Lorca’s influences

Greek Tragedy

Lorca was influenced by Greek tragedy To what extent can Blood Wedding be

regarded as a tragedy? See ‘The Nature of Tragedy in Lorca’s Blood

Wedding’

Influenced by Greek tragedy, classical Spanish theatre and modern movements

in theatre

Manuel Duran in his introduction to Lorca: A Collection of Critical Essays – Lorca had a reputation for being a thoroughly Spanish poet and dramatist, in the sense that his style and subject matter draw heavily in indigenous traditions. But that also, he was “a brother of all men” and therefore Lorca wanted to “assimilate [the new] movements without destroying the Spanish tradition” in his work.

Lorca the poet

Herbert Ramsden, in his book Bodas de Sangre: Claims Lorca is above all, poet “of the concrete”. Thus,

instead of referring to death as an abstraction, Lorca evokes a death scene.” Meaning, Lorca’s characters don’t talk about death, rather their words conjure up the very vision of one dead. Or, death appears in the play as an actual character. This avoidance of abstraction and reliance on the concrete, highly visual image, is part of what Lorca derives from symbolist poets and dramatists he so avidly read.

How effectively does Lorca combine poetry and prose in Blood Wedding?

Lorca’s political sympathies

Throughout 1920s and 30s Spain, citizens had strong political views.

Lorca was a staunch Republican and deeply committed to policies that would improve the lives of the countries poorest citizens. He believed that the culture which arises from a country’s people is as rich as any culture produced by an educated elite.

How might this view be seen in Blood Wedding?

Other works to consider alongside Blood Wedding

Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter and other poems (1962) – a short volume of selected poems

The House of Bernarda Alba (1936) is he final play of Lorca’s so-called “rural trilogy”; it was completed in the last year of his life. It was first staged in 1945 in Buenos Aires. Centres around a stern matriarchal character whose household stifles the lives and desires of her children.

Antigone (late 440s B.C.E.), by the Greek dramatist Sophocles, concerns the tragedy of Antigone who acts against royal decree in order to fulfill funeral rites for her brother. She is condemned to death for her actions.

Romeo and Juliet (1595)