Letter to Lorca

Finally, although Lorca is dead, we wrote a letter to him about our reaction to the text. This was perhaps the most interesting aspect of the project because it allowed me to pretend I was talking to the author. Usually readers can't share their feelings of a work with the author, so it was fun to be honest and pretend that I could.

Dear Señor Lorca,

I really liked reading your play Blood Wedding. I thought the lullaby scene was especially interesting. The first time I read it I was extremely confused. I had absolutely no idea what it meant. However, I read it a second time, and it began to make some sense. Then, reading it the third time I had an epiphany. I realized how brilliant it was. Perhaps you would find my interpretation incorrect, for I read the perspective of another director who had a completely different take on it. Yet, I thought my interpretation had some merit. In this scene, I observed that you set the scene of the room as pink. I found this to be very interesting because the seemingly cheerful pink proves a juxtaposition to the actually depressing nature of the lullaby. I also found it ironic that you decided to make the scene be a lullaby being sung to a child, when the actual meaning of the lullaby is actually quite dark. In addition, I noticed that you switched the lines of the wife and mother-in-law from the first to the second part. I thought this was effective because then the audience could see that the roles of the characters were changing as the well-being of the child was changing. I would like to congratulate for this scene. You had some very effective lines that really enhanced the scene. For example, you used this to employ the symbol of the horse for the first time. I although I interpreted the horse as death in this scene, others find it to be symbolic of passion. However, I think it is also important to note that it is the horse that carries Leonardo to his death. He and the bride escape on the horse, and that is the reason he dies. So bravo there! It’s brilliant foreshadowing that I only realized after I had finished the play. I love in literature when the author has foreshadowing earlier in the work that readers don’t even realize until the work has ended. I congratulate you on being able to use that without actually giving away the outcome of the play. Also, I applaud your ability to tie the symbol of water into this scene. They say blood is thicker than water, and this scene showed that idea. The stallion wouldn’t drink the water because it was bleeding. Usually when people are sick, they are supposed to drink a lot of water. But when they die, they cannot drink anymore water, so that was another aspect of the scene that was very well portrayed. Although this scene is fantastic, it also raises some problems for me. As I previously stated, I find the horse to represent death in this scene. However, in other parts of the play it represents passion. Is this to say that passion leads to death? I think that issue needs to be cleared up more. Also, this scene seems particularly depressing because the wife is losing her only child, and later in the play Leonardo dies, so it seems to say that death leaves her all alone. However, on the way to the wedding, the wife reveals that she is pregnant again. Therefore, this scene confuses me because it makes it seem like she is all alone, and although the death of her child is horrendous, she will also have another life coming to bring renewed joy. So the wife’s life is not totally rife with death as it seems. Thank you for taking the time to read my lead (even though  you are dead). I really did enjoy the lullaby scene. In fact, I enjoyed your whole play, it was quite an entertaining read.

            Sincerely,

                        Hali McKinley Lester