Blood Wedding Lesson Plan

What do you make of the characters’ titles in the play? Why might Lorca have chosen to title them in this unique way?

Almost all characters in this play have titles (“Bride,” “Bridegroom,” “Mother,” “Neighbor,” etc.) instead of names; in fact, Leonardo is the only character who does not follow this model. These titles have the effect of universalizing the story: the characters could be any bride, any bridegroom, any mother, and so on. Yet, they also have the effect of impersonalizing the characters: we as an audience never feel very close to the characters. This impersonal aspect in fact mirrors the impersonal aspect of the characters’ emotional lives, which we learn about...