Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Blood Wedding, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love, Passion, and Control
History and Fate
Violence and Revenge
Ownership and Unhappiness
Summary
Analysis
In the woods, three woodcutters talk about Leonardo and the Bride’s escape, saying that everyone is looking for them and will “find them soon.” “They should leave them alone,” one of the woodcutters says, and another adds, “You have to follow your instinct. They were right to run away.” Unfortunately, though, the woodcutters recognize that the lovers’ actions will have consequences. As they speak, they realize that they’re getting “close” to Leonardo and the Bride, and because the moon is emerging, they decide to “hurry” away.
García Lorca presents the three woodcutters as if they are members of a traditional Greek Chorus, a group of characters that comment on the events taking place in an Ancient Greek play. The fact that these woodcutters are sympathetic to Leonardo and the Bride is refreshing, considering that seemingly everybody else is eager to hold their love against them. However, that they end up slinking away in retreat suggests that their goodwill will not be enough to save the young lovers.
Themes
The moon appears as “a young woodcutter with a white face.” Speaking in verse, he calls himself the “false dawn amongst the leaves,” adding that the Bride and Leonardo won’t get away. “Let me come in!” he says, eventually declaring how “cold” he is, thinking about how his white light glimmers off the river before him, building up “cold and hard in pools.” However, he asserts that “tonight there’ll be red blood to fill [his] cheeks.” Turning to the surrounding tree branches, he says he doesn’t want any “shadows” to fall on the ground, since his “rays must enter everywhere.” “Who is hiding? Come out, I say! / No! They shan’t get away!” he rhymes.
Unlike the woodcutters, the moon hopes that Leonardo and the Bride won’t successfully escape. Indeed, he seems to crave death, as he believes bloodshed will warm his cold “cheeks.” In turn, García Lorca communicates just how difficult it will be for Leonardo and the Bride to escape, making it even harder for their love to triumph, as even the natural elements surrounding them seemingly disapprove of their elopement.
Themes
When the moon slinks back into the trees, an elderly beggar woman appears. (“She is Death,” García Lorca confirms in his stage note.) Also speaking in verse, she celebrates the fact “from here they shan’t move,” indicating that death will take place in this very spot by the river. Conspiring with the moon, she says, “We mustn’t let them get beyond the stream.” At this point, the Bridegroom emerges with a young man helping him track down Leonardo and the Bride. “You won’t find them,” the young man says, but the Bridegroom ignores this, insisting that he heard the sound of a horse. “You see this arm?” he cries. “Well it’s not my arm. It’s my brother’s arm and my father’s and my whole dead family’s. And it’s got such strength, it could tear this tree from its roots if it wanted to.”
When the beggar woman—who explicitly represents death itself—asserts that Leonardo and the Bride won’t make it beyond the stream running through the forest, the audience sees that the two lovers are hurdling toward a grim fate, as shadowy figures make bleak prophecies about what will happen to them. In keeping with this, the Bridegroom references his own fate as a way of justifying his pursuit of Leonardo. When he says that his arm belongs to his “whole dead family,” he uses his family history as something motivating him to take revenge on Leonardo. Of course, by pursuing his enemy, he is only increasing the likelihood that he will succumb to the same fate as his father and brother, but he’s unable to consider this at the moment, since he’s blinded by his thirst for revenge.
Themes
The beggar woman lets out a cry, which the Bridegroom and his helper hear. “This is a hunt,” says the young man, to which the Bridegroom declares, “A hunt. The greatest hunt of all.” The young man then runs off, and the Bridegroom bumps into the beggar. When he asks her whether she has seen Leonardo, she is too fixated on his beauty to answer, saying, “Such a good-looking boy if you were asleep!” After marveling at the sight of him, she finally directs him, telling him to follow her. When they set off, the woodcutters return and say, “Oh rising death!” They decide to leave a “green branch” for Leonardo and the Bride’s love.
By saying that his pursuit of Leonardo is “the greatest hunt of all,” the Bridegroom glorifies the idea of revenge, framing it as something that brings honor and pride. In reality, though, he’s doing nothing but speeding toward a violent encounter that will endanger his own life—a fact made all the more clear by the beggar woman’s ominous interest in how beautiful he would be if he were “asleep,” or unconscious. Given that the beggar woman represents death, it becomes rather obvious that the Bridegroom is hurdling to his own demise, though he’s too hell-bent on exacting revenge to consider this.
Themes
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The woodcutters retreat, and Leonardo and the Bride emerge. Sneaking through the woods, the Bride expresses regret about eloping, but Leonardo says, “Oh, I’m not the one at fault. / The fault belongs to the earth / And that scent that comes / From your breasts and your hair.” In turn, the Bride tells him that she’s worried their love will get him killed, which is why she wants him to leave her behind, though he refuses. “If they separate us, it will be / Because I am dead,” Leonardo says, to which the Bride adds, “I will be dead too.” As they hurry off, the moon reemerges, shining a “strong blue light” all over the forest. Then, “two long, piercing screams” sound out, and the beggar woman comes out and “stands with her back to the audience,” opening her ragged cloak “like a great bird with huge wings.”
The only reason the Bride regrets eloping with Leonardo is that she fears he’ll be killed as a result of their love. This is rather levelheaded, since it’s clear that the preexisting feud between Leonardo’s family and the Bridegroom’s family is only going to fuel the animosity between the two men. However, her misgivings are useless, since she can’t change the fact that they’ve already run away. Leonardo, for his part, articulates what the Bride has been struggling with throughout the entire play—namely, that certain kinds of passionate love are too difficult to resist, which is why he claims that the “earth” is “at fault” for their elopement, an idea that frames their relationship as a force of nature that is too great and powerful to resist.
Themes
