Blood Wedding/ Comparison

Before I get into this post, I just want to say that this is by far the juiciest play I have ever read! I mean, the wife has a thing with her ex-boyfriend? Then the guy shows up at her wedding with his wife?! And then the scene ends with them running off together!!? AHH I would read this over watching Gossip Girl ANY DAY. Just don't tell Kacey Peterson...

I believe the most appropriate journal for this scene is the first comparison question...
"Readers are attracted to moments of intensity in a writer's work. By what means and with what effect have writers in your study offered heightened emotional moments designed to arrest the reader's attention?"

Blood Wedding- Throughout all of Act 2 the reader learns more about the Bride and her past. We learn about her relationship with Leonardo and the Maid even shoes him away. This conflict already attracts me and leads me to want to know more and more about the plot. I am drawn in as the Bride continues to lie to her husband throughout the act. Scene 2 attracts the reader and slowly heightens the emotional moment by slowly hinting at the fact that Leonadro and the Bride ran off together. First, the Wife is looking for Leonardo which hints at the fact that he is gone. However, the reader is only suspicious of this at first. Then the Bride wants to rest without her new husband which also hints at it. In the end of this act, when everyone discovers that they have ran off they all try to run after him. The drama is intensified by looking at how the Mother speaks. She says things like, "Born of an evil mother, and him-him, too! But now she's my son's wife!" and "Who has a horse? Right now-who has a horse? I'll give you everything I have: my eyes and even my tongue" (77). Her dramatic language intensifies this scene which adds to the fact the drama was already building up from the beginning of the Act!

Oedipus- Similar to Blood Wedding, the drama in Oedipus also added up, increasing the emotional moment. I saw this starting on page 221 with Jocasta's sharp turn. ( I know I have spoken about this passage a lot in my journals but it is significant...). Right before this passage, the audience finally realizes that this is when Oedipus will learn his fate. Because we know this, we are allowed to pick apart all actions that the actors (yes actors, they were all men at this time) take on the stage. By adding little details like the sharp turn, Sophocles increases the emotional moment by allowing the audience to notice them. He allows them to get more involved in the play by looking for other signs that only someone that understands the plot will see. Jocasta avoiding Oedipus's questions and trying to stop him also heightens the moment because seeing this angers me and I'm sure it angers other readers too. By getting the audience/reader emotionally involved it really intensifies the scene.