Journal #1: Blood Wedding

The symbol of the vineyard represents masculinity.  This symbol is repeated many times in the first scene, and it is portrayed as something that one must work hard to earn and maintain.  Males in this society were supposed to tend the land and provide for their family, so the work that goes into the vineyard parallels the work of a man.  The bridegroom has been preoccupied thinking about his bride when his mother reminds him that he "better hoe the vines over by the little mill.  You've been neglecting them" (11).  The mother is trying to remind her son not to forget his masculinity in the coming marriage, because masculinity will bring her lots of grandchildren.  The vineyard also represents the property that only males can own and maintain in order to provide for their families.  Mother expresses her feeling of being out of place in a man's setting when her son asks to take her to the vineyard.  "What would an old woman do in the vineyard!" (7) she exclaims, portraying that the vineyard is a man's place and a man's place only.  The vineyard represents land that only a man can own, therefore earning him respect and portraying him as a wealthy powerful person.  This will come into use later during the marriage because wealth was a big influence in marriage during that time.  Lorca uses the symbol of the vineyard to portray that a man earns his power and respect through what he owns.

The symbol of flowers represents innocence.  When the mother is ranting about the knife, she describes her murdered husbands as having been "two men who were like two Geraniums" (7).  Flowers are connotated as fresh, young, and clean.  Given these descriptions, the men could be determined to have been good, hardworking men who were in their prime of life and had not been involved in any criminal business.  The tragedy in their death comes with the death of people who were so innocent, and that is what makes the mother so sad.  Flowers will likely be used later on in the play to foreshadow whether a character is innocent or not.  If the character rejects flowers or doesn't like them, it may mean that they have bad intentions.  The flowers create the obvious tension between the Felizes and the mother because the mother hates the Felixes for killing her innocent family members.  Seeing flowers may later on remind the mother of those actions and revive her anger at the Felixes.  Lorca uses flowers to represent innocence because he thinks that the worst deaths are those of young innocent people.