A Sacrifice for Love
Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorce and Antigone by Jean Anouilh are similar in that they both have brave and admirable female antagonists and they both end tragically. The female characters, the bride in Blood Wedding and Antigone in Antigone, have several characteristics that are parallel. Both women revolt against the social class in order to prove a point and they both face severe consequences as a result of their actions. The rebellious nature of the bride and Antigone characterize each of them in a heroic manner by the way in which they break the rules of society and therefore affectively reveal its faults.
The story of the bride in Blood Wedding is a classic tale of forbidden love. On the night she is to be wed, the bride runs away with her lover, Leonardo. She and Leonardo are in love, but are prohibited to be together because they are from different social classes. The bride goes against the family and societal tradition by not accepting her arranged marriage to the groom. It is easy for the bride to be portrayed as the villain in the play rather than the hero, such as when the mothers says, “Weak, useless, ill-sleeping woman is she who throws away a wreath of orange blossom for a piece of bed warmed up by another woman!” in regard to the bride’s actions (Lorca 62) . However, by running away with Leonardo, the bride demonstrates bravery, and proves that two people should be together not because they have a lot of money, but rather because they love one another. This part of her reasoning is admirable. It takes a strong and courageous woman to break the trend of society and be aware of the punishment that lies ahead, yet still follow through in her actions to show what she believes in. Just as it only takes one man to choose to break an unjust law to start a chain reaction of civil disobedience, it only takes one woman such as the bride, to change the future of marriages (although that change does not come about for many years).
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The bride knew that when she ran away with Leonardo and slept with him that she would never again be accepted in her community. Her sacrifice was selfish because she wanted to be with Leonardo, yet it also allows her to point out a major fault in her society: marriage formed by one’s social class is not right. The bride’s actions at the end of the play are also admirable. After Leonardo and the groom fight in the woods and are both killed, the bride goes to the mother and tells her that she can kill her if she wants to. Although the bride’s actions are unfathomable to both of the families and her entire community and she is essentially the cause of the deaths of the two men, her rebellion is also worthy of admiration because she fights for love and its true meaning.
In Antigone, Antigone decides to bury her brother despite the order of Creon. Creon ruled that the body of Antigone’s brother be left unburied and he not be given a proper funeral because he was a traitor. Antigone decides to fight for what she believes is right. Her act of civil disobedience, in covering her brother with just a small amount of dirt, is admirable because she knows the consequences of her actions, but does them any way to pay respect to her brother because that is what she believes is the right thing to do. Antigone’s actions prove more admirable than the bride’s because Antigone is fighting for a cause. Her actions are not selfish, but rather selfless, because she is essentially sacrificing herself for her brother. She is brave and determined.
In conclusion, the female characters in both Blood Wedding and Antigone deserve admiration for their actions that defy the order of the social class. The bride and Antigone fight for what they want. Antigone’s actions are more admirable than the bride’s however, because she is not selfish in her fight. Both women take huge risks in their actions, and although their journey’s both end tragically, their fight for what they believe in is not easily forgotten.
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