blood wedding
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Lorca's Blood Wedding is a play that appears, at first, to be based on a fairly straightforward plot of two lovers who defy all social and moral codes of honor by allowing their passion to get the better of them. Thus, it is seen as almost inevitable that the play will end in tragedy given that the young lovers belong to a place and time when a great deal of importance was placed on defending family honor, even to the point of bloodshed. However, Lorca obviously had quite another message in mind given his rather sudden introduction of surreal elements in the last Act. Indeed, the symbolism inherent in the young woodcutter as the Moon and the Beggar Woman as Death reveals that Lorca was really making a strong comment about the fact that ultimately all human beings meet their just deserts at the hands of Fate.
Lorca is obviously a master of his craft given the manner in which he artfully sets up his audience to believe that the lovers' fortunes will be dictated by the traditions and demanding laws of honor prevalent in the Spanish society of the time. This is evident in the way he develops the themes of knives, blood, nature and death throughout the play, including his very choice of the title Blood Wedding. In fact, the play begins on an ominous note with the bridegroom's mother exclaiming, "Knives, knives. Cursed be all knives, and the scoundrel who invented them" (Lorca, 34). But perhaps the more ominous note lies in Lorca's portrayal of the bridegroom's mother as a woman who has been unable to make peace with the death of her husband and other son in an old family feud. Ironically, though this makes her fiercely protective of her remaining son, she becomes instrumental in sending him to his death because she is unable to let go of her hatred for Leonardo's family...