Blood wedding (after seeing the play) - Essay Example

In Blood Wedding, the explosion of suppressed passion of love between Leonardo and the bride makes the other characters to collapse or die. While theother women and men are struggling to hold on to their traditionally steady roles husbands and wives, Leonardo and the bride are the path breakers. They defy all conventionalisms of marriage where usually the couple accept their unhappy marriages as fate, and quit on the pursuit of love. While the bride uses a significant amount of the stage-space and is actively expressive in bringing out and acting on her desires, the moon’s movements, in contrast is rather limited and passive, and it makes the bride seem to represent the woman who finally refuses to be oppressed by a traditional marriage, while the moon seems to represent a woman who is stuck in the usual suppressed life dictated by the traditional norms of a typical wife.

This essay will attempt to elaborate upon this contrast in these two characters and how these were exemplified through the spatial dynamics. First, from the contrast in the extent of movement around the stage, the bride seems to represent a free woman who pursues what she wants, while the moon is still a suppressed woman. The bride’s movement around the stage seems to be free, fast and strong. Specifically, her distance from the bridegroom and Leonardo are contrasted intentionally. In the beginning of the play, the bride tries to accept her fate marrying the bridegroom and tries to be away from Leonardo.

However, as the play proceeds, the bride desires to follow her heart start dominating and she chooses Leonardo. The state of the bride’s mind was strongly reflected in the differet distances she maintains from the two men in her life. Whenever she tries to keep away from either of the men, she quickly runs away as the man approaches and even aggressively shakes off their physical contact and keeps distance at times. For instance, in the beginning of the wedding the bride tries to control her true desire and thus maintains a significant distance from Leonardo but although her true feelins are revealed in the glances she throws at him as well as often spaced out thinking of him throughout wedding.

Eventually, by the end of her wedding reception, she chooses to follow her heart and runs away with Leonardo. In contrast to the Brides dynamism, the moon, which appears in the woods scene has very static and limited body movement and further, uses only so much of the stage-space. The fact that the role of the Moon is played by the same actor who plays Leonardo’s wife implies that the moon is the suppressed ego of Leonardo’s wife’s continuum. Her movement around the stages is significantly constrained compared to the bride.

She slowly walks into the stage and remains nearly in one spot as she says her lines. She only uses the right side of the stage and when the fight begins she stays there. Her neck is stiff, and she communicates more through her eyes rather than her whole body when acting. The greater focus on the facial dynamism and the contrasting stiff body movements makes the moon resemble Leonardo’s wife who is oppressed by the social norms and her husband. In addition to the body movements, the way how the two characters express their desire implies the moon to be a suppressed woman who has accepted her fate but not with pure happiness, and bride to be a progressive woman who believes more in her own heart rather than socially imposed rigid customs.

The bride is honest and free in expressesing her likes and dislikes. For instance, when the servant attempts to convince the Bride that she should marry the bridegroom and forget Leonardo, she dismisses the idea in an aggressive voice and throws the orange blossom she was holding with contempt. Also, when the bridegroom tries to hug the bride talking about the wonderful night that they will spend, the bride shakes him off and pushes him roughly, with a frown on her face. However, when she runs away with Leonardo she is very clear and and expressesive in conveying her passion through kissing him and embracing him.

In contrast, the moon does not directly do something for her desire, instead just observes the situation. For instance, the moon wants all of the men dead, but only observes the fight even though she might have the power to intervene or control the outcome. The moon stands in the right corner of the stage making a dreadful expression and often makes a happy face when the fighting gets fierce. Also, she hits the floor hard with a stick as the fight begins which leads the fight reach the climax.

Therefore, the moon only involves indirectly to the fight which can be viewed as a constrained traditional woman who has to only follow the man, though she wants to act. To conclude, the bride and the moon represent contrasting characters of women. The bride refuses to be oppressed and the moon or Leonardos wife who is still oppressed in her failure to act as her heart desires.