Antigone #12

Anouilh develops the conflicting idea of truth versus lies to emphasize the conflict between characters. Most of the disagreements in the story are spawned from a lie or ambiguity that has previously happened. The early fights came from Antigone sneaking out and being unclear about her motives. In the reading tonight, the argument between Antigone and Creon grew out of Antigone's past, as Creon says. Also, it comes from Antigone not knowing the real story behind Polynices and Eteocles, but it is hard to know that Creon's account of the story is truthful too. I think that Anouilh created this tension between truth and lies to highlight that no one really knows anything, and that it's hard to know who to believe. The entire back story of Oedipus and all of the contradiction in the events of Antigone  all build into this tension. It could be that Anouilh is using this tension to create a theme for the play, which is that not everything is true. Of course that needs elaborating, so in a longer phrase, you can't believe everything you hear, and sometimes even what you see, and the only truth there is is the truth that you make for yourself. Essentially, each person is entitled to their own beliefs.

Antigone #11

The tone of the chorus shifts dramatically in this part of the play. At first they seemed to empathize with Creon and were just listing events of the story and giving background. In tonight's reading they gave a long definition of what tragedy is and explained it to the audience. They said the word "you" a lot more frequently, which I thought could be Anouilh's way of breaking the fourth wall because he is drawing the audience in by use of the word "you". This breaking of the fourth wall serves significant because it reconnects the audience to the play and assures that they understand where it is going. It seems to me that Anouilh is very direct with explaining the play and intentions to the audience, but when it comes to the actual characters of the play, they are much more ambiguous. This lends the audience to confusion because there is times in the play in which they do not know what to believe, and this set up for lies and betrayal came from the beginning chorus because they highlighted all of the past betrayals of Antigone's family. Since the chorus in this part still adds to the lies it essentially has the same motives as the beginning chorus but just goes about it in a different way. I'm also curious as to if the chorus is a single man or still a group of people? I feel it could go either way.

Antigone #10

Events

-Oedipus is the king, but then he dies

-He had two sons, Polynices and Eteocles. After his death they agreed to alternate being king every other year. 

-Eteocles refused to give up the throne when it was time so Polynices rebelled.

-Polynices attacked with the aid of 6 other princes and each was defeated at each of the 7 gates to the city.

-Eteocles and Polynices killed each other in the fighting and Creon became king.

-Eurydice is knitting next to Creon until she goes to die.

-Creon orders that Polynices may not be honored and whoever honors him receives death. 

-Antigone wants to give Polynices a proper burial and tries to convince Ismene to help her and Ismene refuses.

-Haemon proposes to Antigone, even though he was talking with Ismene all night. As a result his death is predicted by the Messenger.

-Antigone sneaks out and has an argument with Haemon.

-Nurse questions her when she comes home and Ismene shows up and does the same.

-Antigone goes to bury Polynices.

Reflection

In the way Anouilh structures events there seems to be a lot weight on trickery and betrayal between brothers, sisters, friends, in relationships, and with the law. This sets up the story as being one filled with lies and false belief which follows along with the preceding story of Oedipus the King, which is also filled with lies. Another result of the large amount of lies in the first 48 hours of the story is that it helps to set up Antigone as a tricky character, mainly because she lied to the nurse about why she went out so early in the day. Antigone's family also has a result of living in lies, trickery, and betrayal because of her two brothers, and the story of her father. All of which set her up to be a rebellious character in the story, especially against a preset law. This structure of the back story that highlights the lies sets it up so that it is already centered around betrayals and secrets.

Topic Sentence

Leonardo is given an aggressive nature by Federico Garcia Lorca in Blood Wedding, to demonstrate how he is a key reactant to the tragic events of the story.

Blood Wedding #9

Journal #9: Create a list of themes that Lorca creates in the play.

• Family problems/feuds are passed down through the youth. 

This is a pretty obvious theme seeing as the hatred of the mother for the Felix family causes the death of her son and the other Felix brother. The son was trying to ease the mother's worries through the whole play because he was not as worried, but since his mother kept up her paranoia and hate it translated down to the sons life and eventually caused him to be killed.

• Past relationships only bring pain if you stay in touch with the person.

I thought this because of Leonardo and the Bride. When the bride has had no contact with Leonardo she is absolutely ready to marry the groom. After Leonardo contacts her however, she begins to have doubts. These doubts she begins to form eventually lead to her running away with Leonardo which results in the death of Leonardo and the death of the Groom, leaving the bride in despair.

• Those that are controlled are left ignorant to what is really going on.

I thought this because the son is heavily controlled by his mother, especially during the scene when the mother, father, groom, and bride all meet up. The fact that he is left ignorant is because he is being bossed about by his mother and because he is trying to please her, he becomes oblivious to the fact that the bride is slipping away from him. He is also so caught up in the lovey-dovey stuff that he loses sight of the true story, and that eventually leads to him losing his bride.

Blood Wedding #8

Journal #8: How does the set change between acts and what effect does the set have on the atmosphere? 

The set changes from a vineyard, farmland setting to a very nice house in act two and then to the forest for part of act 3. In the beginning the atmosphere is quite lively although since it is mainly in closed rooms on the farmland the atmosphere could also be fairly intense because everything is happening so quickly and rapidly in the small spaces. When the setting changes from the houses to the courtyard (?) of the Bride's nice home the atmosphere seems way more relaxed and friendly for awhile, due to the upcoming wedding. Even though the atmosphere is relaxed there's still a threatening anticipation due to the speed and intensity of Leonardo compared to the other guests. The setting of the forest in the third act is very ominous. Forests are usually set up to be like that, especially since this is realism, not romanticism. The forest makes it ominous because death is there and there is talk of death, and ultimately death in the forest. This sets the rest of the atmosphere for the play as being ominous or mournful.

Blood Wedding #7

There are a variety of youth in the second act. Why? How does Lorca use the youth to affect the themes of the play?


Lorca uses the youth in the play to represent the generational struggle that has been part of the major families in the play. When this play was written, family feuds were still very common in Spain so the fact that Lorca uses the youth to symbolize this adds to the realism of the play. Some of the major fights and larger moments in the play come from this long term struggle between Mother and the Felix family. The youth can represent how it does not matter what age you are, you can still be pulled in to a hundred year old conflict. Also, the youth can show how they are important to what happens in their families even though they are smaller pieces of the puzzle. Maybe Lorca was trying to say that children are important factors and their problems can affect everyone so they should not be over looked. 

Blood Wedding #6

Which characters appear to be miserable int he play and why?  When and how do the characters express their misery? What do the characters desire and what stops them from going after what each desire?


The bride and the mother are both the characters that are most miserable in the play. The bride is miserable because she first has an internal conflict about marriage and then she loses both of the men that she loves. The mother is miserable because she does not want to lose her son, and she fears letting him away from her home. The bride expresses her misery when talking to the maid in Act 2 Scene 1. The mother expresses her misery openly to her son in the very first act. Both expressions are verbal, although the mother's is far more erratic. The  bride desires a happy marriage but Leonardo stops her from achieving that when he shows up speaking of the past. The mother wants her son to stay safe at home but his own goals and desires pull him away from her and result in his death, which ultimately stops the mother from achieving what she desires. 

Blood Wedding #5

Journal #5 Examine how Lorca characterize the archetypes of the play.  Does Lorca embrace or reject the archetype?  What is the effect of the characterization? 

I feel that Lorca embraces the archetype in the play. He embraces it by purposefully taking the names of the characters away except for Leonardo. This type of characterization, to me, de-individualizes the characters of the story. Names are usually partnered with originality and that is a crucial part of the human experience, so therefore by removing the names of the characters Lorca dehumanizes them. Except for Leonardo. The effect of this is that it forces the audience to focus more on Leonardo than the others. This results in more of a identification with Leonardo and it separates him from the other characters. Because of this Leonardo is seen as an outcast and the audience is more inclined to pity him but reject him at the same time. Due to Lorca's use of archetypes Lorca creates a separation between the major characters of the play.

Blood Wedding #4

Well the first, and most obvious symbol in act one of Blood Wedding is the knife. Like we talked about in class today, the knife is clearly as symbol for death. I also think it could be seen as a symbol for severing or tearing a life apart, like a serrated blade. This is because the murder of the Groom's brother and father was done by a knife and that tore their family apart emotionally. Also, at the end of the story it takes two more men from their respective families, so basing it off of those two events the knife could be seen as a symbol for separation. Another symbol I saw in the first act was the vineyard. To me personally I see a vineyard as a place of growth and life and as a source of money by selling wine. In the book, it also represents that, especially in the first act but in act two, I saw it turning into more of a symbol for decay, since the bride's father's vineyard was somewhat shabby. The symbol of the vineyard throughout the book serves as a small foreshadowing if it is seen as representing decay, and that in turn sets up the rest of the story.