Blood Wedding Journal #1

"Visual action can be as important on the stage as speech." How far do you agree with this claim? Refer to two or three plays.

I agree with this claim. Visual action is not always as important as speech, but it can be as important sometimes. In Oedipus The King, visual action is not as important on the stage as speech. The dialogue is very detailed and expressive, and shows the reader exactly what the characters are feeling. In this case, visual action is not necessary to understand the exact meaning of the play - the audience easily picks up on it based off of dialogue alone. It is not extremely significant to know where the actors are on the stage, the props they use, or the gestures they make, because the dialogue alone tells the story. The only stage cues in the play are when someone enters or exits a scene. Here is an example of the expressive dialogue used by Sophocles in the play, when Oedipus is upset at Creon for "scheming against him".
"You - here? You have the gall
to show your face before the palace gates?
You, plotting to kill me, kill the king -
I see it all, the marauding thief himself
scheming to steal my crown and power!" (lines 594-598).
With this dialogue, Oedipus' anger is very obvious simply by the language he uses, and visual action is not essential to understand his feelings.

However, in Blood Wedding, visual action is as important as speech, if not more. This is because the dialogue Lorca writes in is very simple. He uses short, to-the-point words that create a huge sense of ambiguity in determining characters' true feelings and meanings of their conversations.
Here is an example of the dialogue in the play:
"Bridegroom: I'll come tomorrow.
Bride: At what time?
Bridegroom: At five.
Bride: I'll be waiting for you." (Lorca, 34-35).
In this case, it would be very helpful to have visual action to aid in understanding. It is extremely difficult to tell what the bride and her groom are thinking and feeling. It seems like there is no feeling involved in their brief exchange; however, if there was visual action to refer to, there might be a hint of something, such as a certain facial expression, a wink, a hug, etc. that would give the reader more of an idea about what is going on. When speech is so plain and emotionless, it is necessary to have visual action to pick up any sort of meaning.