The Fusion of Poetry and Drama in Blood Wedding

THE FUSION OF POETRY AND DRAMA IN BLOOD WEDDING As T. S. ELIOT HAS suggested, the use of poetry in drama "must justify itself dramatically, and not merely be fine poetry shaped into dramatic form."l This problem of drama-poetry fusion immediately confronts any would-be creator of modern poetic drama and, ultimately , the critic of poetic drama as well. When poetic drama is unsuccessful , the failure is ascribed to the dominance of one mode of expression over the other. Thus, Maeterlinck is often said to have sacrificed dramatic action and characterization to poetic symbolism; conversely, Maxwell Anderson is said to be an excellent dramatist who utilizes a pedestrian poetry. Though Christopher Fry is sometimes said to have made the best of the two possible worlds, nevertheless, the common critical complaint is that Fry's poetry is so sparkling and allusive that one reads his plays only for the poetry. It seems to me that only two modern playwrights have successfully combined dramatic technique and structure with heightened poetic language. The Eliot of Murder in the Cathedral is certainly one. But what T. R. Renn offers as the "resources" of Eliot ("The equipment of a great poet, of a carefully-poised and conscientious critic of literature, awareness of the European tradition, and a strong religious sense ...."2) applies equally well to Federico Garcia Lorca. Lorca's Blood Wedding is a play of great tragic intensity. There is no denying its dramatic validity; but, as far as I know, little has been said of the poetic element which so subtly enhances and intensifies its dramatic structure. The plot is simple, centered around the triangle of the Bride, the Bridegroom, and the Lover. For years the family of the Bridegroom and the family of the Lover have been involved in a blood feud. Immediately after the nuptials, the Bride and the Lover ride off together. A revengeful chase begins; and both the Bridegroom and the Lover are killed in a duel with knives. Only the women-the Bridegroom's mother, the Bride, and the Lover's wife- 'survive, and in the final scene, they gather to commemorate ritualistically their dead. The austere outline of this feminine tragedy invites comparision with J. M. Synge's Riders to the Sea. A similar elemental conflict, the same sense of brooding, implacable Fate, a kindred passivity and ac1 . Poetry and Drama (Cambridge, Mass., 1951), p. 10. 2. The Harvest of Tragedy (London, 1956), p. 217. 395 396 MODERN. DRAMA February ceptance exist in both plays. But the component which made it possible for Lorca to write an expanding drama of three acts is the density and richness of texture provided by the language of the play. Despite its natural rhythm and suggestive idiom, the language of Riders to the Sea-as Synge must have intuitively, and rightly, realized-will support the reader's imagination for only a limited period of time without dropping into mere sentimentality. Both Riders to the Sea and Blood Wedding transcend the realistic level and reach toward the universal, but Lorca achieves his goal by a more obviously expressionistic technique than does Synge. Leonardo, the lover, is the only character in Blood Wedding who is given a name; and, appositely, he is the character most grounded in reality. He is the only one who really acts according to his own desires, who forces his own tragedy, rather than being destiny's puppet. This is not to say that Leonardo is the most dramatic character. Actually, the Bridegroom 's mother gives real focus to the play. The Mother, like old Maurya in Riders to the Sea, is both involved in and, at the same time, above the central tragedy. Although she is outside the central love triangle, it is, nevertheless, the Mother who defines and extends the other relationships and antipathies. It is necessary to examine those relationships in order to understand the tension formed by the poetry and the drama. Appropriately enough, the character associations in Blood Wedding might be diagramed in the form of a cross. Bridegroom Bridegroom's Mother ____________~I_______ Lover (Leonardo) Bride Bride's Father The horizontal bar of the cross is the axis of action. The...