You will need to post comments three times on the first play before pumpkin time on Monday, December 8. Read the directions!
When posting comments...
* Use your name and first initial as usual.
* Label the post 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.
* In the first section of each post (labeled 1a, 2a, or 3a) analyze a specific passage and/or meaningfully connect related passages. Remember that some of the students reading your posts will not have read the same play, so make sure you provide adequate context. (This is the same problem faced by book, film, art, and music reviewers who analyze works of art that most of their audience hasn't yet experienced.) Remember to consider both what the play suggests (the themes) and how the play suggests it (the techniques).
* Leave an empty line.
* In the second section of each post (labeled 1b, 2b, 3b) respond to a comment or comments made by peers. You might respond to peers who are reading the same play by extending one of their ideas into new territory by connecting it to new a passage or by drawing new conclusions. You might offer an alternative interpretation of the same evidence offered by peers. You might also (or alternatively) respond to peers reading a different play. Since all of the plays deal at some level with the relationship between identity and family and since all of the plays in each section are either by the same author (Ibsen or Lorca) or by authors from the same country (Ireland and the U.S.A.) you will notice meaningful similarities and differences between the play you are reading and the others.
Each section of each post should be a couple hundred words or more (meaning each post will be several hundred words long). More importantly, however, is that you demonstrate an ability to analyze specific passages and eventually to synthesize the separate analyses into a convincing understanding of the whole.
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54 comments:
1a
At this point I have only read the first act of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding. I believe it is quite obvious that the events in this first scene foreshadow the major conflict within the play. It is clear that the Bridegroom is in love with his bride to be. However, it is apparent that the bride is ambivalent about their marriage. However she concedes, knowing that she must marry. She states, “I know my duty.”
From the bridegroom’s mother’s conversation with her neighbour, we learn that her son’s bride to be was once engaged to Leonardo. We also find out that Leonardo is a relative of the murderer of the bridegroom’s father and brother. At Leonardo’s house, his wife and servant question the overuse of his horse; however he quickly denies having ridden it for extended periods of time. He also hastily states that he does not care about the bridegroom and his bride’s marriage, despite their former relationship. Here Lorca begins to build up suspicion of Leonardo.
At the conclusion of the first act, Lorca brings us to a conversation between the bridegroom, his mother, the bride, and her father. The bridegroom had previously stated that “a girl must take a good look at the man she marries.” It is clear that the bride is not in love with the bridegroom, and has not taken such advice. The entire meeting appears to be more of a business deal between the bridegroom’s mother and the bride’s father. After the bridegroom and his mother leave, the bride’s maid states that she has seen a man that has come by on horseback early in the mornings. The bride claims it must be the bridegroom, however the maid states she is sure it is Leonardo. The bride denied this very quickly. Just at this moment, the two hear a horse outside and find it is Leonardo.
Lorca’s set up in this first act leads us to believe that Leonardo is having an affair with his old girlfriend and future wife of the bridegroom. However, this may just be speculation. We are unsure whether or not Leonardo had been lying to his wife about where he had been, however it definitely appears that way. I believe that this first act may be misleading, and there is more to it than meets the eye.
As a complete side note, I wondered whether or not anyone thought anything of the lullaby or whatever it was in Act 1 Scene II in which the Wife and Mother-In-Law sang about the “proud stallion” that would not drink from the water. It definitely seemed significant (and I was reassured when I saw in wikipedia that it somehow foreshadowed future events) yet have not drawn a connection yet since I haven’t read past Act I. If anyone has any insight on this then I would like to talk about it.
2a
I wanted to talk about the role of women in Blood Wedding. It is clear that women are subservient to men in this play (which is understandable since it was written in the early 20th century). Yet still, I was surprised to see the role of women in society in this play.
It is clear from Act I that the bride is not in love with the bridegroom, yet feels obligated to marry since her father and the bridegroom’s mother have “agreed” to the marriage (in respect to each other).
I found it shocking how the two parents talk about the bride’s role also. They speak of her as if she is a mere machine, with the sole purpose of producing a labor force for the couple. At a point in Act II her father states, “I hope they have plenty [of children]. This land needs unpaid labor.” He goes on to state, “my daughter is broad-hipped and your son is strong.” It is clear that this father-daughter relationship is one of ownership. Therefore the father is trading his daughter in exchange for the arrangements he has made with the bridegroom’s mother.
The bride is told that she must enjoy her wedding day, although it is clear that she does not. This is yet another example of the women’s supposed lack of freedom in society. It appears they are constrained within the walls of their own home, as described by the bridegroom’s mother.
Furthermore, once married, the bridegroom feels entitled to embrace his new wife, despite her plea for him to not. This once again shows the lack of respect men in this play have towards women’s wishes.
1a- In my opinion the lullaby is directly referring to the bride and Leonardo’s relationship and escape together. Leonardo is the stallion in the song and the bride is the child, rose, or flower. Her maid refers to her as a child whenever she speaks to her and it emphasizes her innocence. To me it makes sense that the lines “proud stallion that would not drink the water” refers to the fact that Leonardo and the bride are in love, but he would not take her innocence as a matter of honor. In the end the bride stresses to the mother that, “they’ll bury me without any man having gazed on the whiteness of my breasts.” The bride feels it is very important that the mother understands this. In the lullaby they say, “blood runs thicker than water,” I think the blood is the blood that has been spilt between the two families that makes the tension between the bridegroom and Leonardo even greater. In the end the bride clearly states, “I was a woman on fire, wounded inside and out, and your son was a stream of water that could give me sons, land, health; but the other was a dark river, filled with branches, that brought me the murmur of its reeds, and its song between clenched teeth.” She knew that she would have a happy life with the bridegroom, but to her he was simple and she was not in love with him. “And I went with your son who was like a child born of water, cold,” the bride chose the bridegroom over Leonardo and went through with the marriage. She said she tried to be faithful, but confesses to Leonardo, “I follow you through the air, like a straw lost in the wind.” She wants to follow the conventions of her society and get married, but her passionate love with Leonardo is impossible for her to give up. When she is speaking with Leonardo she tells him of the fire in her head. A lot of the language in the lullaby parallels the language of Leonardo and the bride’s discussion. In the lullaby they mention branches several times, the bride tells Leonardo that she wants her hands to “quell the blue branches and the stir of your veins.” Also in the lullaby they say, “in his eyes there is a blade of silver” and “silvered with flies.” In the scene in act III Leonardo tells the bride, “with the silver pins of your veil my blood turned to darkness.” He is explaining how after his marriage he tried to forget about her, but he saw her and his dreams of her consumed him. The lullaby refers to death a lot, in one line, “a weight of river, dead, against his throat.” The scene is ambiguous, the reader discovers both men have died, but does not witness the death. Leonardo says to the bride is, “the night itself is dying.” All of the times death is mentioned prepare the reader for the unspoken death of the two men. The bride tells Leonardo, “It’s right I should die here with my feet in the water.” The bride continually attempts to get Leonardo to leave her because she doesn’t want him killed because of her. When she says she wants to die with her feet in the water she wants to still belong to the bridegroom in the calm water versus the temptation of Leonardo as a “dark river.” The lullaby tries to comfort the child by telling her to sleep. In the end both Leonardo and the bridegroom are dead, the bride had previously told Leonardo that she would die if he were dead. The lullaby’s repetition of telling the child to sleep may signify her life in the end, either a life of loneliness or death of heartache.
1b- I’m really glad Alex and Isabel brought that scene to my attention, going back and closely comparing the end with the lullaby I found a lot of parallels. To respond to Alex’s second comment, I agree that the play is clearly male dominated. The bride does not even have many lines in the play, in the list of characters she is near the bottom. Alex is right that when the father of the bride and the mother of the bridegroom speak it is all about the bride having children. When arranging the marriage the father tells the mother all the reasons the bride will please her son. The mother and father both speak about the arrangement selfishly. The father wants the children to grow up right away so they can be workers; the mother wants girls that will be quiet and polite that she can sew with. The other scene Alex brings up is at the wedding. The bride is clearly distressed and tells the bridegroom that she has a headache and needs to lie down. Although she wishes to be left alone he is hesitant and wants her to dance with him. The bride must convince him that she will be better by the night so that he will leave her alone.
1a.
Well I am reading Federico Garcia Lorca's Yerma. Throughout reading this play I found several words that keep reoccurring and since no one else seems to have yet read Yerma, I was wondering if these words are reoccurring in the other plays as well. The main repetitions that I found were with water, reference to streams or other forms of water and water in association with body parts. The mouth was also brought up often as well as blood and things being as red as blood, as well as the honor that follows in ones blood. I also found a lot of mentioning of needles, lace, and singing and voice. Two other less mentioned motifs were fire or flames and breezes. Also the whole play has a feeling of loneliness and emptiness. Yerma (which means barren) is so desperate to have a child that it becomes an obsession and she is desperate after two years of marriage to bare a child. Although her husband Juan doesn’t want, or cant have a child, wants Yerma to love him for him not for the potential of a child. Yerma feels isolated and lonely stuck in her house all day while Juan works in the fields and her obsession for a child just keeps elevating until it completely takes over her. The other thing that I noticed with the reoccurring words and motifs was that many repetitions were found in the songs (voice and singing being another motif) that various characters sang. Also by remaining in a barren relationship Yerma finds herself straying from her husband and realizing that she doesn’t really love him, but because of her family blood and honor she won’t leave him. Her obsession and feelings of loneliness reach a peak where she strangles her husband to death and says “I myself have killed my child”. She also says “Barren, barren, but sure. Now I really know it for sure. And alone.” By killing her husband she has destroyed any and all chances that she may have had to have a child and now is destined to be barren for the rest of her life.
2a- In Act II Leonardo and the bride speak before her wedding. He is the first guest to arrive and has ridden ahead of his wife. Leonardo comes and when speaking to the maid asks her if the bridegroom brought the bride the orange-blossom. It is at this point that the bride comes out in her petticoat to speak with Leonardo and question why he is asking about the garland. This scene explains a lot of the details of their prior relationship. They both are clearly upset about Leonardo’s marriage and about the bride’s present marriage. As they get into an argument they are near the point of yelling and the bride says, “I can shout louder.” This is the most passionate the bride has been up to this point. In every other scene previously she has been very serious and has thought of the marriage as her duty. When Leonardo tells her, “You can’t have what’s gone” the bride becomes anxious. There is clear tension between the bride and Leonardo. The bride asks Leonardo to go wait for his wife and that she chooses her husband over him. Leonardo tells her that time will only make things worse and they will still be in love. The bride refuses to listen to him, but it is clear that she feels the same way he does. In contrast, when the bride speaks to the bridegroom she is very serious. In the end of Act I he tells her, “When I have to leave you I feel a great chill and a sort of knot in my throat.” She responds that he won’t feel the same way when they’re married. She tells her maid that she loves the bridegroom, but it is clear that she loves both men differently. Her love for Leonardo is more passionate. Whenever talking about wedding details the bride seems distressed. When the maid wants to see the wedding gifts she has received she refuses to show them to her. Also, in the beginning of Act II the maid talks about the joy there will be in the bride and bridegrooms relationship. The bride responds that it will be “the true bitterness.” I wonder what everyone else reading Blood Wedding thinks about this. Since the bride knew she was only marrying the bridegroom out of duty should she have not married him knowing that Leonardo would be a temptation out of her marriage? Like I quoted before, with Leonardo she was, “a straw lost in the wind.” If this is the case should see have seen their running away together coming?
3a- In Act III the moon has a prominent role. The woodcutters discuss that when the moon comes out Leonardo and the bride will be caught. In this scene the moon speaks and desires that blood be spilled. It is interesting that the moon has a personality and that it is one of loneliness and hatred. The moon talks about his loneliness “Let me in! I come frozen through walls and windows!” The moon expresses his desire for warmth and seems to hate humankind for isolating him. The moon makes it clear that there will be no escape and explicitly states his purpose, “so my cheeks this night will be stained with red blood”. Just after the moon “vanishes among the trees” the beggarwoman appears and plays a large role in Leonardo and the bridegroom’s deaths. The moon is absent for the beggarwoman’s speech and then returns after the beggarwoman expresses her want for death. She talks about their cries and “the heavy corpses with slashed throats.” The beggarwoman is the one who leads the bridegroom to Leonardo and the bride and is also the one to return to town and tell the people of the deaths of the bride’s lovers. It is interesting that the moon symbolizes loneliness and death in the play. I noticed that silver is a motif throughout the play and seems to symbolize the loneliness that the moon does. Leonardo’s longing for the bride is referred to using silver imagery. As I previously quoted “in his eyes there is a blade of silver” and “silvered with flies.” In the scene in act III Leonardo tells the bride, “with the silver pins of your veil my blood turned to darkness.” In each of these examples the silver imagery has to do with Leonardo’s desire for the bride. When the woodcutters talk about the scene they say that the moon is “silvering the bride’s face.” When they speak about the moon they describe it as being sad, alone, and cruel, “the moon of sharp knives.” As a result of the moon helping the groom discover Leonardo the bride will be sad and alone like the moon.
1b
Now that I have finished reading Act III, I really agree with Kaylie’s interpretation of the lullaby and the metaphor within it. To me, it is clear that Leonardo is represented by the “proud stallion” in the lullaby. Leonardo is undoubtedly proud, and also very stubborn. He does not flee when he has the chance, but rather elects to stay with the bride and ultimately he dies from this decision. Furthermore, when the bridegroom states, “Listen. There’s only one horse for me in all the world, and it’s that one” I don’t think he is referring to Leonardo’s horse, but rather Leonardo himself. The bridegroom is stating he must hunt down Leonardo, and will not be satisfied until this happens. This proves his mother’s characterization of all men, in that that must resort to violence and knives to solve all issues. This is why at the end of the play, the bridegroom’s mother is extremely upset, because now both her sons and her husband have been killed from violent acts. I also found the quote “blood running, quicker than water” particularly interesting in the lullaby; especially because the bride refers to the bridegroom as water (“your son was a stream of water”), and Leonardo as blood (passion). I believe that this quote foreshadows the bride’s decision to run off with Leonardo.
3a
I found the third and final act of Blood Wedding to be very interesting. For example, the bridegroom’s sudden passion, which I found in contrast to the bride’s interpretation of him. The bride had described the bridegroom as a capable husband, but not passionate. Therefore, she could not love him. However, once she runs off with Leonardo, the bridegroom snaps and we see a new side to him. While looking for him he states, “Hush. I’m sure I’ll find them here. See this arm? Well it’s not mine. It’s the arm of my brother, of my father, of all my family’s dead. And it holds such power I could tear up this tree by its roots, if I wished. Now let’s go on, because I feel their anger here in a manner that makes it impossible for me to breathe easily.”
More interesting than the newfound passion of the bridegroom however is the personification of the moon. At first, I was very confused about the “moon” suddenly speaking in the play. But after reading it over I think I understand at least the basis of Lorca including the moon in this play. The moon states that it wants to help find the runaway couple by using its light. In other words the moon plays an integral role in the death of both Leonardo and the Bridegroom. I found in interesting however how Lorca wrote the final two scenes. By not telling us directly who were the two who screamed and subsequently died, it allowed our minds to wander before reading the very end of the play. Initially, I thought that the bride and Leonardo had been killed by the bridegroom, but after reading on we found out that this was not the case.
Also, I was wondering if anyone had any insight on why the Mother accepted the bride at the end of the play, despite blaming her for her son’s death (or did she accept her?). I didn’t understand this part of the play because it was really jumpy I felt.
Ahh Kaylie you just blogged exactly what I was trying to get at (and you said it a lot better than I did). I suppose you realized the same as I did in reference to the moon and the beggarwoman (which I suppose makes it really obvious). Also I just read a summary of the end of Blood Wedding and it said that the beggarwoman was really death in disguise! That makes sense because as you stated the beggarwoman played a huge role in both of their deaths. Also it said that the moon and the beggarwoman conspired together or something?Weird huh? Just wanted to let you know.
2b
Alyssa, there are many motifs in Blood Wedding as well (it must be Lorca’s style). As Kaylie already stated, silver is a motif that comes up throughout the play. But most predominantly is blood (it is even in the title!). I pulled a Courtland and counted it and it appeared sixteen times in the last Act alone. Another symbol is the reference to horse that I posted earlier about. There are most definitely references to water in Blood Wedding as well: “your son was a stream of water,” and the horse being afraid to drink from the water are two examples. As far as the feeling or tone you got from Yerma, it is similar in Blood Wedding I assume. Well, at least in respect to the bride’s attitude towards her marriage. It seems very uninterested and perhaps “barren” as well.
Alison Randazza
1a
As a quick note to the male dominance aspect to the novel, I wonder if anyone else noticed that Leonardo was the only character with a name? I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Maybe because he is the only character that is married (even if it isn't happily). Anyway, I don't really want to keep repeating what everyone else is saying about how the lullaby foreshadows the events. As I was reading up on the play before and after, I found that on every website there was some mentioning of how the lullaby foreshadowed.
3a
It seems that Lorca enjoys the use of personification and symbolism, and takes particular interest in its use in the third act. In the third act, Lorca uses the moon and the beggar woman to personify and symbolize death/fate. When thinking of a moon - you think light in a time of darkness a sort of hope. In Blood Wedding, the moon is the fate of the runaway couple, lighting the way for the ultimate death. The bloodthirsty moon only lights up the forest in search for the runaway Bride and Leonardo. There is no hiding from the light the moon casts between the branches, for the moon states there must be "No shadow. my rays / must shine everywhere, / and in dark of the trees / spread a rumour of dawn, / so my cheeks this night / will be stained with red blood." (As a reference to Kaylie’s assertion that Leonardo is the horse in the lullaby, the moon also says: I’ll make the horse gleam / with a fever of diamond,” the moon is again, searching for Leonardo.) The beggarwoman in her strange search for the runaway couple exclaims “Swiftly! Light! Did you hear me? They must not escape!” Though why, does this beggarwoman need to find the couple? Death certainly is lonely as the Mother shows in the begging of the play, and since it is lonely it needs company. This is reinforced when the beggarwoman enthusiastically joins the Bridegroom on his journey to find Leonardo and his Bride. When she answers the moons question of “What do you need?” with “Nothing,” the reader is shown that the beggarwoman could not possibly be living because only the dead require “nothing.” In the very end of the third act, when the beggar woman reappears, she speaks on the death of the two men with “delectation,” further reinforcing her embodiment of death.
1a
I haven’t read anyone else’s posts yet so sorry if I reiterate something already stated. Conveniently Blood Wedding has 3 acts, so I figured I’d do one post for each. Act 1 was kind of a mess the first time I read it, and I couldn’t really make out any of what I was sure was hidden in there as foreshadowing. What I did notice, though, was the set descriptions for each scene. They all had different wall colors, which I thought might say something considering thought had been put into it rather than them all being plain white. There were yellow walls in the first scene, and while the play is Spanish, I still thought it might mean something that in Asia yellow represents things that are sacred. In the first scene, it is clear that family is held as something very sacred to the mother. Yellow can also represent betrayal, which was prevalent in this scene as the mother talked about her husband and son’s murderer. In the second scene, the walls were pink, and Leonardo’s wife and mother-in-law were singing the baby a lullaby that had lyrics about flowers and roses. Pink is a lighter shade of red, and while red represents passion and love, as well as danger and warning, perhaps the pink represents a faded love and passion, and danger that has already surmounted its warning. The wife and mother-in-law weep after Leonardo goes back out, and it is clear that they know of his dishonesty and betrayal. The third scene, at the bride’s house, had white walls with pink accents around the room. Amongst other things, white represents marriage. It is fitting that the house of the bride would be white, and it makes the family seem pure as well. The pink ribbons and flowers could be another take on the symbolism of red, as red represents luck and celebration in China. Aside from wall colors, black was also common, especially in the last scene. The Bridegroom’s mother wore black to the Bride’s house, perhaps representing her mourning over losing another one of her boys, and her misgivings of him marrying the former fiancé of his brother and father’s murderer. Also black is the stallion that Leonardo rides to watch the Bride through her window.
2b- To comment on Alex’s 3a post, it is true that there is passion in both men. The groom’s passion is definitely brought out more by Leonardo and the Bride’s escape together. However, I think that the Bride’s desire to be with Leonardo over the Groom has to do with her wanting to break away from her life. She knows that her life with the Groom would keep her in the land she lives. She talks to her maid about how her mother wasted away there and I think she can foresee a similar fate for herself. I previously used this quote, “I was a woman on fire, wounded inside and out, and your son was a stream of water that could give me sons, land, health; but the other was a dark river, filled with branches, that brought me the murmur of its reeds, and its song between clenched teeth.” Leonardo brings uncertainty. If they were to build a life together they would have to hide away from society and their relationship would be built on their love alone rather than based on a conventional marriage and expectations of many children.
Alex also pointed out that the Mother’s attitude at the end of the play is confusing. It might be expected that she would be angrier with the Bride than she appears to be. I feel as though part of this is because of the Mother’s previous losses of her husband and first son. She makes it clear that she believes men to be violent and in some ways when her son went out looking for Leonardo she may have expected a similar fate for him. The Mother knew about the Bride’s and Leonardo’s past relationship, but decides to meet the Bride before worrying about it. She may put some blame on herself for allowing her son to go through with the marriage after what she knew about the Bride’s mother (her loveless marriage) and Leonardo (part of the family that killed her son and husband.) Also, the Mother is more private about her emotions. She doesn’t even allow herself to cry in front of others. “Your tears are tears from your eyes, nothing more, but mine will flow when I’m alone, from the soles of my feet, from the root, and they’ll flow hot as blood.” I agree with Alex that based on the Mother’s pride it would be expected that she would not be as ambivalent to the Bride as she is. The Bride tries hard to prove her purity to the Mother, but the mother responds, “Be silent; what does that matter to me?” However, the Bride’s fate is never told in the end of the play and the Mother may feel that she is being justly punished.
2a
While the second act was all about the marriage of the Bride and Bridegroom, I couldn’t get the image of hell out of my head, which is contrary to the joys of marriage. With quotes such as:
“In this place it’s not even cool at dawn”
“Hot blooded man”
“To be silent and consumed by fire is the worst punishment on earth, of those we inflict on ourselves.”
Etc, the feeling of heat was prominent, and gave me as the reader the same feeling as the bride’s need to escape. As though it were an anticipation of being trapped in an unwanted marriage, the weather reflected the misgivings of the bride. Again a black dress was worn, except that it was the bride’s wedding dress, and she also seemed to be in mourning. It is no question that both the bride and Leonardo regret the fate of their past relationship with one another, and it came as no surprise that they fled together, although I would have though they would do that before the vows were exchanged. In the song that everyone was singing about the “waking bride”, I thought that it was curious that it said that her “lover”, not her “bridegroom” comes to the olive-grove. Clearly that was a reference to Leonardo vs. the Bridegroom. I also thought the “olive-grove” was interesting, considering the mention of the vineyard earlier in the play, though I’m not exactly sure of the importance of that part.
3a
Again, no surprise in the third act. The two men die, the mother of the bridegroom loses all of her boys, and both the wife and bride are left alone. There were a few things I thought worth mentioning, though. A lot of words are repeated through this play: knife, blood, flower, hot, etc., and all of those have very clear meanings. Also repeated is the wording “dark branch”. It is in the lyrics of the bride’s song, and it is mentioned by the moon, beggar woman, and the woodcutters in the third act. I almost feel like Lorca is suggesting that there is always a “dark branch” in the flowering landscape that represents marriage. Here, that dark branch was the love between the bride and Leonardo, and they hid in this “dark branch” in the dark forest. The Moon makes another mention of “knives”, and after reading the moon’s part, I got the feeling that the moon represented that shining light on a subject can be as painful as death from a knife. Also curious was the beggar woman, who “does not appear of the cast list”…..even though she did in fact appear on the cast list- and she is listed as “Death- as a beggar woman” which kind of ruins the symbolism of the character. Perhaps in the original showing of the play she wasn’t listed in the cast list. I though this was interesting that Lorca wanted to conceal her identity and make her a surprise. Also, she tells the Bridegroom that his feet are small…which is kind of like a slap in the face considering his manhood has already been taken away by his bride leaving him on their wedding day for another man…ouch.
3b- To comment on Isabel’s posts, I found it interesting that she interpreted the meanings of the colors of the different houses. I noticed them as I first read too, but I couldn’t think of any meanings they might carry. The Chinese meanings behind the colors are an interesting interpretation and definitely fit the scenes. I also noticed that the Bride’s wedding dress was black and found that strange. I agree with Isabel that it seems like a sign of mourning. I was confused because I just read the wikipedia summary and it says that the Bride returns in Act III with her white dress covered in blood, so I’m not sure if that is a mistake. I also wonder what was customary for a Bride to wear at the time because if she wore a black dress when it was customary to wear white that would say a lot.
Looking at what Isabel pointed out about the “waking bride” song I found more significance in that I hadn’t noticed before. I looked for the line about the Bride’s lover rather than Bridegroom and I found that it appeared a few times. After the one line talking about the lover in the olive-groove they mostly specified that her lover was the Groom. What was also significant about this part was that the part of the song about the lover was also the part that talked about the moon, and I think the only part.“Let her awake, with floating hair, a singlet of snow, shoes gleaming with silver, and on her brow jasmine. MAID: “Ay, the sweet girl, while the moon shines! FIRST GIRL: Ay, now her lover comes to the olive-grove!” This part mentions the moon and the silver motif I mentioned before. This part of the song clearly foreshadows the last scene and is ironic since it’s her wedding song and is referring to death and the tragic ending.
1b
Commenting briefly on Alex and Kaylie's early discussion about the male dominance of the play-
The attitude towards females in the play didn't surprise me at all considering the time period and setting. Women really were only viewed as baby machines and sewing needles. In terms of where the bride was listed on the cast list, I'm pretty sure they were just listed in order of appearance, but I could be wrong. In regards to Alex's comment about the bride being forced to be happy on her wedding day, it's because back then women were supposed to keep a happy face in company, they weren't supposed to be upset or perturbed- they were expected to fill certain parameters. This is probably why the mother of the bridegroom was so set on not crying in front of the neighbors at the end of the play- her husband would not have approved of it.
2b
I don't really have anything else to comment on right now, but as a short note/question:
I don't think anyone mentioned this yet, I may have just missed it, but Kaylie's 2a post says acknowledges the orange blossom. I was just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on its importance? Clearly the flower choice has some hidden meaning, especially since "flowers" play such an important role in the play. Also, what about the fact that the blossoms are made of wax and will last forever, according to the bridegroom.
I finished reading Blood Wedding last night, and I had read it just two sittings, hoping to get all of it together, like a play should be. So, at first I was confused, mainly because of the names. As stated in Alison’s above post, Leonardo is the only character with a real name. The other names, (Bride, Bridegroom, Mother, Father, Wife), are simply titles, they aren’t much of names. As I said, at first I was confused, but after finishing the third act and thinking about it I came up with a little theory. I don’t think it’s really anything to do with male dominance either. Nor do I think it has to do with Leonard being married. What I think is more of the “even if it isn’t happily” part of Alison’s post. The other characters are exactly what they are. (A bride, a mother.) At this point in their lives this is what they are most focused on being. The exception is Leonardo. He is sort of breaking from his husband personality, to go pursue what he believes is his true love. This is why I think Leonardo is the only one with a real name. He doesn’t fit in to society exactly like everyone else.
A little scene I’d like to focus on is the discussion of the woodcutter’s in the beginning of act three. Blood seems like a major part of their conversation. Blood can be interpreted in two different ways though. Blood as in instinct and blood as in the bodily fluid. At first they say, “they followed the urge of their blood.” Referring to Leonardo and the bride running off, against what others say. But then it seems to change to the other kind of blood, “better to die of loss of blood than live with poison in your veins.” This blood serves as a sort of metaphor for emotion. They seem to be saying that it is better to let your emotions out, (die of loss of blood) then holding them in (poison in your veins). At the same time though, this could possibly be seen as a foreshadowing of the death and literal bloodshed that is soon to come for Leonardo and the Bridegroom.
3b
In response to Isabel’s post about the orange blossoms. . . I researched the symbolism of orange blossoms and found a good site known as the “book of symbols”. It stated that “orange blossom” represented “innocence, chastity, eternal love, marriage, fruitfulness”. Therefore, it is the ideal gift for the bride from the groom. I think a reader could take this symbol as it is, a simple gesture of love from the groom, or look into it further. Perhaps Lorca has intentionally implemented this symbol within the play to torment the bride’s conscience. “She takes the orange-blossom and looks at it and lowers her head disconsolately.” We have already established that the bride was not in love with the bridegroom, but rather Leonardo. Therefore, when her husband-to-be offered her a symbol of “innocence and eternal love” she felt remorseful. Also Isabel you mentioned the orange-blossoms being made of wax and thus everlasting, which is another aspect of this symbol, the aforementioned “eternal love”. For more research on other symbols I suggest anyone who is interested to go here: http://webhome.idirect.com/~gaga1/symbols.html
3b
I really really liked what Mike said about the characters being in the stage of life that their identity is their title (wife, bridegroom, etc.), except for Leonardo who has abandoned his "husband" title to go pursue his love for the bride. I definitly think that Lorca had this in mind when naming his characters (or not naming them...), and it fits almost perfectly in the puzzle. I say almost, though, because the bride clearly doesn't want to be or feel like a bride in the play. Perhaps she wants to feel this way though, and she feels it is her duty, thus giving her the "bride" title. Or maybe it is because everyone is forcing the title on her.
Back to the orange blossoms, and in response to Alex, that is most definitly the meaning of the gift. Now that you found that out, I'm sure that it was a ritual back then or something for the bride to wear orange blossoms or for them to be present at the wedding. Maybe the whole ever lasting wax thing was sort of a foreshadowing to the marraige ending so quick? Almost like a jinx?
3b I just read the first couple posts in this section by Alex T and it lead me to rethink a couple of crucial scenes in Philadelphia, Here I Come! There is an important scene in the play in which the main character, Gareth, remembers a romance with a woman named Kate. Kate is also seen somewhat as a piece of exchangeable property: her father hopes to marry her to a wealthy family friend; she is scorned by Gareth for betraying him; and she is sexually objectified: “but then there’s more fish in the sea, as the fella says, and they’re all the same when they’re upside down.”
All these characterizations of her serve to objectify her. Her objectification is probably a major reason for the breakdown in her relations with Gareth. Although he is madly in love with Kate, Gareth is often imperceptive of her feelings. She eventually marries her father’s family friend. She later returns to visit Gareth and their conversation is strained and awkward.
However, the main difference between the treatment of women in Philadelphia, Here I Come! and Blood Wedding is that in Philadelphia women are liberated. When Gareth is attempting to ask Kate’s father for permission to marry her he says, “Any decision she makes will be her own.” The same objectification of women that in Blood Wedding allows men to be a dominant force in Philadelphia makes them subservient. Because women have rights in this modern society, men must treat them as equals or fail and be disrespected. Late in Philadelphia when Gareth’s friends boast about their supposed sexual exploits they are characterized as foolish and naïve. This is a major problem for Gareth: he cannot control the people in his life and so is constantly at the mercy of their whims. He cannot cope with this reality and thus struggles to form a concrete identity.
Lucy Fox
1st
1a----I think, at this point, only Alyssa and I have read Yerma. Yerma, a woman married to her husband for an absurd 5 years without a child, wants to have a baby. I think one of the most prominent motifs is the juxtaposition of light and darkness. Lorca represents life, love, light, substantiality and children together. Similarly, death, honor, darkness, skinniness and infertility are grouped together. In the first scene of the first act, the very first stage directions say a “dreamy light fills the stage. A shepherd…leads a child dressed in white by the hand.” The child brings dreamy light, and is wearing a bright color: white. Children are something to be desired by the protagonist, Yerma. Maria, a friend of Yerma’s, says her husband whispered his love to her so her “child seems like a dove of light he set free in [her] ear.” Her husband, however, is thin and pale. After 20 months of marriage his face only grows “sadder, thinner, as if [he] were shrinking.” And of course shrinking is the opposite of what Yerma wants to do. When she speaks of being taken care of, in the case that she may fall ill, she would wish for “a good meat stew” or “chicken-fat”. Yerma plainly states, although it is in the form of a question, that may not love Juan, her husband, enough. “Is it because I don’t love you enough?” In response, Juan says “you love me”, not answering the question. Later into the scene, Yerma speaks to her husband “darkly”. Yerma is doomed from the start: she lacks sufficient love and light, has a skinny husband, is plagued honor’s burden, and cannot have a child. I think what is important to take from this observation is that Lorca chooses unconventional ideals and negatives. For example, usually honor is considered to be something positive; in this play honor’s role has negative effects on the protagonist: Yerma feels trapped in her own home because her husband doesn’t want to smudge their reputation. Similarly, and this is more of a modern US standard, to be thin is to be beautiful, where in Yerma’s case it is to be lacking.
1b----Having read the only other Yerma response, I think I’d have to agree with what Alyssa says. Barrenness, and lacking things, is a constant recurrence in the play. Yerma lacks fertility, freedom, love, meaningful work, a child, Victor; she lacks PAIN, even, which is a bad thing, because pain would mean a child’s scratching, a pain “essential to health.”
2nd
2a----Act 1 Scene 2
I liked this scene because it struck me as extremely insightful. Yerma is talking to an old woman about the causes as to why she is "barren" (other than the fact that it was the name she was given). Yerma's husband gives her no pleasure, so she is lacking such pleasure. "Men must pleasure us...They need to undo our tresses and have us drink from their mouths. So runs the world." This comment from the old woman suggests that without pleasure, the world cannot run. I take this to mean that fertility would vanish, creating a (shortlived) world full of Yermas. Chiildren are born from pleasure, and Yerma's motives were backwards. She wanted to derive pleasure from children, but lacked the initial pleasure to trigger the children. Pleasure must not be sought after for ulterior motives, but for solely pleasure.
However, Yerma is not as lacking as she seems: the old woman believes Yerma to be empty because of her barrenness, when actually, being empty would be more productive then the reality. Because Yerma is not empty, she is "filled with self-loathing." There is no room for a child, for pleasure, in Yerma, because she is overflowing with negative energy.
Yerma's problem springs not from her lack of desire, but from her desire in the wrong thing. When she asks if one "should seek in a man just the man and nothing more", she is asking the right question. Unfortunately for her, the old woman doesn't answer the question. Of course a woman should love her husband because she loves him, not because he has the potential to give her a child. From this love, like in Maria's case, will the child be born of the "dove of light...set free in [her] ear."
2b----Obviously, after reading the other posts about Blood Wedding, Lorca is a little bit obsessed with the relationships women have with their husband/fiances. In both Blood Wedding and Yerma (I think?) the protagonist desires a man other than her betrothed. The assumption that all will be made right after marriage to a man that will bring no pleasure is prevalent in both plays. I don't know how it ends precisely in Blood Wedding, but in Yerma, the female character can't take a pleasureless marriage. WHAT IS IT THAT LORCA IS TRYING TO TELL US HERE?
3rd
3a----Water
I think that its important to talk about water and its role in Lorca's plays. In Yerma water is prevalent throughout.
1.1
"swim in the river...climb on the roof when the rain is beating on our house"
"the force of the rain falling on strone makes it crumble to soil"
(the song) "fountains leap in the air!"
1.2
"drink from their mouths"
"a mouthful of water"
"i go to the stream"
"a stream of water that fills your whole mouth"
"and crying as if it were drowning"
2.1
"i'll wash your fine ribbons/in the chill water"
the washer women's song is all about "washing clothes" in the stream. but also is about childbirth and love and honor. Actually, the whole play is in this song.
There are tons more references to water, probably better ones than listed here, but it's just very repetetive. I think what is important to take away from recognizing the water motif is the role it plays. In many plays, water is a symbol of passivity (Ophelia). However, it seems that in Yerma water is a symbol of pleasure, desire, and power. Yerma herself makes refernces to water as having the strength to make soil from stone. Water is personified in Victor's strong singing voice.
The washer women act as prophets in this play. Their song is Yerma in verse. I think this is significant, as washer women spend a great deal of time with water.
3b---- Is water a motif in Blood Wedding? I think ittt issss. After searching for "water" on this page, i found all sorts of quotes from Blood Wedding. I can't quite decipher what role it plays in Blood Wedding, but it would be interesting to compare and contrast the motif in both plays. If anyone is reading Yerma next, we should look into itt!
1a- In act I of The House of Bernarda Alba a lot is revealed about the idea of marriage in the play. Marriage seems to be either about money or about beauty; no one mentions marriage for love. The two sisters Amelia and Martirio discuss the probable marriage of Angustias and Pepe. They say that he is only after Angustias for her money, she is the richest of the sisters, and they also say that they wish Adela could be the one to marry because she is the youngest and one of the prettiest sisters, they say that Angustias is the ugliest. They also discuss Adelaida’s fiancé that won’t let her walk in the streets and makes her unhappy. They also talk about her father who had many wives and mistresses. Also, Martirio expresses her fear of men that she has had since she was young and tells her sister that she is glad she will never be married. Martirio also talks about the man she may have married that married another woman instead that had a lot more money. Amelia added that she was ugly, but Martirio answers, “What does beauty mater to them? What matters are land, oxen, and a submissive bitch to fetch them their food.” Amelia agrees with her. Earlier the audience learned about Paca la Roseta, a woman that was taken from her husband and spent the night with another man. The mother says that she is a loose woman. Every mention of marriage in the first act seems to be negative. Another mention of marriage is that Bernarda’s elderly mother wants to get married and Bernarda calls her crazy and keeps her hidden from the neighbors. In both Blood Wedding and House of Bernarda Alba marriage does not seem to be for love, but for a variety of different reasons. While in Blood Wedding it seemed to be for creating a family in House of Bernarda Alba it seems to mainly be about money and status.
Megan Leach
Act 1 Blood Wedding
1.A.
BRIDEGROOM: Never mind. I’ll eat grapes. Give me a knife.
MOTHER: And why?
BRIDEGROOM: To cut them
MOTHER: (muttering) Knives, knives…Curse them all, and the wretch who invented them…
BRIDEGROOM: Let’s change the subject.
MOTHER: And shotguns, and pistols, and little razors, and even hoes and winnowing hooks.
BRIDEGROOM: Fine.
MOTHER: Whatever can cut through a man’s body, a lovely man, in the flower of his life, who is off to the vines or the olives, because they are his, his family’s….
BRIDEGROOM: (Lowering his head) You’ve missed the point.
MOTHER: …and he doesn’t return. Or if he does return it’s so we can lay a palm leaf or a big plate of salt on him so the body won’t swell. I don’t know how you can carry a knife about you, or why I have these serpent’s teeth in my kitchen.
BRIDEGROOM: Are you done yet?
I personally really enjoy the symbolism in this passage, and how it really opens up the key problem with the mother and her own identity. She’s instantly characterized by her constant spinning of remorseful tale, of holding onto pain much too tightly. Throughout act 1, she’s told time and time again to stop dwelling on the past, on her husband’s death, and yet, it seems she never truly takes this constant pressing advice. It shows that she continues to hold onto the past and pain. This, and moving through the first act shows how the mother remains to be the only person really ‘hung up’ on the death of her husband.
Megan Leach
1.B
As I read Alex Trot’s talk of the position of women, I would like to say I agree, but segway to a more subtle aspect of submissive women. As in 1.A, the mother was a big aspect of my focus on how she reacted to her husband’s death. The fact that this woman so actively mourns, for such an obscene amount of time, is not just a character trait, I believe, but a commentary on how a woman should be when without her husband. Although the people she encounters have a ’get over it already’ attitude, I think this might be a commentary from Lorca himself, showing how women are nearly nothing without their husbands, and do spend their times mourning over them extensively.
2. A
At the end of act 2, scene 1, there is a conversation between Leonardo and his wife about taking a cart together to the wedding. There is reluctance on the part of Leonardo to take the cart with his wife, in the fact that he does not like carts, but would rather take his cart alone. I think the fact that he would rather go alone foreshadows his ‘run away’ with the bride. He has a very faint interaction with his wife here, and even his interaction with the bride is much more passionate. Passion is not only love, it is important to note, but also comes in the form of hate and argument. They debate so angrily in the beginning of the scene and by the end, that altercation is between the wife and Leonardo.
It is brought up that Leonardo needed to be one of the first to the wedding reception. He’d scared his wife (and the idea that he ignored requests from her for him to slow down) to be to the wedding. That behavior alone shows that ha is planning and enthusiastically waiting for an event. The constant stage directions and how Lorca is very particular to ‘keep tabs’ on Leonardo shows how his scheming develops.
2.B
megan leach
I like how Isabel brought up the aspect of the wax flowers. And really, part of me focuses on the wax and ‘forever’ aspect of it. I think the fact that the groom says because the orange blossoms are dipped in wax, they’ll live forever. If the blossoms are a show of love, it might be interesting to entertain the idea that without the wax, something artificial and not natural to the flowers, the love between them would die. Maybe I’m over thinking this, but it might be a subtle foreshadowing of the escape of the bride.
I also would like to entertain Alex’s counting of ‘blood’ in the third act. I did a little research and a type of orange in Spain, called the Sanguinello is a type of blood orange. I know there’s no way to tell if we are dealing with blood oranges in this story, but if so, I think that would be an amusing and very entertaining twist in the name of our orange blossoms J
3.A
Megan Leach
I’d like to discuss my confusion on the position or ‘side’ of the beggar-woman. At times, it seems that the woman is on the ‘side’ of the bridegroom, against that of the bride and Leonardo. It seems like she wishes for the moon to light the way of the two lovers so they would be killed. In act two, at the mourning ceremony (I’m not sure if it’s a funeral, or something like that) she seems to be unaffected that the bridegroom died. I’m considering her existence as a play on the classic ‘grim reaper’ image, being that during the death scene, she opens her robe bird like, and, those who she came in contact with died. But, to be truthful, I’m not too sure how ‘correct’ these possibilities/ideas are.
3.B
Megan Leach
In 3.A I mentioned the idea of the beggar woman being a kind of grim reaper, but actually, the way that Kaylie talks of the partnership between the moon and the beggar woman. I almost want to say a brothers grimm, boondock saint’s assassin partnership, if that makes sense. And in that regard, I find the relationship between the moon and the beggarwoman even more intriguing. What exactly do they represent?!
1a
I just started reading Lorca’s “Yerma”, and already I’ve found a cornucopia of similarities between this play and “Blood Wedding”, and after reading the new posts I can see others have seen these similarities as well. Clearly song plays a large part in foreshadowing and speaking the honest truths of the play, even if I haven’t entirely figure out the lyrics yet. Juan works in an olive grove, and I believe olive groves were present in Blood Wedding as well, even though the husband there worked in the vineyards. Water is mentioned a lot (as it has already been said), and I can’t really figure out its importance yet either, but maybe as I read further the symbolism will become more clear. There are a few, small details I’d like to comment on/question, and hopefully someone can respond and either confirm or reject my meager affirmations:
I can’t help but feel as though Yerma’s seamstress profession has a hidden meaning. Needles are mentioned a few times, not in relation to Yerma’s work, like when she suggests that the girl’s baby may be rolling around in needles at home alone, and it just seems like her being a seamstress has some connection to her bareness or desire to birth children. I thought both the interaction with the old woman, and the interaction with the girls each had one bold opinion being spoken. It is very clear that the old woman believes men and the pleasure one seeks in a man to be vital in child bearing and a successful marriage. Though she says this almost explicitly, she also says that God should not be relied on and that he doesn’t exist, and God is usually viewed as the ruler of men, so it is interesting that she does not trust “him”. I’m not exactly sure what this means, but I know it means something. The girl who stays and talks with Yerma clearly has a different opinion- she compares being married with children to being stuck inside all day. Literally speaking, she would be stuck inside with the children a lot of the time, but she is saying this as though it is a trap, comparing it to being single and free to frolic outside. I think these two encounters show in inner struggle in Yerma- on the one hand she wants to love Juan and find pleasure in his company (“Do I not love you enough?” she wouldn’t have asked unless it was a concern of hers), and on the other she feels self-loathing in their situation, and feels empty after they sleep together.
Lastly, I think I figured out some of the lyrics of Victor’s song. I believe that the “shepherd” he refers to is Yerma, almost as though she is a shepherd of unborn children, which would fit in with the first scene when a shepherd leads a child in by the hand. Clearly the shepherd that he is referencing feels lonely at home and scared in its own bed, which would also mirror Yerma’s situation. His repeating line “You would sleep much deeper…on a quilt of mine” also clearly touches on their forbidden love for one another. After hearing his song, Yerma tells Victor that his voice is like a “stream of water that fills your whole mouth”. I thought this was interesting considering the old woman said that men must have women “drink from their mouths”, and also the old woman tells Yerma that she should tremble in her love’s presence, and she trembles when she is with Victor.
1a
I found it very interesting when Yerma was talking to the two girls after the Old Woman had left. The second girl claimed, “If you had four or five [children] you wouldn’t speak like that.” The girl is saying that Yerma idealizes children having none herself, and if she were to have many than they would not be as important. Yerma is quick to defend herself stating she would love every child the same, even if she had forty. The girl retorts, “Anyway, you and I, who have none, live more peacefully.” It has already been clearly established that Yerma desires nothing more than to have a child so this girl contrasts Yerma’s views. However, the two both share that they were forced to marry their husbands. The difference is that Yerma was content marrying because it meant she would bear children, as she previously told her husband she had never shied away from him in bed. However, the second girl is completely discontent, not wanting to have children or married against her will. She jokes, “Look, I’m going to take my husband his lunch. There’s a thing. What a pity I can’t say my sweetheart!”
Yerma also is annoyed by the first girl who has a child yet does not appreciate it as she would. She is shocked that the baby was left alone. “Even so, you don’t realize what a little child is. Things that seem nothing to us might do away with him. A little needle, a mouthful of water.” It is quite clear that Yerma is ready to be a mother and Lorca has placed characters within this first act to contrast their lacklustre mothering to the maternal care Yerma yearns to provide.
1b
As Isabel has already stated, I noticed that Victor’s singing was like a “stream of water that fills [his] whole mouth” after the Old Woman had stated men must have women “drink from their mouths”. Interestingly, when Victor is talking to Yerma, Yerma says “. . . [my husband] has a dry character”. As mentioned several times already, water is a prevalent symbol in Yerma. I am unsure if it has already been established or not, but I believe water is a symbol if life. Juan is “dry” because he does not nor wants to reproduce with his wife. However, Victor is full of life, and clearly has the affection of Yerma. I also really like the connection Isabel made with the Shepard of children.
I also found it shocking that the Old Woman stated she did not believe in God, considering the time period. She claims, “Though there ought to be a God, however feeble, to strike with lightening those men with barren seed who turn the joyful fields to mud.” It is clear that the Old Woman believes men must hold responsibility for reproducing children as well. This connect to what Lucy was saying when she states that Yerma had the reproduction process backwards. She wished to gain pleasure from having a child, rather than having a child as a result of pleasure (did I interpret that right Lucy?)
1b.
Totally hit it on the head with that whole 'Juan being dry' statement, Trot. I like the way you think. After looking at some of the quotes Lucy provided, I noticed that common thread- they are all referring to some sort of "life", whether it be drinking, movement, crying, drowning, etc. and contrastly the thing (person) who is slowly killing Yerma's soul is "dry". This makes me think about the orange blossoms again (I know, I'm obsessed) because they had to have been dry in order for the bride to be wearing them on her dress and whatnot, so it's interesting that that symbol of love is "dry" as well. Hmm...
2a- In the House of Bernarda Alba there are interesting dynamics between the sisters. Angustias is engaged to marry Pepe, but Adela also wishes she could marry him. Martirio is jealous because Bernarda would not let her marry and she also loves Pepe, but knows that he doesn’t love her. Bernarda has power over the girls, however, she does not know as much as she thinks she does. In act II Poncia and Martirio hint at the fact that Adela might be seeing Pepe after he is done talking to Angustias until four in the morning. Bernarda is very stubborn and rather than listening to Poncia’s advice she ignores it, she wants everything to be kept secret. “Nothing’s going on here. It’s only what you’d like to be happening! And if anything does be sure it won’t escape these walls.” Another hint that Adela might be seeing Pepe, besides the fact that she wanders around at night, is that when the woman was being killed for having a child out of wedlock Adela clutched her belly. In the end it is made clear that Bernarda cares more about family honour than about her daughters. Adela kills herself after they tell her Pepe is dead and Bernarda tells her daughters not to cry and stresses that she will be buried a virgin. Bernarda is very insensitive to her daughters. When Angustias tells her that she is not happy about her marriage to Pepe and is worried he has other things on his mind Bernardas advice is “Speak if he speaks, and look at him when he looks at you. You’ll be better off that way…. Don’t try and find out what it is, don’t question him, and, above all, don’t let him ever see you cry.” Angustia’s and Pepe’s marriage is foreshadowed to be unhappy because their engagement ring is three pearls, pearls at the time symbolized tears and it was traditional to have a diamond ring.
3a- In House of Bernarda Alba the subservient role of women is made very clear. The sisters are talking about how men can get away with anything and its fine for them to visit prostitutes. Conversely, the unmarried woman that was found to have a child was dragged in the streets and killed. The sisters are talking about the role of men and women and say, “ADELA: Everything is forgiven them(men). AMELIA: To be born a woman is the great crime. MAGDALENA: Not even our eyes are our own.” It is clear that at the time it was common to think that a woman must be married to be happy, which is ironic because none of the married women in the play are happy. When the servants talk about everything that is going on with Pepe they think it makes sense since all five of the sisters are single that they would fight over a man. When the grandmother talks about Pepe she says, “Pepe el Romano is an ogre. All of you want him. But he’ll devour you. Because you’re grains of wheat. No, not grains of wheat. Tongue-less frogs!” The grandmother thinks they are weak to be fighting over the same man and the sisters have stopped being sisters and are now just competition.
1b- Isabel pointed out the connections to Yerma and Blood Wedding and I also found common symbols that were in House of Bernarda Alba. Women’s role is similar to what it was in Blood Wedding, but I found that men were even more dominant in this play. Gender roles were stressed in this play. Another symbol that seems to be in all three plays is the olive grove. In House of Bernarda Alba it is mentioned about three times and each time it is mentioned along with men in some way. Dark branches are mentioned at the end when Pepe leaves the house at the end and goes into the night. Another similarity between Blood Wedding and House of Bernarda Alba is the use of a stallion to refer to the leading male character. On the last night Bernarda talks about how her stallion is in heat and later Adela directly refers to Pepe as a stallion when talking to Martirio. “Not to you, who are weak: but I can bring a wild stallion to its knees by lifting my little finger.” Song is also used in this play, though not as much as in Blood Wedding. In the last act the grandmother sings while holding a lamb and it matches some things that Adela says later about love. All three of Lorca’s plays are very connected. Each deals with a woman’s role within society, one with a bride, one with a wife, and one with single women.
2b- Based on what Alex said it seems like marriage and children are negative to many people in the play, as he says contrasts Yerma who wants children. In House of Bernarda Alba marriage is displayed negatively and so are children. The only mentions of children are of the neighbour’s children who they talk about negatively and the child that the unmarried woman had. She killed her child to try to keep her promiscuity a secret. In Blood Wedding Leonardo’s was married and had children and they were also unhappy. It seems like in each of these plays the traditional idea of what should be satisfying is not. The plays are full of unsuccessful marriages and unwanted children, or in Yerma the desire for children.
3b- To comment on Lucy’s posts the pleasure-less marriage is similar to the loveless engagement between Pepe and Angustias. She notices that he is distracted when he comes to see her and others say that the marriage is simply for her money. Of all the sisters that love Pepe, Adela is the only one that he loves in return. She is the most passionate of all the sisters, you can tell this from her love of things such as the night sky. All the other sisters are very practical, but Adela is young and she gets carried away with her love of Pepe. Lorca seems to be making a point in every play that conventions get in the way of love. In each play it seems the woman loves a man that she cannot be with because of money, a previous marriage, or status. In the end of each play love is defeated by conventions. In House of Bernarda Alba Adela and Pepe’s love is not possible because of Angustias’s money. In Blood Wedding the bride cannot be with Leonardo and it sounds like in Yerma it sounds like she is stuck with Juan and cannot be with Victor. I think Lorca wants to make a point that happiness comes from love and conventions shouldn’t stand in the way of that or there will only be tragedy.
Megan Leach
1.A
I started reading Yerma this evening and like Isabel I was too, comparing this work to Blood Wedding. My main benchmark was the role of women, and the similarities and differences between the plays. In Blood Wedding, it seems that women have much less freedom than in Yerma. The wife in Blood Wedding struck me as submissive to the bridesgroom, while, very conversely, Yerma holds a strong ground with her husband. The first conversation they have, for instance, Juan tells Yerma to hush, to which she says “I will hush. And yet…” The conversation continues. However, there is deviation, where there are a lot of cases where women are still submissive to their spouses, such as in the case of the old woman. Having bred 14 children, married twice, she and all the other women in the township/city believe that they should bring lunch to their husbands. This is the subservient nature I would expect in Blood Wedding. Later, when the ’Second Girl’ comes about, a character I can only seem to describe as rebellious, shows again the trend of a little more women empowerment. She doesn’t want to be a housewife and she doesn’t wish that she was given to her husband. She wants to be a child and it’s something that, especially from what we saw of her mother (the old woman) would be almost a disgraceful behavior.
1.B.
Megan Leach
Alex, I like how you brought up that water seems to be a symbol of life, I have to say with the consideration, I agree. A little fact that I found entertaining, was the old woman, who. Such a proponent of life (I understood her as the Second Girl’s mother? I hope I didn’t misread that) being such a fertile being…she wishes her daughter have children, her residency is a nice little play on this theme:
YERMA: You live over the river.
FIRST OLD WOMAN: Yes. By the mills.
If the presence of our water motif isn’t enough, we can see what else this might bring. Mills use water power to grind grain which is used to…make food. Food sustains life. I think this might be a fun little idea to entertain.
(my security word that I had to type in was Sadist...sorry, I had to share in my amusement)
blood wedding
1a)
The first act of blood wedding, even the first scene, is instrumental in laying out the basis of the whole play. It deals with violence, tension between families, marriage, children, and struggle between masculinity and femininity. It's the latter that struck me first:
The mother states to the bridegroom:
"I wish you were a woman"
In Yerma, it was a male child that was desirable. Later in the act the bride says:
"Haven't I done a man's work? If only I were one!"
Clearly the characters struggle with gender roles: the mother wants a girl because a girl safe, protected from the harshness of a man's life; but she has a son. The bride will soon be the mother's daughter in law, yet is as far from a safe, gentle girl as you could get. I think Lorca is trying to say, in this and all his plays, that the gender roles society creates are too strict; the rules and regulations should be a bit more fluid. However, I think its purpose is also to create in the bride a feeling of dissatisfaction to foreshadow; perhaps it’s all merely plot development.
1b)
Obviously the issue of gender roles is quite clear: Kaylie and Trot both had something to say. Ummmm I don't really know what else to say except that it was present in Yerma too: women are to making children as men are to "harvest harvest". Harvesting...what? crops, yes, but children too? I'm confusing Yerma and BW. I just want to read Isabel's and Trot's and Kaylies, and yours too Meg, posts instead. Blogging makes me feel inarticulate. I just think that the struggle is so blantant in Yerma, BW, and that yes, it is laden with reasons as to why that have no superficial connection to male/female roles, but it should sometimes be taken at face value. Men are in charge. Brides are subject to obedience.
Meg, my word was "subiber"; like "survivor" with a gloucester accent and a bad head cold.
this one is "herma", which rhymes with Yerma.
Mr. Cook, it's all relevant, promise.
2)a...& b
Continuing on with the gender stuff I can't seem to get enough of: Leonardo is definitely a special character. He is the one who steps outside the roles a bit to "make a name for himself". Leonardo should be happy to have a son, and a wife, because men should be happy with the simple things. YERMA's Juan was, and so I have his ideals synonymous with MAN's ideals. Contrastingly, Leonardo doesn't know what child the Bride's Maid speaks of, as if it is far from his mind. (which im sure it is) Leonardo continues to act an expert about the bride's wedding: what she should wear, how she should wear it. Leonardo then talks with the bride, and the two speak to each other like ewuals, on some level. Which is ludacris compared to other scenes of the play. Trot(?) touches on how Leonardo is purposefully given his own name because he is separate in ways that the other characters are not. But, as I agree with Kaylie's insightful interpretation, we might as well just call him The Proud Stallion.
AHHHH i just realized:
in the first act, first scene, the mother says to her son "Man, man, harvest, harvest". Then the neighbor's son got mangled in the harvester, and men are "forced always to deal with weapons" (harvester could be considered a weapon as plants in this play seem to symbolize love and life: harvesters cut (with knives! another motif) and kill (!) plants.)
3)a continued
I changed my idea about genders:
I think that BW deals mostly with the roles of men. The mother is our first clue that men are, whether intentionally or not, associated with death, unhappiness, and negativity. In Yerma, Juan, the husband represented death and unhappiness, as he couldnt provide Yerma with pleasure, a child, or love. Victor, the scandalous love interest, couldnt provide either, but contributed to Yerma's unrest.
In BW, the mother says "Men are creatures who pass on the wind! They're forced always to deal with weapons."
Men die.
The bad marriage to an okay man "wasted away" the bride's mother.
and some "same fate overtook [leonardo's wife's] mother."
Leonardo "is not steady".
I haven't read the 3rd act yet, but Isabel said it ends in dead men and single ladies. nothing new for a Lorca. so we'll see.
2a
I feel Lorca portrays the theme of discontent in Yerma quite well. It is clear that Yerma is discontent without having the ability to bear her own children. She even refuses to take care of one of Juan’s brother’s children, “I don’t want to look after other people’s children. I think my arms would freeze from holding them.” She needs her own, which is an understandable maternal yearning. Even Juan is discontent in this play though. He states, “To live peacefully one must be tranquil.” He, as the washwomen, is fearful that Yerma flirts too much with Victor. I believe that Juan may have some sort of inferiority complex seeing as he cannot give his wife children, and this is why he has transformed into such a workaholic. He states that he has given up on the idea of having children after five years of trying, and it is clear that he wants Yerma to as well. “I don’t understand you. I don’t deprive you of anything. I send to town for whatever you wish. I have my faults, but I want to live peacefully and quietly with you. . .” Here, Juan is trying to avoid the issue of being unable to have children with his wife. When he states I don’t deprive you of anything, the reader immediately disagrees, since he has quit on having children, and that is the only thing that Yerma longs for. Yerma states that men have plenty of things in life to keep them fulfilled, such as their flocks and comradeship, whereas women only have children and childcare.
Another interesting symbol I picked up was thorns. Yerma states, “If I suddenly turned into an old woman with a mouth like a withered flower, I might be able to smile and share my life with you more easily. Now…now leave me alone with my thorns.” And then later on she goes onto say, “A farmer’s wife who can’t bear children is as useless as a handful of thorns, almost seen as evil, even though I too come from this wasteland abandoned by God.” I found these two passages very interesting, and was wondering if anyone wanted to comment on them.
2b
Since we have been talking so avidly about the role of women AND men now on this blog, I feel I have a bit more to contribute to the discussion. We have already established that women in Lorca’s plays are mere baby-making machines, with the sole purpose of continuing the race. This is really reminding me of Sonnet 3 by Shakespeare that I have been working on in class, where the speaker is urging another to reproduce to continue his legacy in the next generation. Even more interesting, Lucy commented on how men were meant to perhaps “harvest children” in addition to crops. Shakespeare used this same metaphor! He stated that that the man is meant to plough (in reference to sexual intercourse) and then plant his “seed”. Lucy’s comment brought to mind all these references to a man’s duty to “till” his wife. Sorry if this is a bit inappropriate for the blog, but if you want to blame anyone, blame Shakespeare, he wrote about the stuff (and my interpretation of his sonnet was verified in the commentary section of www.shakespeares-sonnets.com.
2a
So clearly I have a wax fetish or something, because the first thing I noticed in the second act was “They’re like those huge leaves that spring up over graves. They’re all waxy”. This is in reference to Juan’s sisters, and the “waxy” now makes me think of repellence (I was picturing dew on big leaves). So could the wax motif, in both Blood Wedding and Yerma, refer to the act of repelling something? In Blood Wedding, I remember feeling like the bride wouldn’t let herself soak up the groom’s love for her. Here, I feel like the sisters have an air about that that is repelling, rather than inviting. Again the whole seamstress reference came up with “I’d like to pierce all gossiping tongues with a knitting needle,” but I still can’t figure out the connection between all of the references (but I KNOW it’s there somewhere!). Also, one of the washer women says “I love the smell of sheep….The smell of what’s ours,” which immediately made me think of smelling babies...which sounds awkward but I think you all know what I mean when I say that…like how everyone (rightly) obsesses over smelling their heads? So again, we see the whole ownership complex, with Yerma wanting children of her own even though others think she should be content with watching the children of others. And again, of course, there were flowers in the song, but this time I think I got a clearer meaning of them. Flowers bud in the spring, a time of year that is thought of as a “rebirth” of sorts. In the second scene, Yerma talks of how the land regrows each year and it brings her sadness as a reminder that she cannot have growth within herself.
2b
Trot talked about men “tilling” and “harvesting” (which initially Lucy brought up), and “planting their seed”. In the song in the second act, it states “Say if your man Has the true seed, That through your dress The stream may run free”. This is in perfect accordance with what Trot was saying, about how it is the men’s duty to, literally speaking, impregnate women with their seed. And this also touches again on the water motif, with the stream reference. I feel like I’ve been noticing a lot of the water present in Lorca’s work in the “flowing” motion, perhaps symbolizing a pathway of sorts? A path of life, maybe?
3a
So after that whole water/flowing/pathway/life assertion, I found a ton of lines incorporating my idea while reading the 3rd act. For example:
“flow of warm milk” – in reference to breast feeding
“let life carry us along” – life as a flowing path?
“a stream of single men flows through these mountains” – it’s already been said multiple times the connection between men and making babies, which leads to life
“I’ll keep to the path I’m on” – again, life as a pathway
So it looks like I was on the right track with that whole thing. I’m sure there are other meanings behind the water motifs, but I feel strongly that this is one of them. Along with this, I found a few other connections between the 2nd and 3rd acts. I remembered when reading Yerma’s line “I went out searching for flowers and ran up against a wall” that something was mentioned about that in the 2nd act and found: “JUAN: You’re half crazy with these ideas, instead of thinking only about what you should, and so you insist in running your head against a rock. YERMA: A rock, and shameful that it is a rock, when it should be a basket of flowers and fragrances”. I also remember not quite understanding what they were getting at with that…so if anyone could help me out that would be fab. But since we’re on the subject of flowers, I also previously stated that I felt like they symbolized the rebirth/growth. In the 3rd act the song that was sung was pretty much all about “flowering roses” which could also be interpreted as “budding roses” which I believe was meant to give a sense of impregnation/pregnancy- especially after the line “begging for your womb to flower”.
A few things worth mentioning about the pilgrimage. All of the women there were barefoot it seemed, and when I was reading that it triggered something that I remembered reading earlier in the play about bare feet, but I searched in vain and alas could not find what I was looking for. Maybe someone else remembers what was said about bare feet? Or maybe I’m wrong, and it was just talking about normal feet… I remember that the poor woman that Delores helped get pregnant walked in blood covered shoes? Also about the pilgrimage, the old woman who asks Yerma to live with her son tells her that if she does “There’ll be the smell of babies again” which I decided was a connection to the whole smell of sheep thing, but probably just because I want to believe that I’m really deep and insightful.
3a
The conclusion of this play was all over the place, for me at least. I was aware that the final act would conclude with Yerma murdering her husband, but I feel I was lost in all the events leading up to this cessation. I found it odd when the Old Woman was attempting to convince Yerma to leave her husband and marry her son, whom would provide her with several children (unethical at the time??). The Old Woman says, “When one is thirsty, one is grateful for water,” (yet another reference to water). She is saying that if Yerma desires a child so, and the Old Woman is offering an opportunity to bear a child, she must take it. Yerma claimed that she would not do such a thing, and that she had every intention of staying with Juan. Juan had overheard this conversation, but was not satisfied with Yerma’s feelings. He made it very clear that he did not plan to have children. I think that Yerma was in denial about this, because it seemed she always had hoped there was a chance they would have children. After hearing the reality of the situation, Yerma strangled Juan to death (in a public forum?). I found this similar to Blood Wedding when the bride was at fault for the deaths of the bridegroom and Leonardo. It appears that this may be a common thread in Lorca’s work; the discontent of women that ultimately leads to disaster (i.e. death). However, as I have stated I was a little confused with the last act of Yerma so I may be way off with that whole analysis.
I also found it interesting that, as in Blood Wedding, Lorca chose to personify the moon in Yerma. Yerma states, “See how I’m abandoned. As if the moon were searching for herself in the sky. Look at me!” In Blood Wedding, the moon played an integral role in the finding and killing of Leonardo, and consequently the bridegroom. Perhaps there is even more to the moon than we initially thought since Lorca has mentioned it twice.
3b
The husband is the bull,
ever the man commands,
and women are the flowers,
for the one who wins.
We have discussed in depth a lot of Lorca’s symbolism throughout his plays. This excerpt really stood out to me so I chose to research the symbolism of bulls and flowers. On every website I found, the bull was basically the same: “The bull is somewhat unique in the world of symbolism in that he is both a solar and a lunar creature. His male fertility, his fiery temperament, and his role as father of the herd make him the masculine sun-god in many cults.” and “the bull symbolizes strength and fertility, especially that fertility which is sparked or strengthened by fire, heat, the sun, and lightning.” fit our purposes perfectly. In Yerma, the man is seen as a tool of fertility, to reproduce and become a father. Flowers are seen as another sign of fertility and beauty. In Yerma, roses are mentioned often, which more specifically refer to deep passion. Yerma greatly desires to have a child of her own. She sees Juan as an essential tool to quench her maternal thirst.
This all relates back to the common theme of water. Yerma states, “I’m like a parched field where a thousand pairs of oxen should drive the plough, and what you offer me is a little glass of water from the well. My grief is one that’s already beyond the flesh.” There were so many references to water in the final act of this play, there would not be time to list them all, but believe me, they are prominent. We have discussed a couple of explanations for water, but I would like to come up with a final solution. I am currently sticking by the idea that water is representative of life, but I feel that is too general.
3a)
I noticed most in the 3rd act the plant motif. I know it's prevalent throughout the whole play but I focused on just one act. I can't tell what exactly the attitude toward plants and nature is: however, i did think of Ophelia (Trot brought up Shakespeare) and her spurt of craziness when she handed out a flower to everyone and each had a meaning. We've already talked about the orange blossom; here are some others:
"mother sunflower" (sunflowers can be considered a flower of adoration; mothers generally adore their sons, esp in Lorca)
"it would cost you less effort to cut it than to cull a dahlia in your garden" (dahlias are a symbol of dignity)
the moon is "full of blood wet jasmine" (The flower symbolism associated with the jasmine flower is attachment, sensuality, modesty, grace and elegance)
"sorrow of myrtle" (In Greek mythology, myrtle was considered to be sacred to Aphrodite. Traditions of brides wearing crowns of myrtle on their wedding day was common to ancient Greeks; this goes well with the paradox of a sorrowful wedding)
"bitter laurel" (a symbol of victory, symbolic of triumph and fame, especially when it is gained after a long, inner struggle; bitter triumph? the mother is right about her sons dying, but what good is it to be right if they're dead?)
Then of course there were the:
dark vines, olive branches, moist trees, the dark branches to be left to love, green leaves of love, rank odor of weeds, and the moon of green blades(blades and knives also being a motif in this play).
3b) I'm going to have to agree to disagree about Trot's 2a. I think that in YERMA, Juan isn't discontent at all. I think the problem is the fact that he IS content without having children. His discontent comes from Yerma's constant nagging; let's face it, shes a brat. A murderous brat at that. Juan isn't empathetic towards Yerma's discontent because of the said other ways to fulfill his life. He just doesn't understand. Which builds on the "anti-man" theme I've got going here. Men cannot understand the complexities of women's wants and desires, all they do is sow and reap (wicked excited that Isabel and Trot brought William into this convo, btw).
woo isabel! you answered my question.. even before I asked it apparently. I totally agree with your intepretation of water/pathway in the play. As far as the bare feet bit you were looking for I went back to check and I only could find two passages relating to feet. The first is when Yerma is speaking sarcastically to Juan about taking care of her when she is sick, and she says that she would expect him to cover her cold feet. The next mention of feet was when Yerma states, "I would like to climb the mountain but I have no feet." Unfortunately I did non find a mention of bare feet in the beginning of the play, but I could have missed something.
Meg Leach
2. A The role of flowers in conversation within this scene is really interesting. Not only does it seem that the flower is a symbol of classic beauty, but also, more importantly, the flower looks like it is also a symbol of fertility. These are classic images of flowers that have transcended the ages. The song by the women washing at the stream references ‘flowers’ countless of times, but most importantly, in the way of a flower representing a child would be a quote from yerma
YERMA: How can I not complain, when I see you and other women filled with flowers within
Biologically, flowers are the ‘step’ of fertilization before a plant bears fruit, which would be analogous to an embryo/fetus within a woman.
Megan Leach
2. B
Alex I love that you brought up the twice-commented theme of thorns. Thorns, being the nasty side of beauty are something that whenever mentioned with discontent can be a very very powerful statement. WE all know the mega-smash hit by Poison (Every Rose has it’s Thorn) so the use of thorns to go along with your recognized theme . Thorns also match in, I think, with maybe some deception, where you have a beautiful flower that causes pain. This can apply to Yerma in a few ways, being the beautiful flower of a wife for Juan…yet ‘flirting’ with Victor on the side. Or, a beautiful woman who looks to be a perfect wife with a ‘perfect‘ life, who only spurs debate with her husband because she wants more.
3 A
meg leach
3. A
The ending of Yerma not only startled me, but it actually scared me a little bit. The intense feeling of discontent of Yerma, the main character showed just as much a commentary on passion as it did on the power of nature and discontent. I think the entire play of Yerma can be seen as a commentary on femme nature, that being the instinctual need to procreate. These hinge on the passion and discontent of Yerma as she is denied right and ability to have children. The fact that she feels strongly enough to do what she did to Juan (not risking a spoiler moment) might just be a true commentary on how badly a woman feels the need to be able to bare children, and how offensive the idea of being barren could be.
FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA’S PLAYS
Alex (Blood Wedding): Good job getting the ball rolling, so to speak. You’ve selected key detail, have offered thoughtful insights, and have asked open-ended questions. Well done.
Kaylie (Blood Wedding): “Since the bride knew she was only marrying the bridegroom out of duty should she have not married him knowing that Leonardo would be a temptation out of her marriage? Like I quoted before, with Leonardo she was, “a straw lost in the wind.” If this is the case should s[h]e have seen their running away together coming?” Lorca is exploring the relationship between duty and passion. Is it possible to restrain passion in order to fulfill a duty? Does the answer depend upon the intensity of the passion? Is the repression of desire to serve a duty as tragic the consequences of fulfilling desire despite one’s duty? Is it wrong to repress desire in order to fulfill a duty? Is it a greater wrong to fulfill desire instead of fulfilling one’s duty? What exactly are the consequences of one or the other? (How are the consequences different—how the same—at different times and in different places?)
Kaylie (Blood Wedding): I’m so happy that you’ve brought up the moon as a character. This is one of my favorite aspects of the play. When I saw the play performed outdoors in Chelsea several years ago, this scene was magical—as if watching myth brought to life; it was one of the best artistic experiences I’ve ever had in any art form or genre.
Alison R (Blood Wedding): “(As a reference to Kaylie’s assertion that Leonardo is the horse in the lullaby, the moon also says: I’ll make the horse gleam / with a fever of diamond,” the moon is again, searching for Leonardo.)” Excellent!
& this too from Alison R: “Though why, does this beggarwoman need to find the couple? Death certainly is lonely as the Mother shows in the begging of the play, and since it is lonely it needs company. This is reinforced when the beggarwoman enthusiastically joins the Bridegroom on his journey to find Leonardo and his Bride. When she answers the moons question of “What do you need?” with “Nothing,” the reader is shown that the beggarwoman could not possibly be living because only the dead require “nothing.” In the very end of the third act, when the beggar woman reappears, she speaks on the death of the two men with “delectation,” further reinforcing her embodiment of death.”
Also, excellent.
Kaylie: your interpretation of the “poetry” in the play is exemplary throughout the discussion. You’ve helped remind us all that this is a poetic—rather than “realistic”—play. Thank you.
Isabel (Blood Wedding): “I almost feel like Lorca is suggesting that there is always a “dark branch” in the flowering landscape that represents marriage. Here, that dark branch was the love between the bride and Leonardo, and they hid in this “dark branch” in the dark forest.” Yes!
“Also curious was the beggar woman, who “does not appear of the cast list”…..even though she did in fact appear on the cast list- and she is listed as “Death- as a beggar woman” which kind of ruins the symbolism of the character.” That’s too bad that the translator decide to put her on the cast list. The translation that I have honors Lorca by omitting her from the cast list.
Michael H. (Blood Wedding): I think you’ve done a good job puzzling Lorca’s choice to use roles instead of names, except for Leonardo who “is sort of breaking from his husband personality, to go pursue what he believes is his true love.” You’ve also done a good job catching the dual (& interrelated) meanings of “blood”.
Alex T: “Also Isabel you mentioned the orange-blossoms being made of wax and thus everlasting, which is another aspect of this symbol, the aforementioned “eternal love”.” Wax flowers may be everlasting but they also lack life! See the symbolic connection with the Bridegroom.
Lucy F.: “she lacks PAIN, even, which is a bad thing, because pain would mean a child’s scratching, a pain ‘essential to health.’ “ Excellent insight. Gets at the paradoxical nature of true feelings. Though I’d like to read you explore this idea a bit. Flesh it out, so to speak. (Please excuse the pun.)
“Yerma's problem springs not from her lack of desire, but from her desire in the wrong thing.” Lucy I’m impressed by how clearly you get Lorca’s imagination. This whole passage is so gracefully “in tune” with Lorca’s sensibility that I wonder if you might not enjoy reading more of his work.
“In many plays, water is a symbol of passivity (Ophelia). However, it seems that in Yerma water is a symbol of pleasure, desire, and power. Yerma herself makes refernces to water as having the strength to make soil from stone. Water is personified in Victor's strong singing voice.” A truthful insight but I’d love to hear more development of the idea. This also makes me wonder about the differing sensibilities of Shakespeare and Lorca. I think one might well center such a comparison on their contrasting use of water imagery.
Megan L (Blood Wedding): “He has a very faint interaction with his wife here, and even his interaction with the bride is much more passionate. Passion is not only love, it is important to note, but also comes in the form of hate and argument.” This is very important to remember in Lorca’s plays; it helps us understand why the flipside of passionate love is often passionate violence.
“…it might be interesting to entertain the idea that without the wax, something artificial and not natural to the flowers, the love between them would die.” I don’t think you’re over-thinking this at all. So much of the Blood Wedding culture is wax (& therefore barren) as opposed to living (but, as you note, what truly lives is also subject to death—and is therefore tragic).
Alex T (Yerma): (with regard to 1b) Synthesizing many ideas into a personal understanding of a given piece of literature is a talent of yours that I have seen emerge over the course of the first semester. Well done.
Isabel (Yerma): “This [the discussion of dryness in Yerma] makes me think about the orange blossoms again (I know, I'm obsessed) because they had to have been dry in order for the bride to be wearing them on her dress” Excellent connection. Take it the next step: what might Lorca be saying about “dry” “love”.
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Thinking back about Lucy F’s comparison of Shakespeare’s use of water in Hamlet to Lorca’s use of water in Yerma it suddenly struck me that England, is a country of streams, rivers, and a lot of rain. Lack of water doesn’t trouble Shakespeare’s characters—at least the ones in the dozen or so plays that I’ve read, through I will continue to look for counterexamples. On the other hand, Lorca’s Andalusia is relatively dry, especially in the summers so dryness haunts his imagination, linked with barrenness and death, whereas water is linked with fertility and life. I wonder what images lurk within us, possessing particular power because of where we live.
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Megan L “Mills use water power to grind grain which is used to…make food. Food sustains life. I think this might be a fun little idea to entertain.” Superb insight.
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Thank you all for sharing your code words :-)
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Lucy F. wow, the harvest & harvester: that food comes from violence. Life and death are linked. The physical passion that yields life through can also destroy whole families. Also, the marital bonds that organize and attempt to control sexual passion and to direct it into the creation and rearing of children can also stifle the passion & lead to a kind of physical and emotional sterility. Etc. Etc. These are the issues in Lorca’s drama.
& finally, from our cultural iconography: The grim reaper is, of course, a harvester of men, no?
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Alex T: “Even more interesting, Lucy commented on how men were meant to perhaps “harvest children” in addition to crops. Shakespeare used this same metaphor! He stated that that the man is meant to plough (in reference to sexual intercourse) and then plant his “seed”.” Great connection. I think a sustained comparison of the two author’s use of the metaphor would be (ahem) fertile ground for analysis.
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A lot of the discussion about Lorca makes me think about how “bodily” and “agricultural” his plays are—with blood and milk and water and horses and grain and thorns, etc.--as opposed to Ibsen’s plays in which the significant objects are manmade: a loan document, a manuscript, a piano, a gun, etc.
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Isabel: “I went out searching for flowers and ran up against a wall” What flowers in the play? What are the walls?
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Lucy F: I like that when you bring the symbolism into the discussion you speculate how it might be significant in the context of the play.
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Alex/Isabel: Great link between water and feet as pathways.
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Megan L: “The ending of Yerma not only startled me, but it actually scared me a little bit.” Me too! I saw it live, in a public park in Chelsea. The final scene was less than ten feet away from me! Chilling! & chilling true somehow.
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