Blood

Wedding
ACT 1, SCENE 1
Characters
∙ The bridegroom
∙ The mother
∙ The neighbour
∙ Etc

∙ Why do these characters not have names?

Unfamiliar vocabulary
Record any vocabulary here that is unfamiliar to you...
1. vineyard
2. pitchfork
3. Mattocks
4. Stock 'good strong stock'
Symbolism
∙ Describe  the SETTING of this play, giving evidence from the dialogue between
the mother and the bridegroom. What type of language are they using? 

∙ What symbols have you noticed being used so far in the dialogue?
∙ How do you know something (an object or idea or reference) might be a symbol?

∙ Make three educated predictions – use foreshadowing to predict what might happen
in the very next scenes of the play … 
Exit pass & Homework
∙ Exit pass – write a summary of what happens in Act 1, scene 1 – include who is
involved, the action that takes place, and what the main ideas are.

Homework
∙ Continue to read the play, for the general ideas, 'gist' of it.
What is the name of the play we are studying?
Who wrote the play we are studying?
In which century was the play written and set?
What do you know about Spanish culture?
 • A mother goes to say goodbye to her son, who is busy
cutting down some grapes with a knife. 

• The mother quickly becomes angry with the son because he

is using a weapon to remove the grapes. 

• The mother discusses her hatred of weapons and reminds

Act 1, Scene him that his father and brother were killed with weapons by
the Felix family, and then begs her son not to leave his home
and return to the country. 
1 Overview • The son asks his mother to leave her home and come to live
with him and his fiancée, but she refuses because she must
visit her husband and son's graves daily to ensure no members
from the Felix family are buried next to them. 
• The mother has yet to meet her son's fiancée, although she is
familiar with her family. She finally agrees to meet with the
fiancée's father and begs her son to bring her grandchildren
before he leaves. 
 •• A neighbor visits the mother to tell her of the news
she has missed out on due to her 20 years of isolation at
her home. 

• The mother inquires about her son's fiancée with her

neighbor and learns that she once dated a man named
Leonardo, who is a member of the Felix family. 

Act 1, Scene • The mother learns that Leonardo has since married the

1 Overview cousin of her son's fiancée, and that he himself was very
young when the Felix family killed her husband and son
and is thus uninvolved. 

• The mother decides not to tell her son that his fiancée
once dated Leonardo. 
Objective: In Act 1, Scene 1, the mother argues with her son
after he uses a knife to cut some grapes. She states that
weapons can "split the body of a man apart", which seems to
be a very bold statement in context to such a mild action.

∙ 1. Class Discussion: How are weapons introduced in the first act? What does the
mother's seeming overreaction to her son's using a weapon tell the reader? Is there a
possibility that weapons have hurt the mother or someone close to her in the past?
Do the weapons in this scene seem to take on a life themselves? How does the son
react to his mother's reprimands from his use of a weapon? What does his reaction
say about his feelings towards weapons?

2. Class Debate: Have the class split into two groups, with each side
arguing whether or not the mother had reason to react to her son's use of weapons so
negatively. 
∙ Give each group 15 minutes to develop an argument.
The role of weapons
3. Foreshadowing: Discuss the author's possible intent to foreshadow the negative
impact that weapons might have on the mother and son in the future. What could have
happened in the mother's past that would have caused her to act so negatively towards
weapons?

4. Homework: Write a one-page paper comparing the mother's reaction to weapons to

that of her son's. Take time to analyze the motivations for each character's reaction. Be
sure to cite specific examples from the text to support your claims.
Read together ...
∙ Act 1, Scene 2 – in groups of 4
When you have finished, give an overview of this scene in 8 bullet points
Use your group to check the points you are composing – have you summed up the
main points of action?
Objectives:  paraphrasing, locating the key ideas, recalling, working as a team to
understand the play
 Act 1, scenes 1 & 2
Reading for understanding  - Scene 1
∙ Why is the mother so isolated?
∙ Describe the character of the son. What does he do and say?
∙ How would you describe the relationship between the mother and her son?
∙ What is the purpose of the neighbor arriving with news after such a long time?
Scene 2 
∙ Why do you think Leonardo was introduced in scene 1? What might be important about his
role in the play?
∙ How does the scene with the baby and lullaby establish sympathy for his character?
∙ Describe the relationship between the wife and Leonardo – give evidence of their closeness
or tension.
∙ What is the mother in law’s attitude to Leonardo and his wife? Give evidence.
∙ What are we being made to suspect about Leonardo? Are his actions suspicious? Why?
Act 1, Scene 3
1. Check-in and check up on your questions from yesterday
2. What is significant about the lullaby sung to the baby at the beginning and end
of this scene? Why do you think the lullaby book-ends this scene this way? CHARACTER
S
Act 1, Scene 3 – in groups 
Read this scene and 'voice' the characters. • Maid
When you have finished, give an overview of this scene in 8 bullet points • Mother
Use your group to check the points you are composing – have you summed up the main • Father
points of action?
• Son
Objectives:  paraphrasing, locating the key ideas, recalling, working as a team to
understand the play
• Wife
• Servant
 Create a collage - artists and their famous works
Use canva or power
point - music
Due Monday 19th
September 
- architecture
Research Spanish
cultural icons of the late - cultural customs, festivals, activities
19th and early 20th
century. - imagery of rural Spain, especially Andalucia
and Granada
Include:
Set your presentation to music from the era that
helps define Blood Wedding.
Act 1, scene 3
• The father mentions that he
• The mother complains about
• The mother goes with her wants the son to move his
the long trip to get to the
son to talk to the fiancee's vineyard to his land, but the
father's land and that the plains
father.  mother does not wish to
he lives on are too empty.
combine their land.

Q: what does the

• The mother and the fiancee's
conversation about land tell
father discuss the positive Q: what do you notice is
you about traditional values
attributes of their children and important to the mother and
in rural Spain?       How is
discuss their upcoming father about their children?
this related to the marriage
marriage.
between the son and bride?

• The son tells the others that

he wishes to marry his fiancée
Q: why does this parallel
the next week on her 22nd
between the fiancee's age
birthday, prompting the mother
and the mother's son
to remind him that her son
matter?
would have been 22 had he not
been killed.
 Act 1, scene 3
• The mother meets the fiancée and her father comments on how solemn she is acting,
although she insists she is happy to be getting married. How is this foreshadowing?
• The son gives the fiancée the gifts he has bought her and confirms the day of their
marriage with her before leaving. 
• After the mother and son leave, the fiancee's servant begs her to open her gifts but she
refuses.  Why doesn't the fiancee want to open the gifts?
• The servant then asks the fiancée if she saw the man on horseback at her window the
previous night, to which the fiancée says she has not. 
• The fiancée says that it was probably her fiancé that was at her window, but the servant
says that it was Leonardo. 
• The fiancée then admits that she knew it was Leonardo at her window.  How might this
link to the lullaby in scene 2? What does this foreshadow?