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
On the wedding day, the servant combs the Bride’s hair, saying, “Such a lucky girl…to be able to put your arms around a man, to kiss him, to feel his weight!” Instead of delighting in this kind of talk, though, the Bride tells her to stop talking about such matters, pouting sullenly as she prepares to get married. “But child!” the servant says. “What is marriage? That’s what marriage is. Nothing more! Is it the sweetmeats? Is it the bunches of flowers? Of course it’s not! It’s a shining bed and a man and a woman.” Despite this enthusiasm, though, the Bride tells her servant to be quiet. When the servant tries to put a wreath of orange blossoms in her hair, the Bride takes it from her, tells the servant to leave her alone, and throws the flower crown on the floor.
The fact that the servant tries to emphasize the romantic implications of marriage suggests that she understands that the Bride is uninterested in the materialistic and pragmatic benefits that will come along with her marriage. Unlike her father and the Bridegroom’s mother, the Bride is obviously unimpressed by the thought of possessing the Bridegroom’s vineyard. However, the servant fails to cheer the young woman up. This, it’s not hard to see, is because her affections clearly lie with Leonardo, judging by the secret meetings she has apparently been having with him at night.
Themes
“Don’t you want to get married?” the servant asks, adding that the Bride can still back out of the arrangement. However, the Bride responds vaguely, saying, “Dark clouds. A cold wind here inside me. Doesn’t everyone feel it?” This remark prompts the servant to ask the young woman if she even loves the Bridegroom, and the Bride says that she does, but points out that it’s “a very big step” to get married. “It has to be taken,” the servant says, and the Bride replies, “I’ve already agreed to take it.”
When the servant says that marriage is a “step” that “has to be taken,” she addresses society’s expectation that a young woman like the Bride marry an affluent man like the Bridegroom. Of course, the Bride herself is already quite aware of this expectation—earlier, she referred to the marriage as her “duty”—which is why she reminds the servant that she has “already agreed to take” this step, acting as if her fate is sealed and that she has no choice but to go through with the marriage.
Themes
While the servant helps the Bride get ready, the first wedding guest arrives. To the servant’s surprise, she opens the door to find that the guest is Leonardo, who says he rode ahead of his wife. In the distance, a song about the Bride’s wedding day rises as the rest of the guests draw near, though they’re still only on the horizon. “I suppose the bride will be wearing a big wreath of flowers?” Leonardo says. “It shouldn’t be so big. Something smaller would suit her better.” Hearing Leonardo’s voice, the Bride steps into view. Still clad in her undergarments, she ignores the servant’s instructions not to show herself, and she asks Leonardo what he’s “hinting at” by asking about the orange blossoms. “You, you know me, you know I’m not hinting,” Leonardo answers.
By this point in the play, there is no doubt that Leonardo and the Bride are still in love. When Leonardo says the Bridegroom should have given the Bride a “smaller” orange-blossom wreath, he differentiates himself from the people who are invested first and foremost in the superficial, materialistic aspects of marriage. Whereas the Bridegroom is clearly proud of his ability to provide the Bride with expensive things, Leonardo is only interested in love, which doesn’t require oversized wreaths or fertile vineyards. This, it seems, is why he has ridden ahead of the wedding guests, clearly wanting to express his true feelings to the Bride before she commits to the Bridegroom.
Themes
Standing before the Bride, Leonardo asks what he meant to her, urging her to think back to their relationship. “But two oxen and a broken-down shack are almost nothing. That’s the thorn,” he laments. When the Bride asks why he’s come, he says he simply wanted to see her wedding—after all, she watched him get married, which he reminds her was her own fault, since she was the one who refused to marry him. Still, though, he says he won’t “speak out” because he doesn’t want people to hear his “complaints.” “Mine would be louder,” the Bride admits, at which point the servant tries to end the conversation, telling them they shouldn’t “talk about what’s gone.” Nonetheless, Leonardo says that even after his own wedding he has never been able to forget the Bride.
It’s no wonder that Leonardo and the Bride are still in love, since their relationship only ended because of superficial, pragmatic reasons—namely, that Leonardo couldn’t support the Bride financially. Indeed, the Bride clearly felt obligated to find a wealthy husband, a decision her society champions. However, this has left her heartbroken and sad, which is why she’s so unexcited by the idea of marrying the Bridegroom. Now that she’s doing what society expects of her by wedding a rich man, she understands how joyless it is to embark upon a loveless life. As a result, she admits to Leonardo that she’s unhappy about her wedding. Unfortunately, though, the servant tries to come between the two lovers by urging them to stop talking about the past.
Themes
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The Bride tells Leonardo that she will stick by her decision to marry the Bridegroom. “I’ll shut myself away with my husband, and I’ll love him above everything,” she says, but Leonardo points out that “to keep quiet and burn is the greatest punishment we can heap upon ourselves.” What’s more, he says that “when the roots of things go deep, no one can pull them up.” These statements cause the Bride to start shaking, as she admits that the mere sound of Leonardo’s voice makes her feel intoxicated. “And I know I’m mad,” she says, “and I know that my heart’s putrified from holding out, and here I am, soothed by the sound of his voice, by the sight of his arms moving.” Hearing this, the servant firmly puts an end to the conversation, and the voices of the wedding guests sound out in song as they approach.
In this moment, the Bride tries to control her passionate love for Leonardo. Thinking she can resist her feelings, she reminds herself of the commitment she’s about to make to the Bridegroom, upholding that she’s going to “shut” herself “away.” Of course, isn’t a very romantic way to talk about her marriage, but this is exactly the point: she’s trying to ignore the idea of romance in order to bolster her willpower. However, this proves harder than she thought, since Leonardo is there to tell her that “keep[ing] quiet” about love is torturous. After all, he would know, since he married a woman he doesn’t truly love and continues to pine for the Bride.
Themes
The wedding guests enter, still singing about the Bride and her magnificent wedding day. After they settle in, the Bride—who ran out of the room just before they arrived—reappears, finally dressed in her wedding gown and the crown of orange blossoms. As the excitement sets in, the Bridegroom’s mother asks the Bride’s father why members of the Felix family are in attendance, and he tells her that “today’s a day for forgiveness”—after all, “they are family.” Still, the mother says she will “put up with” their presence but will not “forgive” them.
Yet again, the Bridegroom’s mother refuses to forget about her family’s violent past. This is worth paying attention to, since the servant has recently urged the Bride to stop talking “about what’s gone.” In the same way that the Bridegroom’s mother finds it impossible to stop thinking about her dead family members, then, the Bride struggles to push her and Leonardo’s love out of her mind.
Themes
Meanwhile, the Bride rushes over to the Bridegroom and says she wants to hurry to the church, not wanting to delay any longer. When he asks why, she says, “I want to be your wife and be alone with you and not hear any other voices but yours.” Going on, she adds, “And to have you hold me so tight that, even if my mother were to call me, my dead mother, I couldn’t free myself from you.” With this, they set off for the church, the many guests following them as they go.
The Bride’s desire to hurry along the process of her wedding has to do with her weakening willpower. Afraid of what she might do if she remains too long in Leonardo’s presence, she tries to invest herself in her relationship with the Bridegroom, hoping that making their union official will keep her from succumbing to her desires for Leonardo. And although the Bridegroom seems to think this is an expression of love, the Bride’s yearning for him to “hold” her says more about how much she distrusts herself (that is, if he doesn’t have a secure grasp on her, she’ll flee to Leonardo the first chance she gets) than it says about her feelings for her future husband.
Themes
Just as Leonardo is about to leave for the church, his wife urges him to come with her in the cart instead of taking his horse, which he rode without her on the way to the Bride’s house. When he says he’s “not the kind of man to go by cart,” she responds that she isn’t “the kind of woman to go to a wedding” alone. “I can’t put up with it any more!” she cries. “Neither can I,” he says in turn, glaring at her. “I don’t know what’s happening,” she says. “But I think and I don’t want to think. One thing I do know. I’ve already been thrown aside.”
The relationship Leonardo has with his wife provides insight into what it’s like to be in a loveless marriage. This, it seems, is what the Bride has to look forward to if she decides to go through with her plan to spend the rest of her life with the Bridegroom.
Themes
