Critical Analysis of the Wild Duck Play - Term Paper Example

INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE THE WILD DUCK (Critical Analysis) PART I Art was given for this. God uses us to help each other so, Lending our minds out (Robert Browning: Fra Lippo Lippi, 1855) “Critical analysis may”, Daiches submits, “ask no question at all, but simply seek to increase appreciation on the writer’s part by any one of great variety of methods, ranging from objective demonstration of certain qualities to impressionistic revelation.” (2003, p. 311) Being the film director and the lover of creative art as well, I always remain in pursuit of refined and outstanding pieces of literature in order to direct the play with the help of my technical and performing staff. I have selected the famous play the Wild Duck written by celebrated Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. (1828-1906). The worth of the Wild Duck has been analyzed and evaluated in the light of the characteristics mentioned and elaborated by the world famous philosopher and critic Aristotle in his work Poetics (350 B.C). All the poets, dramatists and authors belonging to different schools of thought strictly adhere to the rules and regulations described by Aristotle in Poetics. Aristotle has elaborated the concept of unity of action in the Poetics, where he looks for the observing of coherence among the six essential elements of a fine drama. These elements include plot, character, thought, language, song and spectacle. He declares plot as the life and soul of a tragedy. The future generations, including critics, writers, dramatists, and poets imitated the rules determined by the great philosopher. The present paper can measure Ibsen’s tragedy The Wild Duck within the Aristotelian framework. PLOT: According to Aristotle, there are two main varieties of literary pieces i.e. the Fine one and the Mean one. He has placed epic and tragedy in the fine variety, and the satire and comedy in the mean variety. Thus, the great philosopher considers tragedy and epic as the refined form of expressing one’s views and ideas. It also shows that tragedy has been declared a sophisticated piece of art. Aristotle has determined in his Poetics that a perfect tragedy contains a well-knitted plot, which carries a beginning, a middle and an end, all of which are dexterously interlinked with one another. Hence, combination of all these six elements makes the tragic play perfect and fine in the words of Aristotle. The same can be witnessed in the Wild Duck, where the story has a refined beginning, superb introduction, astounding climax and stunning end. The play consists of five acts, which gradually lead towards climax and anticlimax. Aristotle is of the opinion that the beginning of the great tragedies produces a vague, uncertain and complex situation subsequently, mostly attributed to the villain of the play; the same is applied with the play under analysis. Being the film director, I can better analyse various aspects of the play in a better way. As the director, I will hire the actors belonging to the same age groups as were the characters in the Wild Duck. Act I of the play defines four major characters including Old Werle, his son Gregers, Hjalmar and his father Old Ekdel. Similarly, Act II portrays the Hjalmar’s house, which introduces other important characters and their views including Gina, Hedvig and Molvik. The author has skilfully drawn out the similarity between Werle’s son Gregers and the dog which had drawn the poor wild duck with its teeth from deep water. Hence, both the son and the dog harmed and hurt the poor Ekdels by snatching their joys and peaceful life. I will establish the set of the play where the characters will be trained to display performance according to the scene described by Ibsen. The plot revolves around the house of Werle and Ekdel, where the story starts from Werle’s house in the background of the differences between the old Werle and his son Gregers, and ends in the same bitterness. The plot highlights and condemns the Greger’s suspicious nature that costs the joys of the Ekdels on the one hand, and life of innocent Hedvig on the other. Since Gregers appears to be suspicious about the character of his father, he rightly traces out the immoral sexual relationship of his father with his mother’s attendant Gina. Gina appears to be the wife of Hjalmar, one of his old friends. Gregers also discovers that the daughter of Hjalmar and Gina i.e Hedvig is suffering from the severe eyesight problem, which is leading towards blindness, he interlinks it with the blindness of his father i.e. Old Werle. Thus, he discovers the very fact that Hedvig might be the illegitimate daughter of his father and Gina. He discloses the same reality before Hjalmar and Gina, which creates feelings of disgust and hatred in the heart of Hjalmar for both hedvig and Gina. Hedvig, the 13 years old little girl is unable to understand the reason behind disliking of Hjalmar for her, and consequently commits suicide in order to prove her love for her father Hjalmar, leaving the entire family under gloomy situation of repentance and remorse. Ibsen has pointed out towards the very fact that the concealing of some bitter realities is better and beneficial for the people, and disclosure of which may turn their life gloomy, drab, dull, dark and disgusting. Hence, the plot of the play fulfils all the requirements mentioned by Aristotle. CHARACTERISATION: The characterization of the play under analysis is also very powerful and strong. Every character appears to be perfect in its role. Hjalmar is the protagonist character of the play, who is ambitious, simple, hardworking and contented, and is also a devoted son, a caring husband and a highly dedicated and loving father. He is determined to make an invention in his profession of photography, which could earn fame and respect for his family members, and would be supportive in the treatment of his daughter’s eyes on the one hand, and washing the allegation of stealing timber from his father’s character on the other. On the other side of the play, the other important character i.e. Gregers looked passionate to bring bitter realities in the knowledge of the individuals in order to make the relationships stand on the foundations of truthfulness and transparency. However, all his plans go to dashes as Hedvig takes her life just to please her father Hjalmar on the instigations made by Gregers. The play shows Gina and Molvik as highly sensible and rational characters, who are capable of analysing the entire state of affairs, and forbid Gregers from his so called claims to be ideal by disclosing bitter facts, as these might destroy the matrimonial life of Hjalmar and Gin; and the same happened along with taking the life of innocent Hedvig. The play also shows Werle as the cruel and selfish character of the play, who lived a life of dissipation and ruined the life of Old Ekdel in timber stealing case. THEME: The theme of the play is really sublime in its nature and scope. The playwright aims to state that though truth enjoys imperative status in human relationships at individual, collective, domestic and professional levels, yet the disclosing of unwanted and shameful realities may put the life and happiness of others at great jeopardy. Old Werle had wrongly entrapped Old Ekdel in a false case of stealing timber, which deprived Old Ekdel of his honour, reputation and respect. In the same way, Greger’s suspicion regarding the sexual relationships between Werle and Gina destroyed the peace of mind of Hjalmar family, and took the life of their daughter just because of the disclosure of bitter realities of their life. Hence, Ibsen has proved that no outsider should make any interruption in the domestic life of others, as Gregers did the same with Hjalmar and Gina. LANGUAGE: The language, diction and tone of the drama plays very important role in the performance. As a director, I view the play simple, precise, eloquent, adequate, decent and sophisticated, which makes the diction attractive and tender in nature. The language of the play is highly supportive in the performing of the play. According to Aristotle, the language and tone of the tragedy must be serious, where there should not be any factor interrupting the eloquence through indecency. Neither the good character should turn into wicked, nor should be such a change in the development of the plot that bad person could get continuous rewards. SONG: Song or poetry of the drama is an important factor in drama. The Catharsis, according to Aristotle, is also dependent of language and song of the play. Though Ibsen’s play does not contain song or poetry, yet poetic justice is done with Gregers and Hjalmar. As a director, I can seek the services of some poet to include the songs in the play. “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” (Mackintosh, 2006, p. 2) SPECTACLE: Aside from spectacle, the lyrics and music of show tunes hold within them the fabric of the play. After the audience leaves the theatre, they will not recall much of the dialogue, but they will hum the songs. A true form of tragedy, Aristotle opines, is the imitation of action, not that of persons or characters. Similarly, the action of the tragic play should be complete, where everything both fine and ghastly must have been happened. It simply means that the action started either with the ill-intention of the villain or with the sublime ambitions of the hero, must take place accordingly. Garret, studio, Werle’s house and walking area are the visual elements of the play, which would be recorded in an eloquent manner. I will make arrangements for the establishment of set for garret, Hjalmar’s studio and Werle’s house in order to show exact picture according to play. Dog, duck and rabbits will also be included in the set. PART II The main reason behind selecting the Wild Duck as the play for my film is the sociological significance of its theme. The playwright has successfully highlighted the domestic and individual problems, which not only reveal the great command of the author over psychological and social issues, but also portrays how the conspiracies and undue pursuit for the so called ideal situation makes the life of others problematic and disturbing one. Since the play under analysis maintains universality in its wide scope, the people belonging to divergent racial, ethnic, cultural, regional and social groups and communities will be the audience of this play. The play does not have any religious or political aims, so it is universal in nature and scope, and consequently contains the story of every human society without discrimination. Ibsen has devised a very well-knitted plan of the play where climax, anti climax and all parts of the plot appear to be perfect and flawless. However, Greger’s disclosure about the relation between Werle and Gina is the climax point of the play that brings sudden shock for all. It was also Gregers who instigated innocent Hedvig to shoot the wild duck in order to please her father. However, instead of killing her favourite duck, she shoots herself and is died at the spot turning her parents at the sorry state of affairs. Somehow, as a director, I would like to alter Hedvig’s death to the killing of the duck to avoid severe state of tragedy from the play. Almost all the characters of the play look perfect and apposite in the Wild Duck. However, Hjalmar’s dedication to his family, Greger’s hatred from the activities of his father, Gina’s sensibility, responsiveness and commitment to her house, Hedvig’s innocence, emotional nature and sheer love for her parents, Werle’s concern for his son and business and Molvik’s rationality are the prominent features of the play at large. Though it is hard to select the characters for the play, yet I would like to hire the best possible cast according to the age group and appearance of the characters. Somehow, I would like to hire Anthony Queen as Werle, Leonardo as Hjalmar, Sharon Stone as Werle’s fiancée and Kate Winslet as Gina for this play in order to make it the perfect one. The most important message of the play to be conveyed includes the prevalence of the concealed bitter facts in order to escape further disturbances in the life of others. In addition, second important message being conveyed is this that no outsider should interfere into the personal life of the spouses, as undue interference in the domestic affairs of others turns paradise into hell. However, I would like to make slight alteration in the message, and will focus on this that no one should allow the outsiders to interfere in one’s domestic life altogether. Hjalmar’s friendly nature is the most significant thing on the way to conveying the message. I would like to apply light conventional music in the background throughout the play. The music will observe fluctuations according to the situation of the scene. The mourning tone would be applied at the death scene of the poor Hedvig. Selection of proper costumes is very important element in the play. Since the play was created in the last quarter of 19th century, I would certainly order for the preparation of the dresses according to the instructions made by Ibsen. Ladies and gents hats, gowns, military uniform for Old Ekdel and coats will be given particular importance during the selection of the costumes. Both outfits and casuals will be prepared for the major characters of the play. I would like to decorate the set with the paintings of renowned 20th century visual artist and painter Andy Warhol. The combination of colours would be given particular importance. “The visual element of drama, also known as the spectacle, renders a visual appeal to it. The costumes worn by the artists must suit the characters they are playing. Besides, it is important for the scenes to be dramatic enough to hold the audiences to their seats.” (buzzle.com) Since it is a tragic play, brown and grey colours would be most prominent in the set. In addition, two different sets will also be arranged just for showing the timber area and walking track as well. REFERENCES 1 Aristotle. (1996) Poetics Compiled by Roberts, W. Rhys Harvard University Press pp. 1-42 2 Browning, Robert (1855) Fra Lippo Lippi http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/rbrowning/bl-rbrown-fra.htm 3 Daiches, David (2003) A Critical History of English Literature The University of Burdwan India pp. 298-357 Retrieved from www.buruniv.ac.in 4 Ibsen, Henrik (2006) The Wild Duck Adamant Media Corporation Elibron Classics Series 5 Elements of Drama Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/elements-of-drama.html Read More