Monday July 26th 2021

Roddy sir:
Topic sentence -

Immediately after the deaths of Leonardo and the Bridegroom, the Beggar Woman describes the events to three
young girls. She describes how “Their eyes (were) broken flowers. / Their teeth (were) two fistfuls / Of frozen
snow.” The metaphor comparing the dead men to ‘flowers’ implies that they were fresh and beautiful, while
‘broken’ tells us that this beauty has been mutilated or destroyed. This creates a sense of something precious that
has been wasted, and evokes a feeling of sadness or injustice. She then compares their teeth to ‘frozen snow’.
‘Snow’ can also connote freshness, though it also suggests a lack of life and warmth. The word ‘frozen’, though it
seems like a redundancy in this context, adds emphasis to the metaphor and creates a sense that the snow is hard
and abrasive. The word ‘fistfulls’ implies that the teeth have somehow lost their singularity and have become an
undifferentiated mass. These images are reinforced by the contrasting sounds in the line. The alliteration of ‘t’, a
short, hard, consonant, evokes the hardness and brittleness of the teeth; while the repetition of the fricative ‘f’
and the sibilance evoke a sense of softness and melancholy. By focussing on details of the men’s faces, the Beggar
Woman communicates the visual and tactile changes that happen in death; and her use of natural images evoke a
sense of sadness and loss. She closes this dialogue by summarising her response to the men’s deaths. She says “It
happened. And that’s it. / And it was right. / Over the golden flower, dirty sand.”. Here, Lorca uses very short,
staccato sentences to communicate a matter-of-fact tone. When the Beggar Woman says ‘It happened’, for
example, there is a sense that the deaths were inevitable. Her pattern of speech evokes a sense of fatalism and
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finality. The metaphor ‘Over the golden flower, dirty sand’, reinforces this feeling. The flower could refer to any
of the young characters in the play, or to youth and love itself, and the adjective ‘golden’ implies that it is bright
and precious. In the context of these lines, she suggests that this will inevitably and quickly be covered with ‘dirty
sand’. Sand connotes dryness and a lack of life, which is a central concern of the play and would be particularly
resonant in Andalucia - one of the driest regions in Europe; while ‘dirty’ implies a kind of moral or ethical
transgression since it is contrasted with the Bride’s self-proclaimed purity. The symbolic narrative is simply that
beautiful and precious things die, and that this is inevitable and predictable. The Beggar Woman’s description of
the dead man, in this dialogue, suggest a kind of pessimism and realism that is the product of age and wisdom.
She does not romanticise their deaths of look for meaning in them, but rather sees it is part of a natural process.

Paragraph Plan.

Topic In this speech, the Beggar Woman describes the aftermath of the mens’
sentence(s)
deaths.

Introduce She describes how “Their eyes (were) broken flowers, / Their teeth (were) two
Evidence.
Present fistfulls of snow”. In the first metaphor, she compares their eyes to ‘flowers’
Evidence.
which have connotations of freshness, beauty and life. However these flowers
are ‘broken’.

Analysis This encapsulates the sense of tragedy that something beautiful has been
destroyed. Her second metaphor, comparing their teeth to ‘fistfulls of snow’
also evokes a sense of freshness and purity. The word ‘frozen’ seems
superfluous, but it adds a sense that the snow is hard and abrasive. It also
suggests a lack of warmth or life. By saying the teeth are ‘fistfulls’ of snow, she
also implies that they have somehow lost their integrity or identity and
become undifferentiated. Like the ‘flower’ metaphor, this image also conveys
a sense of something beautiful having died. This contrast is reinforced
through the sounds used in the lines. The alliteration of the short, hard ‘t’
consonant is juxtaposed with soft, fricative ‘f’ and ‘s’ sound.

Point 1
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Introduce In the final lines of her speech, the Beggar Woman says “It happened. And
Evidence 2.
Present that’s it. / And it was right. / Over the golden flower, dirty sand.”
Evidence 2.

Analysis 2 . The short, clipped sentences create a matter of fact tone here, which convey
the sense that the tragedy was perhaps inevitable and that there is no point in
attempting to change the course of events or to try to find meaning in them.
Her closing metaphor, comparing the dead men to ‘golden flower(s)’ again
suggests that they were precious and beautiful. The ‘dirty sand’ is death.
Again there is a sense that this tragedy is simply part of the natural order of
events, and this would be particularly resonant in Andalucia which is one of
the driest places in Europe.

Point 2. Throughout the play, a fear of desertification is ever-present, as is the link

Conclusion.
between human life and the life of the land. Through the Beggar Woman’s
descriptions, Lorca communicates a sense that we are part of Nature, and that
life and death are processes that we cannot control.