Different Views of Tradition in Mother Courage and Her Children and Blood Wedding

This essay is about the poetic drama written by Fredrico Garcia Lorca, Blood Wedding, and the play written by Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and her Children. In Blood Wedding, Fredrico Garcia Lorca focuses on the moral and social norms people usually follow. They belong to a rural society which is conservative and at times primeval; they follow and respect only the traditional values to which they are accustomed opposite to the liberal social outlooks. They can't accept conduct outside their social lifestyles. The mother and the bridegroom are characters who are affected by these issues. However, In Mother Courage and her Children, Bertolt Brecht diminishes the traditional roles of characters because they have to survive according to their situation, a confused war torn society. Mother Courage and Yvette are two characters that are individualistic and have to survive. The aim is to demonstrate how characters behave and react to social values according to the needs of the situations they are placed in, whether they conform to social rules as expected traditionally or whether they react in a more individualistic ways. In both texts, the characters face difficulties in responding to moral and social issues. This is to emphasize the fact of how characters in Blood Wedding are controlled by the moral and social values in society whereas characters in Mother Courage and her Children are more individualistic and less influenced by the moral and social values of society. In Blood Wedding they conform to the fact that difference is inevitable in any conflict whereas characters in Mother Courage and her Children become malleable and resistant in order to face and overcome conflict.

When a reader interprets Blood Wedding, he faces many moral issues. Betrayal is one of the moral issues that worry the mother. When Bride betrays the Bridegroom by eloping with Leonardo, she devalues the sanctity of marriage and breaks the traditional values. As a result, this incident causes worry and anxiety. The mother says,

"Only clean, decent girls throw themselves into the water, (not her kind)." And now she's the wife of my son. Two families. Now there are two families dragged into it "mine and yours."

This quote depicts conflict between the two families because of irresponsible action. The short sentence structure and use of parenthesis, example (not her kind), portrays a harsh and outraged tone. The break use caesura and break in the sentences suggests the attitude of the mother towards the Bride.