Federico García Lorca’s Theatrical Works and Realism
Federico García Lorca’s Theatrical Works
The drama of Federico García Lorca is comparable in value to his poetry. He wrote his most famous works from 1930, and they maintain a strong thematic coherence. Lorca’s central themes are: love (both homosexual and heterosexual), impossible desire (the conflict between reality and desire), frustration, and tragic fate.
Modern Drama
Lorca’s dramatic creation began in his youth with some modernist influences. Some of his best-known titles from this period are:
- The Butterfly’s Evil Spell: A story of impossible love between a butterfly and a cockroach.
- Doña Rosita the Spinster and the Language of Flowers: A young spinster from Granada, like a flower, loses her leaves over the years.
Farce
- The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife: A story of love between a beautiful young woman and an old shoemaker.
Surrealist Theater (Impossible Theater)
- The Public: A break with traditional staging. In this work, Lorca critiques society and calls for total freedom in human relations.
Tragedies and Dramas
- Blood Wedding: Based on real events, this play, written in 1933, is an allegory of the power of dominant passion. It involves passion, hatred, and conflict among families, leading the protagonists to death. The bride runs off with her old boyfriend, Leonardo, on her wedding day, leading to a tragic end where the bridegroom and Leonardo die in the presence of the bride.
- Yerma: Published in 1934, this is the tragedy of a childless woman whose only dream in life is to be a mother. The inevitability of fate makes her kill her husband, who did not want children.
- The House of Bernarda Alba
Style
Lorca maintains a consistent style and theme between his poetry and plays. Freedom, love, death, and social and moral standards are the basis of his theater. His dramatic work is imbued with a language full of metaphors and symbolic images, such as: water (freedom or death), the moon (death), the horse (life, eroticism, bearer of doom), and blood (life or pain, etc.). The author seeks to involve the viewer emotionally in the tragedy experienced by the characters. He usually combines prose and verse, and folk songs are often present, intensifying tragic scenes. Female characters stand out in Lorca’s work, as he had a special attraction for disadvantaged social groups at the time and situations of frustration and loneliness (women, Gypsies, and black people). His favorite actress was Margarita Xirgu.
Characteristics of the Realistic Novel
- Verisimilitude: The story told must be credible, even if invented. The appearance of authenticity in events, spaces, and characters is of great importance. Workplaces (workshops, offices, shops, etc.) and housing appear.
- Real Characters: Romantic heroes are left behind, and characters are drawn directly from everyday life. Their personalities and behaviors are analyzed in depth to understand the reasons for their actions. The figure of the woman becomes important compared to the previous stage (the authors do ethopeias of realistic characters). The use of collective characters is also rampant, helping to understand the society to which they belong. The protagonist is usually a bourgeois or from a specific social class (high, low).
- Social Issues: Realistic novels normally include conflicts within society: human relations, political tensions, religious conflicts, and the changing world of work. This includes “thesis” novels, where conservative novelists defend the countryside and progressive ones the city.
- Timeframe: The narrative technique known as *in medias res* is often used.
- Setting/Space: Spaces are described based on observation and exhaustive documentation. The mood reflected in the novels almost takes on the range of a character, since it is decisive, in many cases, for the protagonist’s behavior. There is social determinism; that is, the environment determines the character.
- Style: In 20th-century novels, interior monologue gives way to the stream of consciousness. Dialogues are agile and characterize the characters, and narrators are combined in the first or third person (omniscient). The use of free indirect style and the complete interior monologue are frequent narrative techniques. Regional and jargonistic linguistic turns are also used.
- Linear Structure: The plot is developed linearly.