The Play Blood Wedding by Frederico Garcia Lorca

Contextualising the play

The social, cultural and historical context of the play will be discussed in some detail and the relative importance of each as a factor in the writing, producing and interpretation of the play will be considered. Context is the circumstances and conditions which surround the play. We are able to tell that the social, historical and cultural context all affected Lorca and this emphasised certain aspects of "Blood Wedding". The play has many references to social, cultural and historical events and themes.

Frederico Garcia Lorca was born in a rural background and this could have affected the play.

Lorca was born in Granada, Spain. Granada is positioned next to Andalucia, where it is presumed to be set. We are able to tell this, as Lorca makes many references to scenes which are present in Andalucia, such as the vineyards. These vineyards are in "Blood Wedding" as well as vineyards being present in Andalucia. At university, Lorca met a famous artist named Salvador Dali, which could have influenced some of the parts of "Blood Wedding", such as the surreal scenes with the woodcutters and the moon.

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Also this could have influenced the use of the evocative juxtaposition of images.

Around the time of the writing "Blood Wedding", the rising artists Picasso and cubist artists could have influenced "Blood Wedding". Picasso used symbolism in their art and this could have possibly inspired Lorca to use symbolic language in the play. In Spain, Lorca was confined to certain guidelines due to the politics.

This meant that Lorca was unable to express himself as much as he may have liked; and this could have affected the way Lorca wanted to express himself. Then the Spanish government changed and therefore this allowed Lorca more freedom to write and create new literature, plays and art.

During this time, Lorca wrote "Blood Wedding". Lorca was influenced from a young age by local arts and once moved into a new town, Lorca became more interested in arts. At university, Lorca became friends with Luis Bunuel an artist. Many researchers have found that Bunuel could have influenced Lora's work as Bunuel's paintings became a major interest of Lorca. This means that Lorca could have been influenced by the use of colours in Bunuel's paintings, and this could have caused Lorca to describe colours in detail in stage settings.

This effects the writing of the play, as the audience will pay more interest in the vivid colours and there meaning. This also highlights Lorcas symbolic use of colours such as act one, scene one where the stage directions state 'Room painted yellow'. This is symbolic as it could be interoperated that yellow represents brightness and the start of something new. At the time, Spain was a religious nation and therefore the strong Catholic viewpoints such as strict marriage rules (no divorce or adultery); this could have been seen to reflect in "Blood Wedding" as the affair with Leonardo was seen as shameful on the bride.

Shortly after "Blood Wedding" was written, the Spanish civil war occurred. Women were seen as 'marriage tools' to gain assets during this time, and even though this occurred after the play was written, we are able to tell that Lorca had seen this occurring and it reflected in his play. For instance, there were mainly women in the play; this could reflect the importance of women at the time. It can also be seen in Act one, where the mother and father discuss the exchange of land when the couple are married.

This shows that Spain had strong marriage rules as it shows a thrill between the parents of what their child has to offer. It was uncommon to not discuss what would be exchanged when two people got married, and Lorca expressed this in his play. Also in Spain at the time, people were beginning to revolt and in 1936 General Franco, became a new dictator. This could be seen as being reflected in the play as the bride was expected to marry against her will, as her father had chosen her husband for her.

Lorca believed that society was very important, and he believed that society was the reason why people do not do as they wish but do as they should, and this could be reflected in how the bride doesn't want to marry but is forced. The bride is expected to marry someone who has good financial prospects, rather than someone who she actually loves. From research into Spanish traditions it was assumed that brides would marry someone for their finical prospects or land ownership. Lorca was born in a village which was in the countryside, and this could be seen to be reflected in "Blood Wedding" as there are many references to the countryside.

In Spain, there was a big emphasis on flowers, and this could be seen to be reflected into "Blood Wedding" as there are many references to flowers in the play and stage directions, such as act one, scene two where 'common flowers' are presented. Also, in "Blood Wedding" Lorca has only given one character an actual name, this character is Leonardo. This could suggest that Lorca sees this character as important or that the other characters that have no specific name, is representing all the female figures in Spain or the world. Whereas Leonardo represents the fire and the passion that a man may have.