was a trigger for
Spain’s revolution.
social class. The gifts the bride
receives from the bride-groom
are symbolic of the
superfluous wealth held by
some. The fact that the bride’s
family also had a servant is
also a reference to the
disparity between the poor
and the rich. The fact that the
bride did not care for the
presents represents the
younger generation’s desire
for change and the ability to
marry for love. The gifts
symbolise the female as a
commodity that can be
purchased.
It’s not about economics, but
it’s affected by economics. It is
a standing point as to the play
though, if the situation of their
society wasn’t as it was (rich
can’t marry poor) then the
outcome wouldn’t have
happened. The play’s
conclusion is where Lorca’s
criticism of society lies. The
society he lives in now is full of
‘dead’ people who fulfil old
traditions and man made
cultural restrictions. Those
who are literally dead are free
from society’s restraints. For
society to be successful their
needs to be a balance between
‘reason’ cultural traditions –
and ‘emotion’ total freedom to
do as one wishes.
Spain split into 2 centralised
economies after this play was
written.
The brides family split into 2
groups as well
Lorca was predicting this; it is
human nature. He was
foreshadowing the future of
Spain.
NOTES FROM INTERACTIVE ORAL
BLOOD WEDDING
Thanks Grace for the quick typing and the class for such a lively discussion!
ARTISTIC IDEALS
Guernica by Picasso; a commentary on
the Spanish civil war – while the
painting was completed after Lorca’s
play it does have similar symbols
embedded within it – these are symbols
that were important to Spanish culture.
The people in the painting are being
violently being killed. There are
masculine symbols of the bull and horse.
These artists were exposed to only war
and fighting at the time.
Salvador and Picasso both lived with
Lorca and read all his texts.
To challenge the culture of Spain at the
time.
FLOWERS:
Fertility, growth and life
There was a wax flower, not a real
flower, therefore symbolising fake life,
fake love. It was really hot which would
have caused the wax to melt. There are
quite a few references heat, heat and
passion, summer is symbolic of
maturity, richness and ripeness.
That death is a great equaliser
Leonardo is surrounded with masculine
symbolism, the horse.
Leonardo was the only one in the play to
have a name when he wasn’t the most
important character
Giving the poor a voice
Because he’s not part of a stereotype,
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Lorca was friends with
Salvador Dali e.g. the surreal
scene with the woodcutters
and the moon. The symbolism
in this scene supports his
modernist approach and the
era of art where writers were
experimenting with style. Note
that the challenging of style
that was previously rigid in
structure mimics the desire for
change within society.
Yellow: Page 3 scene 1, a room
painted yellow
Colour of wealth and gold,
money
Also represented crops, e.g.
wheat, which is worth a lot
back in that time. Represents
that they were wealthier than
Leonardo.
Pg 83 2 hard men ended up
with yellow lips
They’ve come back to haunt
the mother
Yellow is the colour of death.
Foreshadowing his death.
Act 1 scene 2 page 12 a room
painted pink etc…
Leonardos house is pink, bride
to be’s house is ROSY, LACE,
PINK, WHITE. Both are
associated with the colour
pink.
Pink is a variation of the red.
Symbolises anger when the
bride falls – blood in her hair –
blood ties are an important
part of Spanish culture
Leonardo breaks the blood tie
by running away with a
QUOTES
“Man is
wheat and
wheat is
man”
When they
both fell
and the
bride
returned
with blood
staining her
hair
NOTES FROM INTERACTIVE ORAL
BLOOD WEDDING
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he’s his own man.
different woman.
Felix is the name of Leonardo’s family
and they are the enemy of the bridegroom. Blood feud. The name Felix
means matador – bull fighter – part of
the culture’s sporting identity. Bull
fighting is violent and in particular the
battle between the matador and the bull
is brutal.
Act 3 final scene
A room in white…
Represents the cycle of life and
death, mother lost husband
and eldest son, only life left is
the bridegroom, he gets
married which represents
maturity, then he dies and has
the funeral in a white church
which finishes the cycle again.
No shadows and no grey, or
even a perspective in this act.
It’s a kind of place in between,
and the people bring their own
baggage, but this room has no
personality. It is a man made
construction.
Women speak the most in the play –
however are isolated from society.
During this time women were
predominantly restricted to the home
and men were permitted to do as they
pleased. The Mother of the bride-groom
comments on the fact that her husband
had a lot of sons with different women…
the fact that the bride is also meant to
not be ‘pure’ shows the changing nature
of Spanish society and the lack of equity
that exists in the old traditions.
Why is Death a ‘beggar woman’?
Because you trip over her, she’s meant
to be unpredicted. No one notices the
poor and no one notices death.
Act scene 1 act 3
Woodcutters. They are killing
the trees, killing life
Forest represents freedom and
outside the cultural norm.
Beggar woman represents
death, and she is found in the
forest.
Moon is sort of symbolic of
that. His face is white.
Family tree; alternative
meanings of trees. Them
shedding leaves.
Play starts in the morning ends
at night. Cycle of the play.
STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY
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NOTES FROM INTERACTIVE ORAL
BLOOD WEDDING
Thanks Grace for the quick typing and the class for such a lively discussion!
CULTURAL TRADITIONS AND RITUALS
The two settings of the play are inside
the house, or outside in the forest.
Everything is inside is how the social
structure of what Spain is. Whereas
everything in the forest is outside of
that. All the traditions that take place in
the play are added to show how they did
it just to show this is what Spain does.
Spain is traditionally oriented. Because
Leonardo and his person run away into
the forest its because they want to break
the social rules.
She didn’t die and she changed the rules,
but she is saying that society will punish
those who do change the rules because
her to be husband died. The play sues
supreme juxtapositions to show the
impacts
Blood wedding (the title) is a
contradiction of life and death
The bride is a representation of the new
generation, the mother of the old
generation
The ending that shows how they could
live happily after but they don’t, is
displaying that they need more people
to go against the strains of society to
change it
Also the wedding and society is the
superego, and the is the id, the blood is
the id the wedding is the super ego
Because of reason and rules they had to
marry people they didn’t want to. If you
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The bride
sai to the
servant “I
wish I was
a man”
NOTES FROM INTERACTIVE ORAL
BLOOD WEDDING
Thanks Grace for the quick typing and the class for such a lively discussion!
put emotion and reason together – you
need both for a society to function.
Can you be dead whilst you’re still alive?
Can you have no meaning? Because
everything you are doing has no
structure it is societies structure
He employs existentialism in the play.
GENDER:
It’s a male dominated world, blue is the
colour men wear a lot, in the final scene
there are two girls dressed in dark blue.
The men are all but practically dead, the
mean re the main source of finance. The
women now have to do the work to get
their money, and the idea of a social
change happening throughout the piece.
RELIGION
Catholic religion. You couldn’t get a
divorce at this time. The wife of
Leonardo is stuffed.
In Romeo and Juliet the families learn
something, whereas in this play they
don’t learn and all die.
Lullaby’s and singing:
1920s was the silver age for poets, a
bunch of young poets would get
together and write and feed off each
other, and it was almost completely
eradicated by the civil war.
The violent images being sung to a small
child. One was a warning tale and the
mother in laws was stating facts and
scaring the child. They’re repeating the
cycle of their life, growing up with this
war.
Not only was Leonardo dangerous, he
was in danger.
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NOTES FROM INTERACTIVE ORAL
BLOOD WEDDING
Thanks Grace for the quick typing and the class for such a lively discussion!
FOLKLORE AND STORY TELLING
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