Journal #8: Blood Wedding

The setting reflects the characters' innocence in regards to the tragedy that will happen at the wedding.  At the start of the play, the setting is described as being full of flowers, and being colored pink or yellow.  These light happy colors reflect the character's unawareness about Leonardo and the Bride's plans to run away during the wedding.  The flowers are a motif for the eternal existence of a marriage, as is shown when the Bridegroom offers his Bride an orange blossom which he says is "all made of wax.  It lasts forever.  I would have liked you to wear them all over your dress" (64).  This shows that flowers signify that the marriage is a permanent matter, something that the Bride and Leonardo plan to prove wrong, yet all of the other characters are unaware of their plans.  These plans to runaway are portrayed in the setting when it is described as dark.  This darkness signifies how the plans to run away are hidden from everyone else.  The Bride is said to live in a cave, and that is where Leonardo rides in the middle of the night to discuss their escape plans.  A cave is usually thought of as a dark place, and the fact that they hold these discussions in the middle of the night adds to the presence of a concealing darkness in the setting, a darkness that hides their intentions from the other characters.  After they carry out their plan, they ride to a forest, which is also described as dark and dim, and it is only the light of the moon that reveals their plan and their position.  At the start of the play the setting was very light hearted and innocent to the plans of Leonardo and the bride, which were hidden by the darkness of their setting.