Blood Wedding #3

Prompt: 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 your answer you should refer to any two or three works you have studied.

In Oedipus and Blood Wedding we see both Oedipus and the Bride attempt to hold their public roles; however, both characters struggle with their own personal beliefs. Oedipus clearly states his public role to the people in Thebes after hearing what needs to be done to save the city of Thebes, "I am the land's avenger by all rights, and Apollo's champion too." (167). In this passage, we see Oedipus take on the responsibility of solving Laius' murder because the people of Thebes look to him as the king and supreme ruler. Creon acknowledges Oedipus' public role when he denies wanting to overtake Oedipus, "But if I wore the crown...there'd be many painful duties to perform, hardly to my taste" (193). By describing Oedipus' public role as "painful" the reader can imagine how highly valued Oedipus is to the city of Thebes. However, though his public role idolizes Oedipus we have to realize that he is not supreme and has his own flaws. Therefore, his individual self is separated from his public role as we see his flaws begin to emerge. When speaking to Tiresias, Oedipus asks, "Parents--who? Wait...who is my father?" (184). From here we see that Oedipus is struggling with his own origins. So what we see as Oedipus' individual self devalues how we judge his public role because as we see the internal struggles Oedipus goes through we start to see that he is not the public figure that the society depicts him as. Similarly, this deception in character is seen in the Bride in Blood Wedding. In Blood Wedding a woman is expected to be quiet in her society. This can be seen as Father describes the bride, "What can I tell you about my daughter? She makes bread at three, while the morning star is still shining. She never talks--soft as wool. She embroiders all kinds of embroidery. And she can cut through a rope with her teeth." (31). Father lists a bunch of expectations that are expected of brides. This is how the public views woman and the role that they should play in society. However, the Bride acts differently than what is expected of her. Therefore, her individual role has no connections to her public one. The bride shows how she is different by saying, "Because I ran away with another man, I ran away! (Anguished) You would have gone, too!" (101). The way the bride acts is very different than what is expected of her. She disobeyed the expectations that were put upon her.
To answer the question, in each play a public role is established that sets the expectations of the character. However, their individual self is very different than what is expected of them. So this idealized image that the public sees slowly degrades as the characters develop. It is very easy to separate the individual and the public role. Furthermore, this motif of their public role vs their individual actions carries onto the image of deception that occurs in the plays. The characters are deceiving each other by presenting themselves in one way and acting in another.