Blood Wedding, by Federico Garcia Lorca

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Recommended: Gender role of a female

Most of the protagonists in “Blood Wedding” such as the mother, bride, and Leonardo do not fulfil the roles they are assigned as they turn into evolved characters at the end of the play. At first they portray their roles just like they are supposed to but then as the play goes on, they face a problem and the solution to the problem is to reject the society and follow their desires.

The roles of an archetypal mother in a Spanish society are to stay home, perform domestic work and care about family. They are there to grieve for the dead for six years, which in result makes them unable to leave the house, hence their lives are predestined. Even though it is natural for women to have little freedom, it can be deduced that they are in a “safe” zone. Nevertheless feminine characters are the ones who suffer emotionally from their longings and experience conflicts and catastrophes. In this case, mother endures from the death of her deceased son and husband and is constantly grieving. This display the common situations women at that time have to face, showing symptoms of repression. Generally in “Blood Wedding” female characters uncover their true self when talking to other feminine characters. The mother, being a very womanly character, depicts the human life which is shattered by Spanish traditions and people. Hence her desires are gone, in a sense, she also loses her real character, as she is so used to the society, that it would be wrong to think and act differently. When the mother talks to the neighbour, she reveals her opinion about the marriage more easily than talking to her own son (she even keeps a promise, indicating that they have been close). From the mothers conversations, it can he said that she strongly believes tha...

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... given. The characters evolve creating a change in roles which destroys the equilibrium of the society. The names of the character reveal the problem in the Andalucían society from Lorca’s point of view. The characters stated in this essay all have expectation to meet but do not meet unless of an alteration takes place. The mother’s desire is to have her son take the right decision and Leonardo and the Bride’s wish is to stay together; however, neither of these scenarios takes place as Death takes them. These reasons force the living characters to change for the better. This might indicate that the characters have double roles which might have been Lorca’s intention in the first place creating this a thought-provoking play.

Works Cited

http://www.scribd.com/doc/23992206/Blood-Wedding

http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Spanish/BloodWeddingActII.htm

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