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    Blood Wedding

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    Anonymous 1711eUtOF
    Federico Garcia Lorca's play "The Blood Wedding" portrays women as marginalized in traditional Spanish society. Gender roles strictly confined women to the domestic sphere as homemakers and mothers, while men held power outside the home. The play introduces the Mother, a woman living in isolation and mourning following the loss of her husband and son. In contrast, the Bride rejects traditional feminine expectations, working as a man would. She resents being forced into marriage. The few other women, like the Wife and Mother-in-Law, live resigned lives defined by their relationships to men. Through these characters, Lorca critiques the rigid social norms that oppressed women and restricted their independence and self-determination in

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    Blood Wedding

    Uploaded by

    Anonymous 1711eUtOF
    2K views5 pages
    Federico Garcia Lorca's play "The Blood Wedding" portrays women as marginalized in traditional Spanish society. Gender roles strictly confined women to the domestic sphere as homemakers and mothers, while men held power outside the home. The play introduces the Mother, a woman living in isolation and mourning following the loss of her husband and son. In contrast, the Bride rejects traditional feminine expectations, working as a man would. She resents being forced into marriage. The few other women, like the Wife and Mother-in-Law, live resigned lives defined by their relationships to men. Through these characters, Lorca critiques the rigid social norms that oppressed women and restricted their independence and self-determination in

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    Blood wedding

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    Federico Garcia Lorca's play "The Blood Wedding" portrays women as marginalized in traditional Spanish society. Gender roles strictly confined women to the domestic sphere as homemakers and mothers, while men held power outside the home. The play introduces the Mother, a woman living in isolation and mourning following the loss of her husband and son. In contrast, the Bride rejects traditional feminine expectations, working as a man would. She resents being forced into marriage. The few other women, like the Wife and Mother-in-Law, live resigned lives defined by their relationships to men. Through these characters, Lorca critiques the rigid social norms that oppressed women and restricted their independence and self-determination in

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    2K views5 pages

    Blood Wedding

    Uploaded by

    Anonymous 1711eUtOF
    Federico Garcia Lorca's play "The Blood Wedding" portrays women as marginalized in traditional Spanish society. Gender roles strictly confined women to the domestic sphere as homemakers and mothers, while men held power outside the home. The play introduces the Mother, a woman living in isolation and mourning following the loss of her husband and son. In contrast, the Bride rejects traditional feminine expectations, working as a man would. She resents being forced into marriage. The few other women, like the Wife and Mother-in-Law, live resigned lives defined by their relationships to men. Through these characters, Lorca critiques the rigid social norms that oppressed women and restricted their independence and self-determination in

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    How does Lorca represent women as a marginalized section of the society in

    his play The Blood Wedding?


    The main role of a man in the Hispanic culture was reiterated as Machismo, the provider of the
    family and was expected to be extremely brave and strong. Whereas a woman was referred to as
    a Marianismo, whose main role was to be a good housewife and mother. The women used to
    imprison themselves behind the walls of their houses as though they were buried alive; this
    causes a repetition of fate because overtime they lose all their freshness, vitality, and influence
    their children's lives with the same devastating traditions that had destroyed them.
    The first woman we are introduced to in the play is the Mother, who is seen to live her life in
    mourning post the loss of her husband and son; and also in constant fear of losing her last son,
    the Bridegroom. She is our first insight into the role of woman in the society. In Act 1, Scene 1
    the mother says to the Bridegroom I wish you were a girl, Then you wouldn't be going down to
    the stream 1, Lorca conveys that the girls never left the house and the sons did all the tasks that
    involved leaving the house. Soon after that, the mother says Wed be embroidering borders,
    with flowers and little woollen dogs.2 The gender roles are distinguished through these few
    lines, we see that the girls performed the most delicate tasks such as sewing and other household
    chores. Through her words One Woman, one man and thats it3 we also learn that it was against
    her ethics to even look at another man or remarry even though she lost her husband. Another
    detail about the mother is also introduced to us in her conversation with the Neighbour when the
    mother responds with the words I haven't been to the top of the street in twenty years4 this
    1
    2
    3
    4

    Pg.3,
    Pg.3,
    Pg.4,
    Pg.5,

    Blood
    Blood
    Blood
    Blood

    Wedding
    Wedding
    Wedding
    Wedding

    by
    by
    by
    by

    Federico
    Federico
    Federico
    Federico

    Garcia
    Garcia
    Garcia
    Garcia

    Lorca
    Lorca
    Lorca
    Lorca

    brings out her isolation from society after the loss of her husband and son. She is seen to have
    completely locked out the world outside of her house. Throughout Act 1, we learn that the
    mother believed that men were obligated to work at the fields and women cloistered away from
    the society with their sole focus on satisfying their husbands and raising their children.
    In contrast, the Bride is seen doing what was proposed to be a mans job in the Hispanic culture.
    This is brought out in Act 1, Scene 3 during the conversation between the Father and the Mother,
    in which the Father says his daughter is also a worker, and can cut rope with her teeth5, this
    brings out the Brides rough nature which is a complete contrast from that of the other woman in
    the play, who are portrayed as delicate and incapable of chores outside the house. The Bride also
    emphasizes this when she says Because Ive always done a mans work? I wish I were a man.6
    This conveys her frustration and anger of being amongst a society that expects a woman to be
    nothing but a good mother and wife inside of the house with .. a wall two feet thick7.
    Throughout the play, we see that the Bride does not conform to the role that the society has laid
    upon her and instead goes against everything society expects of her.

    The bride emerges as the non-conformist in the play, making her the second most important
    woman in the play, we are acquainted with her in Act 1, through the Neighbour, She lives away
    out there, alone with her father- miles from the nearest house. But she's used to loneliness8 who
    imparts that the Bride is also isolated from the society not just emotionally, but physically too.
    The bride is forced into the marriage with the Bridegroom simply because of his possessions and
    5
    6
    7
    8

    Pg.18, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca


    Pg.21, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca
    Pg.19, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca
    Pg.6, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca

    her father's greed, which develops an inner conflict in her, as she is forced to conform with the
    society. This is seen during her meeting with the Mother where she is hesitant to look at the
    presents and then bites her hand in anger, which brings out her inner turmoil. This is significant
    as we continue to see this even in todays world with people so educated. The Bride also refers to
    marriage as ..endless bitterness9 which conveys her views on marriage completely contradicted
    those of the woman of the older generations. Unlike the other woman in the play, the Bride
    continues to rebel against the constraining society. Firstly, she flings the Orange blossom aside,
    which was symbolic of fertility, virginity and chastity, and none of this concerned her. In
    addition, Leonardo also says Something quite small would suit her best10 referring to the
    wreath and hinting at her lack of chastity in reference to their past. These two instances also
    bring out the fact that she did not believe in staying pure until she was married, which was
    considered a sin in the society. This continues to be argued upon in a lot of societies even today.
    The two other woman in the play are the Wife and the Mother-in-law. The wife is a conformist in
    the play, she gets married to Leonardo out of compulsion and even after having a child with him,
    she is unable to earn his love. She is also well aware that Leonardo is infatuated with the Bride,
    and therefore lives an unfulfilled life, bearing the burden of the childs upbringing. Although the
    mother-in-law shares the Mothers views on the role of women, she understands her daughter's
    suffering and, therefore, supports her throughout. However, it is seen that their voices are
    suppressed simply because of the gender bias that existed. We see this when Leonardo says And
    then I left her. Are you going to cry now? Stop it...11 In response to the Mother-in-law bringing
    up Leonardo's past with the Bride.
    9 Pg.24, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca
    10 Pg.27, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca
    11 Pg.13, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca

    Furthermore, Lorca also ensured that the diction he used for the Bride and Leonardo was very
    different throughout the play. For instance, In Act 3 Scene 1, the Bride is extremely agitated and
    tangled because she has to choose between running away and losing her pride or marrying the
    Bridegroom and remaining honorable. On the other hand, Leonardo is very straight forward and
    has no second thoughts about running away with the Bride. He tries to convince her to chose her
    happiness over her pride when he says Your pride won't save you. The contrast in the language
    brings out the conflict between her love for Leonardo but her incapability to express herself
    because of being suppressed by the society. This also brings out another aspect of the Hispanic
    culture: which was that love didn't have any role to play in marriage. It was as though wealth and
    influence were supposed to bud love for a couple.
    Men in the Hispanic culture too, looked down on woman and preferred having sons as opposed
    to daughters, we see this in Act 1 Scene 3 when the Father says If Id had sons I would have
    bought everything between the mountains and the stream12 and again in Act 2 Scene 2 he says
    This land needs strong hands that cost nothing13. Lorca uses this to imply that the men believed
    that they would only become wealthier or more successful if they had sons, and daughters were
    nothing but a burden until they were married and sent away. This was mostly because of the
    gender roles that confined woman from carrying out most of the tasks that would help a family
    grow financially, such as farming. Lorca also conveys to us the perspectives of a different
    woman on marriage through the voices of the Guest at the wedding. The Guest says, ..Todays
    she's a maiden, Tomorrow a woman. which tells us that many women were convinced that their
    existence needed to be validated their husbands.

    12 Pg.17, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca


    13 Pg.39, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca

    In addition to the disparities between the roles of woman and men in the Hispanic culture, in
    which woman were given the less significant roles, Lorca also shows us the non-conformists that
    existed in the society which makes us feel sympathetic towards the woman, who lost their sense
    of individuality because of all the rigid believes that they complied with. Some of the orthodox
    mindsets we are acquainted with help us understand the reason behind women remaining a
    marginalized sector of the Hispanic society.

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