ZEYNEP TOPKORU

07035509

Introduction to Theatre II

Blood Wedding, Federico Garcia Lorca

June 8, 2006
Thesis statement: In Federico Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding (1933) the reflections of social

life of Spain can be analyzed through such concepts as marriage, heritage

and gender roles.

Outline: I. INTRODUCTION

II. MARRIAGE

III. HERITAGE

IV. GENDER ROLES

A. MEN VS. WOMEN

B. VIRGINITY

V. CONCLUSION
 Topkoru 1

I. INTRODUCTION

Federico Garcia Lorca, one of the leading poets and playwrights of his generation in Spain,
reflects the urban life of the ordinary people in his works as he gets his inspiration from the
folk tradition of his native land. Therefore, in Lorca’s Blood Wedding (1933) the reflections
of social life of Spain can be analyzed through such concepts as marriage, heritage and gender
roles.

II. MARRIAGE

To begin with, as one of the main issues that underlined throughout the play was marriage,
Lorca tried to show its importance for Spanish customs. As the play was inspired by an event
that Lorca read in a newspaper article which told the story of a girl who eloped with her lover
despite her engagement to another man, in Lorca’s Blood Wedding, that real event was used
as a medium to reflect the Spanish culture in a sense. The plot of the Blood Wedding, which
does not follow the Aristotelian rules having no three-unity, is based on a marriage of a
couple. Up to the climax when the bride eloped on her wedding day, the issue of marriage
played a major role in the matter of reflecting the traditions of Spain through the preparations
for the wedding and the clothing of the bride. And also through the approaches of the
characters who have no names – except Leonardo – but labels such as mother, the bride,
Leonardo’s wife, it can be understood that the perception of marriage was changing from
character to character. While the static character mother, who is strict and conservative about
gender roles, perceived marriage as “[a] man, some children and a wall two yards thick for
everything else” (Lorca 441), the bride expected much more from the marriage that as a
response to the mother’s approach she says: “Is anything else needed?” (ibid. 441). So it can
be understood from the answer of the bride, Lorca foreshadowed the bride’s escape on her
wedding day via that character’s rebellious speech against the society as well as the conflict
between individual and society. Therefore, within the concept of marriage, the women’s
position can be found throughout the play. Also another character, servant’s approach to the
marriage exemplifies how the perception of marriage changes not only according to the
character but also according to the status as the servant says that marriage is “a shining bed
and a man and a woman” (ibid. 442). When a Marxist approach is applied to the servant’s
attitude, her enthusiasm towards the presents that was brought to the bride, the reason of
 Topkoru 2

servant’s different expectations from the marriage can be concluded. Besides the women’s
position, the conflict between the individual wishes and society laws are exemplified
throughout the play under the concept of marriage. The main characters of the play, Leonardo,
a dynamic character who at first labeled the bride with whom he eloped as a bad girl, and the
bride were weakened by the society norms and they did not marry in spite of their love and
their reactions to the norms of the society. As stated in The Book of 1000 Plays, “[w]ithout
any conscious will, the characters are drawn to their destiny” (Fletcher 241). Lorca made the
play highly tragic as the lovers could not marry and Leonardo died. Moreover, under the
concept of marriage via the criticism of other characters, the beggar woman (death) and the
moon, about the lovers add illusionary taste with Lorca’s poetic sentences: “Light up the waist
coat and open the buttons; the knives will know the path after that” (Lorca 450). So it ca be
understood from these sentences that the hopelessness of human beings is underlined in a
sense since these characters wanted the death of Leonardo and the bride because they spoiled
the norms of the society. As a result, it can be derived that through the characters’ approach to
the marriage, the social life of Spain can be analyzed.

III. HERRITAGE

The other important point that the playwright underlined is the heritage, which had great
importance in the urban life of Spain. Within this concept, through the motif of knife, which
foreshadows the bad events to come, the cause of the revenge is emphasized throughout the
play. From the words of mother, in which she showed her disgust for the knife as it made her
to remember the death of her husband and son, the criticism of Lorca can be analyzed: “No.
No. Let’s not quit this talk. Can anyone bring me your father back? Or your brother? Then
there’s the jail. What do then mean, jail? They eat there, smoke there, play music there! […].
The killers in jail, carefree, looking at the mountains” (ibid. 436). Also the society can be
analyzed from the words of mother in which her revengeful character is reflected: “That’s
true. But I hear that name – Félix – and it’s all the same. Félix, a slimy mouthful. It makes me
spit – spit I won’t kill!” (ibid. 438). So it can be seen that via the characters, Lorca gives the
reader scenes from the Spanish society in a sense. Also the bridegroom was full of revenge
since the bride eloped with one of the Félix family members who killed his father and brother,
and he showed his feelings of heritage through his word: “Do you see this arm? Well, it’s not
my arm. It’s my brother’s arm, and my father’s, and that of all the dead ones in my family.
 Topkoru 3

And it has so much strength that it can pull this tree up by the roots, if it wants to” (ibid. 451).
So in can be concluded that as Lorca got inspiration from a real event that he read in a
newspaper, besides the issues of marriage, with his emphasis on heritage throughout the
Blood Wedding, he presents characteristics of the Spanish society.

IV. GENDER ROLES

Another point that Federico Garcia Lorca underlined in the play is the gender roles in
portraying the Spanish society aspects.

A. MEN VS. WOMEN

The mother, who was deeply conservative about the gender roles, is chosen as a medium to
reflect the differences between the roles of men and women as it can be understood from her
own words: “Your father, he used to take me. That’s the way with men of good stock; good
blood. Your grandfather left a son on every corner. That’s what I like. Men, men; wheat,
wheat” (ibid. 436). The patriarchal society’s importance is underlined by the servants speech
about explaining the meaning of marriage: “And the best part will be when you’ll wake up
and you’ll feel him at your side and when he caresses your shoulders with his breath, like a
little nightingale’s feather” (ibid. 442). Understood from the speech of the mother and the
servant about the role of males’, men were the ones who were as free as to leave a child in
every corner, who were so powerful that the women thought of them as their shelters. On the
other hand, while these qualities were attributed to the males, the women’s roles were limited
by the society as stated in mother’s words: “Men are like the wind! They’re forced to handle
weapons. Girls never go out into the street” (ibid. 446). Therefore, the women’s place was
home and their duty was to do the housework. The situation is well explained by the words of
the bride’s father: “No need to tell you about my daughter. At three, when the morning star
shines, she prepares the bread. She never talks; soft as wool, she embroiders all kinds of fancy
work and she can cut a strong cord with her teeth” (ibid. 441).

B. VIRGINITY

As for the other point that exemplified the gender roles is the emphasis on virginity. Virginity
played a major important role in such an urban setting where the society’s pressure was
evident. Therefore, when the bride returned to the house of the mother, she wanted to prove
 Topkoru 4

that she was still virgin, saying: “Let her! I want her to know I’m clean, that I may be crazy,
but that they can bury me without a single man ever having seen himself in the whiteness of
my breasts”(ibid. 454-55). It is evident from this quotation as well that virginity has a great
importance that the bride, although she lost both of her lover, Leonardo and the bridegroom,
her preserved virginity is the first thing that she emphasizes. As a result, it can be understood
from the play that Garcia Lorca conveyed the scenes from the Spanish culture through the
approaches of the characters’ to the gender roles besides the concept of marriage and heritage.

V. CONCLUSION

To sum up, it can be derived that Lorca, great Spanish poet and playwright, who was
murdered by Franco’s fascists in 1936, got inspiration from the folk traditions of his native
land, and combined it with his approach to poetry to create his own personal style. Therefore,
to represent the social life and the Spanish customs, Federico Garcia Lorca, with a strong
emphasis, presented the concepts such as marriage, heritage and gender roles.
 Works Cited

Brackett, Oscar Gloss. Tiyatro Tarihi. Ankara: Dost Yayınları, 2000.

Fletcher, Norman and Norman Japling, ed. The Book of 1000 Plays: A Comprehensive Guide

to the Most Frequently Performed Plays. New York: Amanvensis Books, 1989.

Lorca, Federico Garcia. Blood Wedding. John Gassner, ed. From Henrik Ibsen to Eugene

Ionesco. 3rd ed. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1963.

Shiplay, Thomas, ed. The Crown Guide to the World’s Great Plays: From Ancient Greece to

Modern Times. New York: Crown, 1984.

Şener, Sevda. Yaşamın Kırılma Noktasında Dram Sanatı. Ankara: Dost Yayınları, 1984.

Topuz, Hıfzı and Bülent Aksoy. Türk ve Dünya Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi. Cilt 7. İstanbul:

Anadolu, 1985.