Journal #4- Blood Wedding

One of the symbols that I noticed throughout the first scene of the play was eyes. Although, never directly mentioned, there are several instances that refer to "seeing" someone or looking at them. The symbol is described as being what keeps women loyal to their husbands and binds them to one man. The mother describes the aspect of a woman's role in the society she lives in, "I looked at your father, and when they killed him, I looked at eh wall in front of me. One woman with one man, and that's it" (10). This quote clearly depicts the characterization of Mother as someone who is very traditional to the customs of her culture. This helps build up the conflict that ensues due to the brides inability to "look" at just one man. I also saw this quote as pointing towards the culture's tendencies for isolation. The mother is constantly mentioning how lonely she will be once the bridegroom is married, showing the limits and confinements that are placed upon her because of what society expects her to do now that her husband is gone as well as her sons. 

Also, I noticed the symbol of the word "Felix". Almost instantly we can see that the word Felix fills Mother up with contempt and anguish towards her lost husband and eldest son who were both murdered by members of the Felix family. She says, "hearing 'Felix' is like having my mouth fill up with slime! And I have to spit ! I have to spit , so I won't kill!" (16). From this quote we can see just how serious this contempt for the Felixs' really is. The Mother is so full of pent-up rage that she must continually spit to keep herself from killing! It is pretty apparent that this symbol was used to characterize Mother, however it also serves to establish a setting where long-standing family feuds are present and divide the community. This division establishes a hostile environment that exaggerates certain actions and/or reactions that take place in the play, especially the those of Leonardo who is almost exclusively targeted by Mother, since he in fact is a Felix.