Blood Wedding Journal #2

To what extent have you found it possible, in your consideration of literary works, to separate the individual from his or her public role?

In Blood Wedding the bride has two different personalities, the one she shares with the world and the one she keeps hidden to herself. Lorca uses this concept of inner and outer self to demonstrate that when a person is expected to act a certain way they will innerlly resent the task. Bride seems very willing and even happy about marrying bridegroom "I am longing to be your wife. And to be alone with you and hear no other voice but yours." (54). Here the bride outwardly states that she desires to be with bridegroom and she wants to be his alone and not be influenced by Leonardo. Previously Leonardo was talking to her, trying to get her to sway from her course of marriage, and when she states she does not want those other influences she is throwing herself under the control of bridegroom. Though these convictions seem truthful and filled with a loving intent, there is a darker side to bride. When she is away from the bridegroom and his mother she is harsh to her maid, uncaring to her friends, and all around a nasty person. She does not care for the wedding nor for the bridegroom, all she wants is to be alone and to maintain her power. "They are dark clouds -- an ill wind inside me" (41), dark clouds bring an image of unpleasant foreboding and trouble. This shows her unwillingness to love bridegroom and to share her entire self with him, the ill wind furthers these thoughts of her because she does not wish him well but ill. The wind will blow over both of them and cause trouble and break their love apart. She states that she wishes to marry him when she is in his presence and the mother's presence but inside she does not wish to marry him at all.

In Wild Duck Hjalmar is considered to be the bread winner, the one to provide for the family as is expected of the man during that time. His friends and the public believe that he is working diligently at his photography business in order to put food on the table and allow his family to live in comfort. However he barely ever works. His wife Gina takes the photographs, schedule the appointments and tracks all the finances. Hjalmar will sometimes touch up the photos, but often Hedvig or Gina will do that work as well. He is able to consolidate himself by stating that he is working on his invention, a thing that will bring back his father's name and give the family honor. It turns out that Hjalmar barely provides anything for his family and a lot of the needed money comes from the charity of Werle. When he discovers this he is greatly angered and ashamed, however he does not begin working but rather begins to leave his family. On the outside Hjalmar seems like a hard working man, when really he does not provide for his family the way he should. Ibsen uses this depiction of the public man and the private man to illustrate that a person cannot keep living with multiple personalities because eventually one will overcome the other. In Hjalmar's case his lack of work ethic was the stronger of the two and because he was unwilling to work to solve the issues in his family his daughter committed suicide and it crushed both him and his wife.