Blood Wedding. Journal 2: Comparison.

In both Blood Wedding and The Wild Duck, the parents idolize their children. Hjalmar adores Hedvig and tries to please her whenever he can. He is selfish though and uses her to help him out and does not realize the harm he causes her accidentally (or on purpose in the end). In Blood Wedding I noticed that the parents talk highly of their children, but their vision is clouded and it is mainly due to self impowerment. Like The Wild Duck, the parents use their children. Hjalmar uses Hedvig to help him out with his photography and to make him feel good, while the parents in Blood Wedding use their kids to talk of how highly ranked they are and as self images. In one line of blood wedding the mother talks about how she licked her sons blood because it was her own. She lives through her children, those of her blood, but she does not live through herself. The same with Hjalmar. He merely uses Hedvig to gain self confidence and to make him happy. He does not care about her feelings when he is angry with his wife. He also forgets about her (when he promises to bring treats). Though he feels bad about it he only makes empty promises in return to make up for it.

In Oedipus, this is similar but shown in an opposite way. The parents dispose of their child because they are ashamed and scared of his destiny. They do not wish him to ruin their names and there for act out selfishly against him. This is what, in turn causes their demise.