Journal #4 Blood Wedding

Two symbols that emerged in Act I are flowers and walls. The mother brings up both of them. She describes the knives as evil and the creation of monsters that destroyed her husband and son who were like flowers. She uses different flowers to describe them: carnations, germanium, and several others throughout the play. The mother treats the wall as her commitment. "I didn't look at anyone. I looked at your father, and when they killed him, I looked at the wall in front of me. One woman with one man, and that's it" (10). And again, she mentions the wall with her commitment to her husband and honoring his death. "Because I will dig him up with my fingernails! And all by myself, I will smash him against the wall!" (9). There is a metaphorical and physical wall. One that blocks the mother from the outside world and one she uses to destroy. The mother varies in tone, from beautiful flowers to smashing against walls. It shows her distress from the lives lost. Lorca uses a lot of nature in the play. Flowers are one of the natural beauties in the world. Describing people as flowers shows genuine beauty and kindness. The wall is man made. Marriage is man made. Jealousy, anger, killing, love are all derived from men. When the mother talks about her commitment as a wall, she makes it sound like something she was enslaved to, not necessarily out of love.