Blood Wedding - Journal #1

Journal Prompt #7:
A dramatist often creates a gap between what the audience knows and what the characters know. With reference to at least two plays, discuss how and to what effect dramatists have used this technique.

Response:
A great deal of dramatic irony can by found in Lorca's Blood Wedding as well as in Ibsen's Wild Duck. In both plays there are gaps between what the audience knows and what the characters know. Although both plays focus on single plot lines, there are parts that break away for characters speaking with one another, but not informing everyone of the same information. When this happens conflict often occurs due to being misinformed and not knowing how to deal with it, or mistake one's words for something completely different.

Blood Wedding focuses on the preparation for the Bride's wedding day. Although all of the characters are preparing for the wedding, they discuss different information with one another. Taking the first scene of the first act, the Bridegroom's Mother is telling her son that she finds the Bride to be a bit "off". In front of the Bride she appears kind to her and says she is of the best, but the audience knows that she sees the Bride as a bad influence. This foreshadows the Bride's later action of running away, though the Bride does not know anyone suspects that of her. Another "side conversation" in the story is among Leonardo's family, discussing his past with the Bride. The Bride's family is unaware of what happened in the past, creating tension for the audience when Leonardo arrives, but the Bride's family thinks nothing of it. For the audience to have over-compassing knowledge of everyone in the play allows for shifts in tone to be visible, while if the audience only knew part of the story, it would not be as prominent.

As stated in an earlier journal, there is also dramatic irony in The Wild Duck as the play splits in perspectives of Hjalmar and Hedvig. Hedvig is unaware of why her father does not want to be around her and sees it as her fault and something she can solve, while the audience knows something bad will become of her not knowing. As expected, the dramatic irony comes into play and leads to the climax of the story when Hjalmar and Gina find Hedvig dead. The dramatic irony is an essential role in the play, creating tragedy.