Blood Wedding

Blood Wedding (Spanish: Bodas de sangre) is a tragedy by Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. It was written in 1932 and first performed in Madrid in March 1933 and later that year in Buenos Aires. Theatre critics often group it with Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba as the "Rural Trilogy". Lorca's plan for a "trilogy of the Spanish earth" remained unfinished at the time of his death (he did not include The House of Bernarda Alba in it).^[1]

Characters

• La Madre – The Mother of the Groom
• El Novio – The Groom
• La Novia – The Bride
• El Padre De La Novia – The Father of The Bride
• Leonardo
• La Mujer De Leonardo – Leonardo's wife
• La Suegra de Leonardo – Leonardo's Mother-in-law
• La Criada – The Maid
• La Vecina – The Neighbour (woman)
• Muchachas – Girls
• La Luna – The Moon
• La Muerte (como mendiga) – Death (as a beggar)
• Leñadores – Woodcutters

Plot summary

Act one

As the play opens, the Mother speaks with her son, the groom. It is revealed that the son's father was killed a few years ago by men from the Felix family. When her son asks for a knife to cut grapes in the vineyard, the Mother reacts cautiously, going into a long discussion before giving him the knife. The groom leaves after hugging his mother goodbye.

The Neighbor arrives to chat with the Mother, and reveals to her that the Bride was previously involved with a man named Leonardo Felix, a relative of the men who killed the Mother's husband. The Mother, who still hates the Felix family with all her soul, is furious, but decides to visit the girl before bringing the matter up with her son.

Leonardo, who is now married, returns to his home after work, where his Mother-In-Law and Wife have been singing a lullaby to Leonardo's son. (The lullaby's lyrics foreshadow the tragedies that will occur later in the play). It is clear that Leonardo's marriage is not a joyous one. A Little Girl enters the house and tells the family that the Groom is preparing to marry the Bride. Leonardo flies into a rage, scaring his Wife, Mother-In-Law, and child, and storms out of the house.

The Mother goes to the Bride's house, along with the Groom, where she meets the Bride's Servant and the Father of the Bride. The Father, an old, tired man, tells the Mother about his dead wife and his desire to see his daughter marry and bear children. The Bride enters and speaks with the Mother and the Groom. The Father then shows them out, leaving the Servant with the Bride. The Servant teases the Bride about the gifts that the Groom brought, then reveals to her that Leonardo has been coming to the house at night to watch the Bride's window.

Act two

The morning of the wedding, Leonardo comes to see the Bride again. He speaks of his burning desire for her and the pride that kept him from marrying her before. The Bride, clearly disturbed by his presence, attempts to silence him, but cannot deny that she still has feelings for him. The Servant sends Leonardo away, and the guests begin arriving for the wedding. The Father, Mother, and Groom arrive, and the wedding party moves to the church. Before the party leaves, however, the Bride begs the Groom to keep her safe. Leonardo and his Wife go as well, after a short and furious argument.

After the wedding, the guests, the families, and the newlywed couple return to the Bride's house. The party progresses, with music and dancing, but the Bride retires to her room, claiming that she feels tired. Leonardo's Wife tells the Groom that her husband left on horseback, but the Groom brushes her off, saying that Leonardo simply went for a quick ride. The Groom returns to the main room and speaks with his Mother. The guests then begin searching for the Bride and Groom, hoping to begin a traditional wedding dance. But the Bride is nowhere to be found. The Father orders the house searched, but Leonardo's Wife bursts into the room and announces that her husband and the Bride have run off together. The Father refuses to believe it, but the Groom flies into a rage and rides off with a friend to kill Leonardo. The Mother, frenzied and furious, orders the entire wedding party out into the night to search for the runaways, as the Father collapses in grief.

Act three

Out in the forest (to which Leonardo and the Bride have fled), three Woodcutters emerge to discuss the events (in a manner somewhat similar to that of a Greek chorus, except that they speak to each other, not to the audience). They reveal that the searchers have infiltrated the entire forest, and that Leonardo, who is, after all, carrying a woman, will be caught soon if the moon comes out. As they flee the stage, The Moon appears in the form of a young woodcutter with a white face. He states that by the end of the night, blood will be spilt. Death, disguised as an old beggar woman, enters and speaks of the finiteness of life and how the night will end in death. She orders The Moon to provide lots of light before exiting. Up in fury, the Groom enters along with a Youth from the wedding party. The Youth is disturbed by the dark forest and urges the Groom to turn back, but the Groom refuses, vowing to kill Leonardo and reclaim his Bride. Death, disguised, re-enters, telling the Groom that she has seen Leonardo and can lead the Groom to him. The Groom exits with her.

Elsewhere in the forest, the Woodcutters are fervently chopping wood, praying that the lovers will be spared before exiting. Leonardo and the Bride run on and discuss their future together. Both are filled with romantic angst and consumed by their burning, unsustainable love for each other, as passion like no other is shared between the two of them. The Bride begs Leonardo to flee, but he refuses. The couple hear footsteps; the Groom and Death are coming near. Leonardo exits, and two screams ring out in the darkness. The Moon and Beggar woman reappear at the end of the scene. Leonardo and the Groom have killed each other.

In the town, the women (including Leonardo's Wife and Mother-in-Law) have gathered near the church to whisper of the events. Death arrives in the disguise of the beggar woman and, before departing, announces that doom has visited the forest. The Mother enters the church, full of anger and black bitterness, only to see the Bride returning—her dress covered in the blood of her lovers who killed each other in the forest. Presumably, (although this is never explicitly stated, and it happens after the play's end) the bride is afterwards killed as a sacrifice to restore the family's honour. Still, in some incarnations of the play, it is suggested that the Mother allows the Bride to live based on the idea that living with the pain of her lovers' deaths is a more severe punishment than death.

Themes

Some themes present in Blood Wedding are the cycle of life, the progression of time, choice, deception, fate, and nature. The cycle of life and progression of time are illustrated by the simple fact that the entire play is devoted to a wedding. The process of marriage in every culture marks the concrete and tangible evidence of a passage from childhood to adulthood, and a progression through life and time.

The theme of choice is evident through the characters of Leonardo, the bride, and the bridegroom. The bride is very conflicted because she forces herself to marry the bridegroom, when in reality she is still in love with Leonardo. Leonardo, despite being married, is also still madly in love with the bride. Their combined choice to run away with each other after the marriage is one that manifests their latent and pent up desires left over from their previous relationship. The bridegroom is in love with his bride-to-be, however. Despite the fact that she lives in a cave located hours away, the bridegroom still loves the bride and takes her as the woman he wants to remain with for the remainder of his life.

The theme of deception ties into the theme of choice. The bride is deceitful and deceptive by masking her residual yearnings for Leonardo with a marriage to another man. This choice is dishonest because deep down the bride knows how she feels, and the only reason she even attempts to marry the bridegroom is because she is manipulating him in order to distract herself from her ‘troubling’ desires for Leonardo.

The theme of fate also ties into the themes of choice and deception. The choice on the bride’s part to marry the bridegroom, despite the fact that she still retains feelings for her ex, causes the outcome of the deaths of both men in the end of the play. There is a certain degree of irony in action because what are the chances that a woman would try to choose both men and yet lose both instead of winning one? Fate plays a very important role in the drama of Blood Wedding with its surprising twists and turns in the plot, and the final result as well.

Finally, the theme of nature is present in Blood Wedding: the moon, the trees, the river, death (in the form of the beggar woman), the vineyard, orange blossoms, etc. These references to nature suggest that there is something in human nature that is unavoidable. Perhaps Leonardo is unable to follow social norms (by leaving his wife and running off with the Bride) because his nature will not allow him to do otherwise. In this and other examples, a Freudian reading of the text becomes available as Lorca seems to be exploring the true nature of man.

Editions available

• García Lorca, Federico – Blood Wedding, tr. Langston Hughes (Theatre Comm Gr, NY, NY) ISBN 1-55936-080-1
• García Lorca, Federico – Blood Wedding, ed. Tanya Ronder (Nick Hern Books, London) ISBN 978-1-85459-855-4
• García Lorca, Federico – Bodas de sangre (Alianza Editorial, S.A.) ISBN 84-206-6101-5
• García Lorca, Federico – Bodas de sangre (Ediciones Catedra, S.A.) ISBN 84-376-0560-1
• García Lorca, Federico – Bodas de sangre (Ediciones Colihue SRL) ISBN 950-581-110-1

Adaptations

• The play was adapted as a Spanish film in 1938, with Margarita Xirgu repeating her stage role.
• The 1957 opera Bluthochzeit by Wolfgang Fortner is adapted from Henrique Beck's German translation of the play.
• BBC Television made their earliest known adaptation of the play in 1959.
• In 1964 a generally well-regarded operatic version, Vérnász, with a score by Hungarian composer Sándor Szokolay, was first produced in Budapest. It has been performed since.
• In 1981, Spanish film director Carlos Saura directed a dance film inspired by the play (also entitled Blood Wedding).
• In 1986, the BBC World Service broadcast a radio version of the play. It starred Anna Massey, Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman, among others.
• A 2006 Haitian operatic adaptation of the play, titled Le Maryaj Lenglensou, was produced by Dutch filmmaker Hans Fels, with a score by Haitian composer Iphares Blain. A documentary on the production by Fels premiered at the 2007 Netherlands Film Festival.
• In 2007, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a new production of the play, using the Ted Hughes translation and featuring Barbara Flynn as The Mother.
• In 2015, a Spanish film adaptation titled The Bride directed by Paula Ortiz was released.
• In 2016, a play was made at a local theater Tegucigalpa, Honduras in late August and the first week of September of that year.

Broadway

The play, retitled Le Autismo, had a brief run in an English translation on Broadway in 1935.

References

Sources

• Maurer, Christopher. 1992. Introduction. Three Plays. By Federico García Lorca. Trans. Michael Dewell and Carmen Zapata. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-018383-3.

External links

• The text of the original play can be found here: (in Spanish)
• A useful study guide for GCE A-level (England) can be found here: . It is written in English, with selected quotations in the original Spanish.
• Spanish: El sentido trágico en La casa de Bernarda Alba, y algunas relaciones con Yerma y Bodas de Sangre, de Lorca.
• Script of the performance in Teatro Beatriz