"BLOOD WEDDING" (FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA).   Term Paper ID:26438 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines play's themes, characters, messages, morality, structure, tragic irony, subjective vs. objective values & perceptions.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines play's themes, characters, messages, morality, structure, tragic irony, subjective vs. objective values & perceptions. Paper Introduction: The purpose of this research is to examine the play Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca. The plan of the research will be to set forth the thematic pattern of ideas and meanings contained in the work and then to discuss the means by which these ideas are elaborated, with a view toward evaluating why the full effect of the presentation is one of high tragedy and the existence of a major work of world literature. The themes of Blood Wedding emerge out of a structure of human consciousness that carries the burden of remembered conflict, remembered injury, remembered grief. Grief and loss, indeed, so dominate the Mother's consciousness that there is a tension in her anticipation of her son's wedding. So simple a gesture as giving him his vineyard knife calls to her mind the murders of her husband, long ago, and her other son, more recen Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. And I dead too (Lorca 89). but evenso when I say her name I feel as though someone had hit me on the foreheadwith a rock" (Lorca 36). To see your wedding. The irony of the Mother's situation is almost directly paralleled inthe irony of the figure of her presumed enemy: Leonardo, who has made a badmarital choice, for obscure reasons (perhaps inconvenient geography,perhaps a lover's spat with the Bride) marrying the wrong cousin, anddespite enjoying the trappings of hearth, home, and that all-importantfamilial attribute, a firstborn son, pining for the girl he left behind.Leonardo is implicated as a womanizer because he is so often absent fromhome, but the Wife, whom Leonardo appears to have married on the rebound,is mistaken about the shape of his infidelity. But Blood Wedding is not a play about romantic heroism, for at thismoment of highest intensity the action becomes ambiguous, beforetransfiguring itself into an exercise in tragic irony--more exactlyprofoundly ironic tragedy. James Graham-Lujan and Richard L. In Blood Wedding, what is real within the meaning of everydayexperience is pushed back further and further by the power of implicationand symbol, so that what is poetically real becomes the dominant force andwhat is palpably real becomes (or anyway seems meant to become) ofsecondary importance. The Bride, for her part, clings to the memory of Leonardo whileresolving to do what is expected of her: marry the Bridegroom and live aconventional life. Thus do discrete units ofdramatic realization, made concrete by language and the connection betweencharacter emotion and action, contribute to a whole that is (and is meantto be) greater than the sum of its parts. Prologue. First there is the fact that the decisive momentof action takes place offstage, depriving reader and audience of absoluteclarity about what is happening. The themes of Blood Wedding A. Thisallows the Bridegroom to reclaim his social reputation and is undoubtedlyin keeping with the emotional intensity that has been building to thisepisode. And the problems associated with satisfying thatpassion in the face of conflicting claims on one's whole experience ofcomfortable moral life, point toward catastrophe. TheBridegroom's Mother adopts a Stoic demeanor in company, which may preventan absolute outburst against Leonardo Felix and all who are aligned withthe Felixes despite what is clearly an excess of internalized subjectivepassion about her loss. Ibsen'sheroine chooses bourgeois responsibility, though as Johnston suggests, theplay that follows Lady in Ibsen's series of realistic dramas, Hedda Gabler,portrays a woman whose choice for bourgeois comfort and responsibility asopposed to intense romance was after all a bad one--just as Leonardo'sopting for socially conventional marriage after a spat with the girl whoturns out to have been his grand passion turns out to have been a badchoice. The twinthemes of love and death, indeed, are tied to the development andreification of the essentials of life with the scope of lives of the Brideand Leonardo. Despite the prospect of happy union, despite theMother's pledge to love her new daughter-in-law, there is an implicationthat a family trust is being violated. Sharing and tension between Bride and Mother after double death 1. Blood Wedding. Trans. Thesubjective misgivings that she has turn out to be ironically prescientabout the shape that her son's objective-world experience will assume. But the Bride'sdeliberate embrace of an empty life--to be lived without protest, withoutshadow or substance--shows how successful and unforgiving the catharsis hasbeen. This is poetic ambiguity raised to the level ofperversity, owing to the perverse twist, revealed in the final scene, thatit was not the Bride who died with Leonardo but rather the Bridegroom,presumably in the death struggle. The irony compounds when the widowedMother is left to mourn in company with the Bride-widow whose wedding-daybehavior was a proximate cause of the Bridegroom's death. Plain- talking actors from the land of Jimmy Stewart found themselves speaking lines like "with a knife / with a tiny knife / that barely fits the hand / but that slides in clean / through the astonished flesh" (Molarsky 52).This comment really says more about the failure of the American commercialtheatre's failure of imagination--whether among impresarios or the audienceis irrelevant--than about the failure of poetic reality in Blood Wedding.All that is required of the text is that it remain true to the logic of themetaphorical reality within the scope of the dramatic design. In other words, the play's evocations are likely to beas important as its manifest events, even though the events are a necessarymechanism for supplying the basis on which meanings are to be made. The fact that it is described in a colophon as atragedy in three acts and seven scenes (Lorca 31) is an immediate clue thatthe play is at least in part a self-conscious aesthetic exercise for aplaywright who has recognized tragic sensibility in his originalconception. In thatregard, the introductory matter to the Graham-Lujan-O'Connell edition ofBlood Wedding comments that the play moves "from the field of the veryhuman passions of concrete beings . Just as I saw yours! Mother's retreat from objective world no comfort to herV. It is present in the nature of theirony of the marriage of her remaining son to a girl whose family isaligned with the dreaded Felix family. As the stagedirection explains: "They go out in each other's arms" (Lorca 89). Conflict between social convention versus grand passions C. Formalism helps clarify feelings of characters B. Mood andintensity amplify the effect of the tragedy, especially in the aftermath ofthe deaths of the Bridegroom and Leonardo. Structure of human consciousness and memory B. Thus from another--and moreemotionally credible--point of view, the fact that the Bride remains "lostand virgin," not having time to consummate with Leonardo because they areon the run, can be interpreted as unenacted (suppressed or otherwiseunresolved) passion, the consequences of which are the dominant emotionalmodality of the action. The purpose of this research is to examine the play Blood Wedding byFederico Garcia Lorca. The symbolof the knife reappears at the closing moments of the play, this time asboth murder weapon and weapon of passion. But at the endof the play, the shell of the womb is not a shield--more exactly does nothave the status of shield, as in the past--but a prison. Bride's virginity first a weapon against Leonardo, later a permanent curseIII. The themes of Blood Wedding emerge out of a structure of humanconsciousness that carries the burden of remembered conflict, rememberedinjury, remembered grief. Tied up by you, done with your two hands (Lorca 59)This exchange of recriminations does not conceal--indeed it highlights--thedepth of passion that each still feels and has always felt for the other. The irony here is that sexual purity is not anaccomplishment but an index of the waste of the life of the third member ofthe triangle. So encased is she,indeed, that she has not ventured so far as the top of the nearest hill foryears. James Graham-Lujan and Richard L. Earlier sexual rejection possible reason for earlier split between Leonardo, Bride 3. Blood Wedding. But suppose what is perfectlypossible, that the break between them came about because the Bride, as ateenager fearful of her reputation, pushed Leonardo away, then came toregret it as he, perhaps churlishly, plowed other pastures, adding insultto injury by making her own cousin his Wife. Death-Character symbolism heightening irony, aestheticism 2. Lorca's metaphorical usages not to everyone's taste 2. She is the one left to mourn when asher son deliberately pursues resolution of the problems created when whathe had thought would be the unity of subjective and objective experienceitself collides with the bold assertion of subjectivity that is theelopement of his Bride with Leonardo. The plan of the research will be to set forth thethematic pattern of ideas and meanings contained in the work and then todiscuss the means by which these ideas are elaborated, with a view towardevaluating why the full effect of the presentation is one of high tragedyand the existence of a major work of world literature. But Blood Wedding is not Romeo and Juliet, for matters arenot so simple as what is to be expected from the direction and thedialogue, a romantic lovers' leap into the abyss as the Bride and Leonardoescape the wrath of the injured Bridegroom together forever. Equally, however, this demeanor prevents expressionof feeling, and unexpressed feeling, just like unsatisfied passion, canlead to negative action. "A Feast of Lorca." American Theatre 15 (July 1998): 52-53.I. Knife doubly symbolic of weapon of death, organ of life C. and he would have draggedme always, always, always--even if I were an old woman and all your son'ssons held me by the hair" (96).[1] Both intensity and mood emerge in the shape of the conflictedhistories that characters bring to their encounter with others as well asthe highly specific settings, right down to the lighting and scenery plotin the final scene (stark-white walls and floor; no perspective). Multiple ironies of the coming marriage 1. Forceful catharsis made credible by formalistic presentation C. It turns out that he rideshis horse to the bedroom window of the Bride--not to touch or even toreveal his presence, but just to be near her. The difficulty with that choice, even though the Brideacknowledges that the Bridegroom is a good man, is the factor ofunsatisfied passion. It follows that the content of the challenge is likely to bepresentational, slightly artificial, perhaps self-consciously symbolic ofmeaning and moment. Trans. New York: New Directions, 1947.Garcia Lorca, Francisco. The suddenviolence of the action, which has more in common with symbolic dancechoreography than with explaining the plot, contributes to the ambiguity.But the real confusion comes from that second shriek, which is not quiteexplained in the stage direction or in the dialogue--at least not yet.Meanwhile, the Moon has appeared overhead, stopping immediately after theBeggar Woman has spread her wings. The mise en scène is presented via stage direction as anenvironment of ultimate clarification: "There should not be a single graynor any shadow, not even what is necessary for perspective" (Lorca 9 ). In other words, the playwright is asserting an artisticchallenge to reader or audience, with the play itself the vehicle of suchchallenge. By Garcia Lorca. Unexpected death of Leonardo and Bridegroom, not Leonardo and Bride D. To be sure, working out theconflicts leaves a residue of waste and destruction. Unrelentingpassion, whether born of hatred of love, predominates. to an unreal world" where Moon andDeath can become personified onstage (Francisco Garcia Lorca 2 ). As she explains to the Mother: "Iwant her to know I'm clean, that I may be crazy, but that they can bury mewithout a single man ever having seen himself in the whiteness of mybreasts" (Lorca 96). The vineyardknife can be interpreted as the instrument of that goal and as theinstrument of his functioning in the objective world. If they separate us, it will be Because I am dead. Internal logic of poetic devices serve the play, heighten tensionIV. Village gossip surrounds the girl:She was formerly engaged to Leonardo Felix, who has married her cousin; thegirl's mother did not love her husband; in any case, the girl is isolated,15 miles away from the village circle, hence alien to custom andfamiliarity. New York: New Directions, 1947. . Works CitedGarcia Lorca, Federico. More exactly, theMother will return to the encasing womb with the Bride, after the final-scene ceremony of purification and manifestation of passion. LEONARDO. Tension between poetic and everyday reality 1. Leonardo's rebound marriage a mistake D. This would go far to explain why the Mother doesnot exactly jump for joy when going with her son to pay the pro forma callto the Bride's father to request the girl's hand. Although Leonardo was a child when the Mother's husband was killed,the Mother thinks of the murder as having happened yesterday. The Ibsen Cycle: The Design of the Plays From Pillars of Society to When We Dead Awaken. Irony of character experience--Tension between subjective and objective experience A. Conflict between Leonardo, Bride concealing great love 1. Her household functions as a symbol of the profound privacy of herown womb and of course that of her surviving son, though he wants nothingso much as to escape the womb, cut himself off of the vine as one would cutthe umbilical cord, and make his own life outside the subjective realm ofthe womb and in the world of external, objective reality. This is the knife, says Mother,"that barely fits the hand, / but that slides in clean / through theastonished flesh / and stops at the place / where trembles, enmeshed, / thedark root of a scream" (Lorca 98, 99). But in that caseverisimilitude itself can be seen as a cause of the depth of (suppressed)passion that fosters the frustrated reality of unconsummated sexual love. The collision between objective reality and her subjective worldforces her into a decision for one or the other. Inanticipation of wedded bliss in an organized social environment, there arecertain things that one cannot say because decorum must be maintained. If that interpretation holds, however, then it is difficult toexplain why Leonardo and the Bride did not sneak off and have sex when theywere previously emotionally attached. . Depth of feeling versus surface demeanorII. Three Tragedies. The Mother's consciousness, the very world in which she encasesherself, is dominated by profoundly subjective values. The scream of death, as theobjective fact of life, merges with the scream of orgasm, as the mostprofoundly subjective experience of life. O'Connell. Thus peasant morality can be said to serves as ananchor and symbol of verisimilitude and indeed of the limits that objectivereality (social morality) places on subjectivity. What might read like 'The Surrealist Manifesto' on paperreveals a potently visceral force on stage." The most striking feature ofBlood Wedding is its unrelenting intensity, just as the most strikingfeature of its mise en scène is the evocation of mood. Clan rivalry 2. Butthe action has violated expectation, and the Bridegroom's mother confirmsthat the two men killed each other for love. What have you come here to do? This, too, is fallout of the double death, a waste ofenergy that is a marker of profound tragedy. . But by the end of theplay the conflicts are so decisively resolved that it is inconceivable thatthe survivors, drained of will and energy, could muster the creativestrength to attempt to act on whatever hatred or revenge might lingerbetween clan-feud antagonists. It is the Beggar Woman who has the barefacts of the case, that there are "two dead men in the night's splendor"(Lorca 93). Grief and loss, indeed, so dominate the Mother'sconsciousness that there is a tension in her anticipation of her son'swedding. If there is anysense of redeemed passion to be found in Blood Wedding, it may lie inLeonardo's son, but within the moment of grief Leonardo's Wife is notthinking about the future but about the "beautiful horseman" who is now "aheap of snow" (97). Indeed, of all thecharacters, only the Bridegroom and the Bride's Father anticipate thewedding without suspicion. In the text, the characters' direct experience of fundamental cosmicforces acts as a counterpoint to the claims of social convention and vulgarreality. Bride's regret at losing Leonardo, gaining Bridegroom C. This theatrical convention appears to have been asource of difficulty for critics who find the poetic reality unconvincing.Molarsky cites the mixed reception that Blood Wedding had in the U.S.commercial theatre when it first was performed in the 193 s, the same yearas Clifford Odets's Waiting for Lefty, an agit-prop modern-day messageplay: What could Americans make of a play that included among its characters the Moon, personified as a woodcutter, and Death as a beggar? LEONARDO. Out of parental love, sheacquiesces in the objectivity that her son the Bridegroom pursues. BRIDE. BRIDE. Three Tragedies. To seehow the events of the plot and the behavior of the characters come to standfor something beyond themselves, it is necessary to look to the authorityof the text. Intensity and mood created by interplay of setting, character emotion, symbolism A. There is a momentary confrontation betweenthe Mother and the Bride, and the Mother insists that the Bride weep forher loss at the door, not inside the Mother's home. So simple a gesture as giving him his vineyard knife calls to hermind the murders of her husband, long ago, and her other son, morerecently, apparently at the hands of a rival clan--the same clan to whichthe Bridegroom's intended belongs: "I know the girl is good . Interplay of love, death, irony, aesthetics in Blood Wedding A. Parallels between Mother and Leonardo B. Bride's virginity no compliment to her 2. An absence of the fear of death grows as Leonardo and theBride elope, then remain together despite the ever-increasing level ofphysical and psychological danger to them both. Momentary misgivings about the Bride's reputation and the practicalsocial difficulties they will face if they confront those friends andfamily they have disappointed are set aside so that death becomespreferable to the prospect of remaining alive but apart. . In II.2, when Leonardocontrives to pay a visit to the Bride, a brief exchange says worlds aboutmust have been a hasty parting and failure to resolve their relationship: BRIDE. The two offstage shrieks,separated by a tense but long moment, now are seen to have come from theBride, who saw one, then the other man in her life die in front of her.Virgin she was, and virgin she remains. Feeling of senseless, tragic waste the result of combined elements of dramatic presentation----------------------- [1]This allusion to the sea recalls Ibsen's Lady from the Sea, inwhich the sea and the figure of a seafaring former lover beckon the heroineEllida away from the comfortable bourgeois world of everyday life. That undoubtedly explains the first shriek that is heard. Violence offstage vis-à-vis specific stage directions to move action C. The dialectic, or perhaps moreaccurately the irony of double meaning, dominates consciousness, keeping itin perpetual tension. In isolation, these pieces of village gossip are harmless.Together, especially because they are complicated by an indirect alliancewith the Felixes, they lend weight to dread of a marriage that is, for theMother, a situation more to be faced and endured than embraced. The image of the couple leaving the scene is striking, and so far therhythm of tragedy is moving toward a culmination of romantic heroism,hopeless love. Shefloats from one collision, of values, to the aftermath of the collision ofsubjective and objective experience. Whereupon, according to direction: "The curtain comes down in absolutesilence" (Lorca 9 ). By the same token, the Bridegroom's insistence onsatisfaction of his honor has wasted his life, just as Leonardo'sinsistence on marrying (rather in haste, it can be seen in retrospect), onthe rebound had the long-term effect of wasting his life. She willnever relinquish the depth of passionate feeling that the loss of herhusband and firstborn son caused, though she suppresses it for the sake ofsupporting the "done thing," or socially conventional wedding. Citing the intensityof This is certainly evident in the Bride's statement that Leonardo"dragged me along like the pull of the sea . This would tend to date Blood Wedding as an antique artifact ofthe 193 s, even though the time period of the play is a generation beforeLorca's own. 1-29.Johnston, Brian. From one point of view, the fact that the old passion between theBride and Leonardo was not sexually consummated can be interpreted as acuriosity of moral and social convention in Spanish-peasant village lifecirca 19 . . O'Connell. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State UP, 1992.Molarsky, Mona. To be sure, total annihilation forLeonardo, presumably at the point of the Bridegroom's knife, shortlyfollows. This anticipation is what the Motherfaces. This is not a failure of human imagination but rather an assertion ofhow strongly human action can crush the impulse toward it, especially afterthe imagination has been so long and so forcefully suppressed by pettysocial norms. Ironic plot twist, not merely romantic tragedy 1. Molarsky (53) says that "Lorca is vibrantly theatrical and emotionalto the core. The final white scene symbolizing purification of nonessential elements B. The dramatic structure of Blood Wedding: Formalistic, ritualistic, aesthetic A. The dramatic structure of Blood Wedding is so formal as to have thecharacter of ritual. It is also theconcrete symbol of the male organ, which he intends to be instrumental inthe same thing after the wedding. In this play, the ritual enactment of emotion and personal historieshas the effect of clarifying feeling as well as cleansing the conflictsthat the emotion and histories represent. Bride physically virginal but sexually allied with Leonardo 2. . The final white scene is thesetting of such purity that it is stripped of all nonessentials; onlypassion remains to inflect the scene and deposit meaning there. LEONARDO. Lovers discard all practical concerns for love, facign death willingly B. But the offstage action continues with a second shriek, followedby the apotheosis of the Beggar Woman, whose status as the symbol of theAngel of Death is given concrete expression in the moment she sweeps hercape up in the figure of what the stage direction calls a bird. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.