The knife is used affectively, not only through a single act but through almost every act within the play, to portray the death and violence that it causes. Lorca uses personification to bring the inanimate knife to life, as the knife is perceived throughout the play to be the objects that do the killing, not the people using them. This is most clearly seen when the beggar woman says “tell the knives where to go,” rather than tell those using them where to go.
Flowers are referred to many a time throughout Lorca’s play, mostly regarding the bride and the wedding. The flowers are used as a metaphor, representing love, life, nature and ironically also death. The metaphorical value of the flowers can be seen most clearly through the use of the orange blossom. It represented love and was to be worn by the bride at the wedding. Although it represented love, it wasn’t real… It was made from wax, a fake just like the love the bride has for the bridegroom, unlike the love she may have had for Leonardo. This may also represent the undying love the bridegroom has for the bride, as the wax flower would never die but it becomes evident that this is not the case.
The flowers are used on many occasions throughout the play to depict death and violence. Flowers being alive much like its human counterparts in Lorca’s play, whither, deteriorate and eventually die. “Here’s my throat. You see how soft it is. Easier than cutting a dahlia in your garden,” exemplifying the fragile nature of flowers and how human life is just as fragile. The beggar woman goes on to make reference to flowers when speaking of the death of Leonardo and the Bridegroom. “Their eyes broken flowers,” the flowers representing human life once again. “My mother came from rich country full of trees... and here she withered away.” When one heres the word withered they suddenly liken it to the death of a flower, and Lorca exploits this connection magnificently as he uses flowers as a metaphor for human life.
Water represents life and death, but also the flow of life and is used by Lorca on many occasions through the play. “It’s right that I should die here, my feet in water.” The life flowing out of her as she dies, much like blood. “Water is flaming,” quite clearly used here representing the wedding night and can be interpreted in two main ways: Either representing the passion of the wedding night, but also may be seen as prophetical warning us of the impending disaster to come. “They’ll be two empty pitchers,” the water having been emptied out of the pitcher, a representation of the life being drained from the human body. The impact of the water representing life is most felt when she says “Your son was a single drop of water that I hoped would give me children, and health.” A single drop of water being her only hope for new life, and for her life to go on.
Blood in Lorca’s play can be interpreted in two main ways. It can be considered to be a representation of life but also of death. It’s representation of life is exemplified when the mother says “I put my hands in his blood and licked them. Because it was me, mine.” The life she had once given she tried to regain by licking and putting her hands in his blood. It was her blood which flowed through him, and she wanted to savour that. She further says “I would have kept that blood-soaked dirt in a chalice,” saving the only remains of the life within him after he had died. Although he was dead she would be able to preserve his blood.
Blood is used in the negative way by the father when he says “The blood’s no good,” referring most likely to the quality of the family, and that same blood flows throughout the entirety of that family. If someone with that blood behaved in a certain way it was believed that because the same blood flowed through the whole family, everyone else belonging to that family had a tendency to commit the same wrong doings. “Blood Is pouring, stronger than the water.” The water representing life, as the blood represents death. The blood being stronger than the life, thus prophesises death.
Federico Garcia Lorca, uses symbols affectively through out his play to add to the suspense and the ultimate tragedy of it. Using knives, flowers, water and blood throughout the play, the viewer and reader is able to make their own judgements as to what they represent, adding to the dramatic quality of this piece of work. They quite clearly have an important function through out the progression of the play.
