Blood Wedding Journal #1

In Blood Wedding internal conflict is used to create a mode of tension and suspense which draws the audience in and captivates their attention. The first example of internal conflict is seen with the mother, she is still fighting the battle of her husbands murder even though it happened years ago. She fears for her sons life and does not want him to go anywhere that could possible endanger him, yet she wants him to go out and experience the world and become a man. She is torn between her fear and her love for her son. This tension forces her to accept that her son is a grown man and can make his own choices but it causes her great pain. There is also this strained relationship between the mother and her son, she loves him and he loves her but he becomes very short tempered and controlling with her once she begins reverting back to the murder story of her husband. This conflict between mother and son illustrates a power struggle between them and shows how the son is trying to grow and break away from his mothers influence.
The Wife to Leonardo has deep love for her husband and her child, however she is pained by her husbands actions. She feels that he does not love her and that he is seeking another to hold. This causes her endless grieving, however she hides it from her husband and puts on a facade of happiness. This is shown through the song she sings to her sleeping child. "His wounded hooves/ his frozen mane/ and in his eyes/ a silver dagger" (26). The hooves represent traveling and moving forward, their relationship is wounded and so it cannot move forward and is stuck in a state of bickering. Again with the frozen mane, it is no longer something of beauty, it is merely a tangle of dank misery. The eyes have been attacked by a silver dagger, the eyes are the place to see and to take in the beauty of the world. The eyes represents their marriage, because with the marriage she believed she would be able to see the beauty in the world. However it was attacked by a silver dagger, silver shows that it is of great worth and so this means that the husband went off seeking for something better. Most likely his previous fiancee who is very wealthy, and so he desired to have more than what he already had. And so the wife is torn between wanting to love her husband and knowing that he no longer longs for her the way he once did.
Lastly the bride shows on the outside that she wants to marry the bridegroom and she is happy and full of love towards him. However on the inside she is bitter and does not want to give up the good life she has to this man. She is angry and harsh with her maid and wants nothing to do with the shows of wedding poured upon her. She is struggling with the prospect of wanting to remain single and in power under her father but knowing that once he dies she can no longer keep the property and so she would lose all her power. She decides that marriage would allow her to keep her father's lands but she is unwilling to love the man she marries.