In Federico Garcia Lorca's surrealist play, Blood Wedding, the characters remain extremely influenced by their culture. The setting occurs in a small region of Southern Spain- Andalusia. This part of Spain is very rural and poverty-stricken. Though this region has been poor for decades, during the 1930s, when the Spanish Civil War began, the entire country began suffering financially. In times of desperation, the Andalusian people took pride in non-tangible objects. Their culture was based off of pride, like their last name, the women's purity, and the fruitfulness of their land. Characters in the play, the Bridegroom, his Mother, and the Bride's Servant all followed their cultural values strictly. They passionately conveyed the importance of their culture throughout the play. In the play, Federico Garcia Lorca reveals the remote yet traditional culture of his Andalusian characters in Blood Wedding through showing how the Bridegroom, his Mother and the Bride’s Servant react when put in situations that include the issue of the ideology of men being dominant, while the suppressed women are characterized to be feeble and directed, and how these characters react when they are faced with rebellious others.
The Mother, a foil to the rambunctious Bride, follows the Andalusian culture diligently, for she knows no difference. The Mother did as what the society expected her to. Woman were suppose go do four things: maintain their family pride by retaining their innocence until marriage, marry an Andalusian man, tend to that man's needs, and become a caring mother who raises her children to follow the culture. The Mother was a dedicated Andalusian woman too, not only did she support the culture, she truly believed in it. The Mother embraced...
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...e role of a married woman throughout the entire play. She is a concerned mother, who desires the traditions to be maintained by her son’s offspring- her grandchildren. The Bridegroom, influenced by his overbearing Mother, follows the cultural roles to a tee also. He dreams of having a family with children who are raised in the same atmosphere he was, one that embraces the gender-polarized roles and creates a father-dominated environment.. He is willing to have a bountiful amount of children so that the ideology he passes down to them, will therefore live on. The Servant also conveys the cultural role. She unfortunately was unable to live the norm Andalusian life that she dreamt of. She still reveals the facts of the culture, and tries to influence the Bride to follow those ways. The characters passionately devote their lives to the culture and want others to follow.
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Cleofilas, had an illusion that all romances are like the ones she has seen on television. However, she soon realizes that her relationship with Juan Pedro was nothing like what she had dreamed it would be. Cisneros wants to emphasize the idea that when men bring home the primary source of income in the family, they feel they have power over their wives. Cisneros uses Juan Pedro in the story to portray this idea. For instance, Cleofilas often tells herself that if she had any brains in her, she would realize that Juan Pedro wakes up before the rooster to earn his living to pay for the food in her belly and a roof over her head (Cisneros, 1991, p.249). Cisneros wants to make a point that when men feel that they have power over their wives, women begin to feel a sense of low self-worth.
? . . . it made no difference if they studied medicine or had the right to vote, because they would not have the strength to do it, but she herself [Nivea] was not brave enough to be among the first to give up the fashion.? (6, Ch 1) The women in this society are dependant on the dominant male figure to handle political and economical duties. This point of view is intended to mimic the older generation of women ad present a foundation for the growth of an enlightened generation. Allende uses this excerpt to present a foundation of structure to the novel by beginning with the extremes of opinion, which are followed in the novel through different generations. Alba for example, become a very outspoken activist by trying to attend the student protests and follow Miguel on his demonstrations, a sharp contrast to the indifference or shallowness found in her great grandmother.
In conclusion, gender role in Elizabethan era is very complex with respect to women’s role. Men are the masters of the home and society; they preside over every aspect of life. They are however, expected to take care of their family and also be actively involved in politics, war, and they inherit their father’s properties. Women role varied a according to their social status. All women were raised to be subservient to men. Unlike upper class women, lower class women were denied any kind of education. And all women are expected to get married and bear children. The qualities Shakespeare gave Beatrice are very significant because it contrasts traditional Elizabethan theater. Gender role has evolved over time, especially women’s role and it will continue to evolve as long as there are women like Beatrice around.
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
Contrastingly, Mrs. Darling, his wife, is portrayed as a romantic, maternal character. She is a “lovely lady”, who had many suitors yet was “won” by Mr. Darling, who got to her first. However, she is a multifaceted character because her mind is described “like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East”, suggesting that she is, to some extent, an enigma to the other characters, especially Mr. Darling. As well as this, she exemplifies the characteristics of a “perfect mother”. She puts everything in order, including her children’s minds, which is a metaphor for the morals and ethics that she instils in them. Although ...
After spending more than half of the play looking down on her employee, the madam decides that she wants to switch places with her maid as part of a game. It is rather ironic how much the play follows the story line of the princes and the pauper. Where two women of different social standing switches places with each other, in order to experiences how their other side lives. It is arguable comedic that the women are able to assume their roles without much effort. The madam really acts the role of the maid, she acts how she believes the stereotypical maid should be, she sits behind her employer and begins to pay more attention to her son. Whereas the maid, clearly states to her employer that it’s not her job to pay attention because she is a “lady”. She puts her the tanning lotion, sunglasses and begins to
The time period in which the story takes place in was when men and women were not seen as equals. Mothers had traditional roles, such as cooking, cleaning, sewing, child-rearing, meaning that that they were mostly left in the house, while the men had their own roles mainly outside the house. Men were the dominant figures in the household, while the women were subservient. “It was an odd thing to see my mother down at the barn. She did not often come out of the house unless it was to do something - hang out the wash or dig potatoes in the garden. She looked out of place, with her bare lumpy legs, not touched by the sun, her apron still on and damp across the stomach from the supper dishes.”
"The Blood Wedding" and "Yerma" consistently exemplify the dominance of men in correspondence to the inferiority of women. During this time in Spain, that mentality was the norm, and widely accepted. Lorca portrays this mindset vividly in both of these novels, persuading the reader to see the some of the extremity of the social order Spain. For example, in "The Blood Wedding," the way in which Lorca describes the Bridegroom's position over the Bride forces us to see the accepted male dominance.
Miranda’s character in the play represents the ideal woman of Elizabethan era. She is portrayed as a goddess among the men. “Most sure, the goddess/Oh whom these airs attend!”(1.2.425-426). Fer...
In Blood Wedding, Lorca’s women are used as a vehicle to represent the social constraints and expectations of women in society, and their fight against these restrictions. This is clearly represented through the characters of the mother and the bride. The mother is a manifestation of society’s constraints. Her opinions are very repressed because she has internalized the moral codes and gender roles of a woman living in rural life. She believes that men belong in the fields and women belong in the house embroidering linens. She relies so heavily on her belief in gender roles that she sometimes wishes her last son was girl. She says, “No…If I talk about it, it’s because—how can I not talk about it, watching you go out that door? I don’t want you to carry a knife. I just…I just wish you wouldn’t go out to the fields…How I wish you had been a girl! You wouldn’t be going dow...
Early on in the letter, the protagonist, Ramatoulaye, communicates her perception of the “working woman” that clashes with the opposing, traditional outlook prevalent among her counterparts. For instance, when she explains the responsibilities they have to her sisters-in-law, their reactions showcase the disagreement they have on the matter. She mentions “to them that a working woman is no less responsible for her home,” but rather “that you have to see to…and do everything all over again: cleaning up, cooking, ironing…The working woman has a dual task, of which both halves, equally arduous, must be reconciled” (20). The reasoning for her sisters-in-law’s opposing view is centered on the belief that women should be the homemaker—they should not be “spared the drudgery of housework,” but rather perform their duties as a loyal wife (20). On the contrary, Ramatoul...
As my understanding was developed in the play Blood Wedding by Federico Lorca, the roles of society and motifs are consistently revealed through the play.These helped develop the themes of cycle of life, the progression of time, choice, and fate. Roles of society such as family inheritance, conflicts, and expectations was emphasized throughout the story.The motifs help foreshadow and connect with roles of society in events that will occur. Thus the motif of Greed which is depicted in characters like the Father. Also the motif of knives which are brought up again and again by multiple scenes and characters.The roles of society help bring understanding
The setting of the play is within the Victorian Era of Sweden, and with this environment the role of women was even more apparent in the play. This theme was exemplified in a multitude of ways but the most important would be through women's sacrifice of integrity “...no man would sacrifice his honor for the woman he loves.” (Torvald Act 3) “It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done” (Nora Act 3). In the play the character Nora chose to take care of her husband instead of her father when both fell ill. It had revealed the the social expectations of women having their husbands as first priority after being married off, but if that had not been th...
The roles of an archetypal mother in a Spanish society are to stay home, perform domestic work and care about family. They are there to grieve for the dead for six years, which in result makes them unable to leave the house, hence their lives are predestined. Even though it is natural for women to have little freedom, it can be deduced that they are in a “safe” zone. Nevertheless feminine characters are the ones who suffer emotionally from their longings and experience conflicts and catastrophes. In this case, mother endures from the death of her deceased son and husband and is constantly grieving. This display the common situations women at that time have to face, showing symptoms of repression. Generally in “Blood Wedding” female characters uncover their true self when talking to other feminine characters. The mother, being a very womanly character, depicts the human life which is shattered by Spanish traditions and people. Hence her desires are gone, in a sense, she also loses her real character, as she is so used to the society, that it would be wrong to think and act differently. When the mother talks to the neighbour, she reveals her opinion about the marriage more easily than talking to her own son (she even keeps a promise, indicating that they have been close). From the mothers conversations, it can he said that she strongly believes tha...
Another example of role-playing in this novel is when the Husband goes to tip the steward for his excellent work. The husband’s wife tries to tell him what kind of money he should tip the steward, but the husband just listens and tips what he thought the steward should get. This is a classic example of the man being in charge as the man of the house. The man has to show everybody that he is in charge and what he does goes. After the husband tips the steward, he asks his wife if she thinks that is a good tip. The wife simply agrees. When the wife does this it reinforces the husband’s ego of being the one in charge.