Blood Wedding: Journal #2

What are the questions that underlie at least two of the works that you have read and how have the authors sought to answer those questions?

The main question that is underlying in Blood Wedding and Oedipus is how does ignorance create a sense of happiness in the drama?

In Blood Wedding the ignorance is how the Father does not know about his daughters love affair with Leonardo. When the Bridegroom marries her this truth comes out even though it was not meant to. There was ignorance in the beginning of the drama, this clearly shows that there was happiness before the evil deed came to light. In the beginning there Father was very proud of his daughter, thinking that she was very happy and pretty and no one could be better than her. When the terrible truth comes out that she has left the wedding party with Leonardo, the Father does not believe it. Nor does he want to. It spoils his happiness. "Wife: They ran away! They ran away! She and Leonardo! On the horse! They rode off in each other's arms, like a bolt of lightning! Father: It's not true! My daughter? No!" (76). The reader can see here that he does not believe that his daughter, the pure and truthful one, would do such a thing. The author, Lorca, shows that there is happiness in ignorance through this event. The author does a very good job of answer the question with the dramas and events of his play.

In Oedipus there is a similar sense of happiness in the beginning of the play though not of the same kind. There is simply happier occurrences that there were at the end of the drama. In the beginning there was no question to who Oedipus was married to or who his parents were, but in throughout the play these question arise. In the beginning when everyone was ignorant there was happiness and no one was hurting because of a truth. But when it is revealed that Oedipus is indeed married to his mother and his parents aren't who he had originally thought they were either. Sophocles answers the question of how does ignorance give a sense of happiness through the way Jocasta tries to hide the truth that she figures out, from Oedipus because she wants him to continue to have happiness as the King of Thebes. "Stop - in the name of god, if you love your won life, call off this search! My suffering is enough." (1161-1163). The audience can see her that she is trying to preserve this happiness before the ignorance is lost. Sophocles shows the answer to this question through Jocasta and does it very well.

The answer to this question that both authors allude to is that ignorance provides a sense of happiness through the way that less knowledge is better. Also the knowledge is not always the greatest and it shouldn't be known by everyone.