Blood Wedding

Blood reflects the violent outpouring of the human spirit in Blood Wedding, as well as passions which unsettle the human heart. Blood stands for family and becomes a torment: The Mother’s fear for her own blood, her son, is constantly on her mind. Blood stands for unification: The Bridegroom and the Bride, through their marriage, unite their blood. Instead of representing passion, blood symbolizes death, the violence that sweeps across the Andalusian countryside.

Leonardo is characterized by blood. His familial identity precludes the Mother from sympathizing with him. The Bride’s Father agrees that his “blood’s no good” (38). The Woodcutters recognize that Leonardo and the Bride, ruled by their passion, have little control over their fates: “When the blood chooses a path it must be followed” (49). The way Leonardo wears down his horse and destroys the wedding is attributed to his hot-bloodedness and inability to practice self-control. Blood stands for repressed desire, its power and ability to upend carefully cultivated human society.

The original title of Blood Wedding in Spanish is Bodas de sangre. Wedding is pluralized, suggesting the work depicts Weddings of Blood. It is possible that the weddings include the Bride and Bridegroom, who are wedded in the conventional manner, or the Bride and Leonardo, who are wedded in desire—or possibly Leonardo and the Bridegroom, who are coupled at the play’s conclusion, wedded in their act of consummating the blood feud.