Blood Wedding Summary

Act I, Scene 1
The young, wealthy Bridegroom lives alone with his Mother. He has recently bought a
vineyard and is planning to get married soon. As the play opens, the Bridegroom announces
he is going out to check on the vineyard, but Mother bombards him with questions about his
safety. When he brings a knife with him to cut some grapes to eat, she launches into a fit of
hysterics, for she believes that knives are responsible for the murder of her husband and the
Bridegroom’s brother several years before.
The Bridegroom changes the subject to his fiancée, a young woman who lives on a very
remote farm with her father. Mother is suspicious of the girl, but the Bridegroom brushes off
her concerns. Eventually he is able to cheer Mother up, and she promises to give him money
for engagement presents. The Bridegroom leaves, and a Neighbour comes to visit Mother.
The Neighbour reveals that the Bride’s mother had a bad reputation in town for not loving
her husband, and worse, that Leonardo Felix was in love with the Bride as a child and a
teenager. The Bridegroom’s family has had a long-standing feud with the Felixes, but Mother
resolves not to tell her son about this new development, for fear of ruining his happiness.
Anyway, Leonardo Felix ended up marrying the Bride’s cousin and the whole thing happened
a long time ago.
Act I, Scene 2
Leonardo Felix comes home from work to find his Wife and his Mother-in-Law caring for his
son. He chats with his Wife, who excitedly reveals to him that the Bride is about to marry the
Bridegroom. She also mentions that Leonardo was spotted riding on the outskirts of town,
near the Bride’s farmhouse. She asks him what he was doing there, but Leonardo demurs,
saying there must have been a mistake because he wasn’t riding anywhere near there.
One of the girls that work in the clothing store rushes in to gossip with Leonardo’s Mother-
in-Law about the lavish wedding presents that the Bridegroom has bought for his fiancée.
Leonardo, who has been experiencing financial difficulties, listens resentfully and sends her
away rudely. His Wife observes that he has been out of sorts lately, but Leonardo refuses to
explain why.
Act I, Scene 3
The Bridegroom and his Mother go to visit the Bride at her home. The Bride’s Father and the
Bridegroom’s Mother get along well, discussing land purchases and the virtues of their
respective children. Finally, the Bride enters and meets Mother for the first time. Mother
reminds her that, as a wife, her duty will be to give the Bridegroom many children. The
Bridegroom and Mother leave, and the Bride is left alone in the house. Presently, her
faithful Servant enters, hoping to sneak a peek at the wedding presents. The Bride snaps at
the Servant to go away, confiding that she is apprehensive about the marriage and wishes
she were a man so she could have more options in life.
The Servant mentions that she saw Leonardo Felix riding outside the Bride’s farmhouse the
previous night. The Bride does not believe it, but the Servant is proven correct when they see
Leonardo riding outside the window.
Act II, Scene 1
Early on the day of the wedding, the Servant combs the Bride’s hair. The Bride continues to
be nervous about the marriage, believing that weddings only result in “endless bitterness,”
but she resolves to go through with it because the guests have already committed to attend.
Leonardo arrives before all of the other guests, insinuating that the groom will be a bad
husband and talking about his bitterness at being pressured to marry the Bride’s cousin. The
Bride angrily orders him to leave, but after he has gone, she suggests that hearing his voice
brings back old feelings.
The Bridegroom and the other guests arrive, and everyone leaves for the church. Leonardo’s
Wife notices that he is acting increasingly distant, and worries that he no longer loves her.
Act II, Scene 2
The wedding party returns to the Bride’s house for a reception. The Bridegroom’s Mother
becomes increasingly agitated at the presence of Leonardo Felix, believing that he has bad
blood in his veins and will only cause sorrow. Many characters wish the Bride well, but she
remains melancholy and even rebuffs her husband’s embraces. Claiming that she has a
headache, she goes to lie down, but only minutes later, she has disappeared from the house.
Leonardo’s Wife announces that the Bride and Leonardo have left together on his horse. The
Bridegroom and several of the youths attending the wedding leave to pursue the couple.
Act III, Scene 1
In the forest, three woodcutters discuss the events of the night’s party. They believe that
once the moon comes out from behind the clouds, Leonardo and the Bride will be unable to
hide any longer and will be caught. However, they worry that the Bridegroom will get himself
killed by confronting Leonardo.
The Moon, personified as a young woodcutter with a white face, comes out. He sings a lyric
about how he is lonely and hopes that blood will be spilled to warm his cheeks. An
old Beggar Woman, representing death, enters and predicts to the Moon that “they” will die
violently in the woods. The Bridegroom and a youth enter, and the Beggar Woman directs
them to the Bride and Leonardo.
Meanwhile, the Bride asks Leonardo to either leave her or help her commit suicide, since she
does not actually want to be in a relationship with him. He insists on staying with her,
though, and the couple pledges their love.
Act III, Scene 2
In a white room, two girls sit weaving. They have a vision in the wool of the Groom and
Leonardo lying dead by a riverbank. Leonardo’s Wife and Mother-in-Law enter. Neither will
tell the girls what happened, but the Mother-in-Law bids her daughter to go into mourning.
The Beggar Woman then arrives and tells them that the two men have died and the Bride is
alive but covered in blood.
Everyone leaves, and the Bridegroom’s Mother enters with the Neighbour. The Bride arrives
shortly thereafter. Mother attacks her and calls her a viper, but the Bride says she doesn’t
care because she is ready to die. She adds that she could not control her decision to abandon
the Bridegroom, because she was possessed by her attraction to Leonardo. Mother seems to
understand, if not to forgive, and returns to mourning her son. The townspeople gather
around her in mourning, while the Bride is told to go mourn by the door alone. Mother
recites a violent poem explaining how the Bridegroom and Leonardo stabbed each other
with the same knife.
Blood Wedding Themes
Generational conflict
Although the most prominent conflict in Blood Wedding is between
the Bridegroom and Leonardo Felix, generational conflict plays a subtler and more insidious
role in the tragic events. The Bride rebels openly against the social mores of her parents'
generation; her actions can be read as a response to feeling trapped by the limited prospects
that a woman had at this place and time. Although he is a man, the Bridegroom is similarly
constrained, constantly having to explain his life decisions to Mother, who cannot
understand why he would take the risk of associating with Leonardo Felix's former love.
Although he tries to incorporate Mother into his life, allowing her to live with himself and the
Bride, she refuses, clinging adamantly to the past, as represented by her house near the
cemetery.
Gender roles
In Blood Wedding, García Lorca presents several opposing views of women's proper role in
society. Mother and the Mother-in-Law both advocate for women being cloistered behind
"thick walls" after marriage, for their personal safety as well as to preserve their fragile
psyches. The Bride feels constrained by the obligation to marry at all, let alone to be sealed
away from society for the rest of her days. Although she does not love the Bridegroom, she
appreciates that he will be a good husband and provider, but marrying for either wealth or
pure sexual passion seems unpleasant to her. The Bride's struggle to find a middle way
ultimately proves fruitless, and her excruciating dilemma is representative of the situations
of many rural women in similarly untenable situations.
Physical and emotional isolation
The characters in the play frequently discuss the isolation of the Bride's farmhouse from the
rest of the town. Similarly, the Neighbour mentions that Mother only rarely leaves her own
house to visit friends or do errands. The physical isolation of the play's female characters
reflects their emotional alienation--in Mother's case, due to the murders of her husband and
son, and in the Bride's case, due to the pressure to marry.
Blame
Leonardo and Mother both tend to fixate on blame as a way to cope with their bitterness
about how their lives have turned out. Neither, though, directs the blame in productive or
even accurate directions; Mother believes that knives are responsible for her loss of her
husband and son, and Leonardo rapidly shifts the blame for his bad marriage to various
people around him. Similarly, the Bride frequently lashes out at her Servant due to her
frustration about the impending marriage. The characters cannot correctly identify the
sources of their problems, and thus forgiveness is out of the question.
Humanity in nature
The repressive social norms of the rural town are often contrasted with the raw, emotional
state of nature in which the characters desire to live. However, this state of nature is perhaps
no better than the town, as evidenced in the woods, when the Moon itself is spiteful of the
characters and contributes to their demise. The shallow and restrictive town, then, can be
seen as a response and overreaction to the chaotic, bleak fate that man faces in nature.
Greed
Even more important than the Bride and Bridegroom's virtue is the sensibility of their match
from an economic standpoint. Both are reasonably well off, which goes a long way towards
ensuring their parents' approval of the union. However, the constant talk of buying and
selling land points to a deeper rift between the two families. Although the Bride's Father has
done well for himself through hard work, he cannot compete with the old-money
extravagance of the Bridegroom's family, and this perhaps prevents the Bride from truly
bonding with her fiancé. Furthermore, Leonardo's frustration at being unable to marry the
Bride might just as easily be due to his inability to advance himself materially in the world--in
the scene in his kitchen, García Lorca frequently emphasizes the family's dire financial
circumstances.
The exchange of information
Much of the suspense in Blood Wedding is derived from the fact that the characters do not
have the latest or most complete information about what is happening. The tragedy in the
final act could arguably have been avoided if the elder generation had not chosen to keep
the Bridegroom and Leonardo's Wife in the dark about the old relationship between the
Bride and Leonardo. Furthermore, the delivery of information often comes from symbolic
sources. For example, the town girls represent the stakes of the characters' conflicts about
feminism, and the Beggar Woman is said in the character list to represent death.