Blood Wedding- Journal #1

Comparison
Prompt: 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.

In Blood Wedding, the death of Bridegroom's father and brother is a mystery. The only information given is that they were murdered, and also it was done by a member of the Felix family. By doing so, Lorca creates the character Leonardo with mystery and suspicion. This makes the reader more suspicious of Leonardo and makes them have more pity for Bridegroom and Mother. It also makes the reader suspicious of Bride and Father for their previous attachment to Leonardo. By creating these feelings, Lorca is controlling the tragedy aspect of the play, he is making the reader emotionally tied to one or more of the characters, and at the end of the play he will let them down. This shows the skill Lorca has at writing plays and changes the way I will be reading his play.
In The Wild Duck, the Ekdal's situation is shrouded in mystery. It creates a sense of mistrust and curiosity. By not informing the reader of all that has occurred it makes them more likely to trust Gregers and Old Werle. The effect of doing so is incredibly similar to that of the effect in Blood Wedding. It makes the reader more tied to a particular character, effectively making that specific play a tragedy. The reader's emotional fall makes up for the lack of a character losing face that was traditionally found in Greek tragedies.