Journal 3: Mother's
thoughts
Wretched
knife! Is my urn not full enough? The earth in my jar has yet to dry, and now,
my blood is once again poured out into it. The moon broke through the clouds and
revealed my sons mark to the Felix. Wicked bride, acknowledge the wax in your
orange blossoms. Silver doves fly and mock your wax bouqet. To sacrifice you to
my knife or to condemn you to the same kind of walls that have kept me all these
years, I do not know.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Blood Wedding Journal #3
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Blood Wedding Journal 2:
A dramatist often creates a gap between what the audience knows and what the characters know. With reference to at least two plays, discuss how and to what effect dramatists have used this technique.
Sophocles utilizes the gap of knowledge between the audience and the characters through basic cultural understanding. Dramatists are voices of their times and so, the dramatists also is in 'sync' with the times. Sophocles understood that most of his audience, if not all, would be quite familiar with the story of Oedipus. The general plot in the tragedy of Oedipus that so many people know is that Oedipus solved the terrible riddle of the mysterious Sphinx. He then, after a period of being King of Thebes, learns that he has bed his mother and slain his father. He thus tears our his eyes with his mother's hair pins and steps down from power in Thebes. Thus, with an understanding of the audience, Sophocles could manipulate the final revelation that Oedipus has in Oedipus the King. Sophocles, after revealing the truth of Oedipus' relationships, reflects the main idea through the chorus, which speaks directly to and for the audience:
Lorca manipulates the gap between the audience and the characters in his tragedy Blood Wedding, but more through the endings and beginnings of each scene and act, developing the fate and passing of time in Blood Wedding. The third act of Blood Wedding begins with a scene of Wood Cutters in the forest that the couple had supposedly run off into. This suggests an obvious passing of time because the search for the bride and Leonardo had already begun. The woodcutters reveal things like "They will track them down and kill them" (80) and that "His family of corpses in the middle of the road." This acts much like the chorus in Oedipus because they are almost accessing directly what the audience knows, however they are determined that justice will be upheld while most audiences would hope for the best in a runaway couple, lost in love because that is the pathos in the way of the logos. Lorca then manipulates this quasi-understanding of what will happen to reveal that fate is going to happen, ending the tragedy with the death of the two men.
Sophocles utilizes the gap of knowledge between the audience and the characters through basic cultural understanding. Dramatists are voices of their times and so, the dramatists also is in 'sync' with the times. Sophocles understood that most of his audience, if not all, would be quite familiar with the story of Oedipus. The general plot in the tragedy of Oedipus that so many people know is that Oedipus solved the terrible riddle of the mysterious Sphinx. He then, after a period of being King of Thebes, learns that he has bed his mother and slain his father. He thus tears our his eyes with his mother's hair pins and steps down from power in Thebes. Thus, with an understanding of the audience, Sophocles could manipulate the final revelation that Oedipus has in Oedipus the King. Sophocles, after revealing the truth of Oedipus' relationships, reflects the main idea through the chorus, which speaks directly to and for the audience:
Chorus:Sophocles has the chorus, which is a reflection of the audience, relay the information to establish what the audience should know. He acknowledges that everyone knows of "Oedipus the great,/He who knew the Sphinx's riddle and was mightiest in our state./.../Now, in what a sea of troubles sunk and overwhelmed he lies!/". The emphasis is on the revelation of Oedipus rather than the actions of Oedipus, achieved through the audience's cultural understanding Oedipus' story.
Look ye, countrymen and Thebans, this is Oedipus the great,
He who knew the Sphinx's riddle and was mightiest in our state.
Who of all our townsmen gazed not on his fame with envious eyes?
Now, in what a sea of troubles sunk and overwhelmed he lies!
Therefore wait to see life's ending ere thou count one mortal blest;
Wait till free from pain and sorrow he has gained his final rest.
Lorca manipulates the gap between the audience and the characters in his tragedy Blood Wedding, but more through the endings and beginnings of each scene and act, developing the fate and passing of time in Blood Wedding. The third act of Blood Wedding begins with a scene of Wood Cutters in the forest that the couple had supposedly run off into. This suggests an obvious passing of time because the search for the bride and Leonardo had already begun. The woodcutters reveal things like "They will track them down and kill them" (80) and that "His family of corpses in the middle of the road." This acts much like the chorus in Oedipus because they are almost accessing directly what the audience knows, however they are determined that justice will be upheld while most audiences would hope for the best in a runaway couple, lost in love because that is the pathos in the way of the logos. Lorca then manipulates this quasi-understanding of what will happen to reveal that fate is going to happen, ending the tragedy with the death of the two men.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Blood Wedding Journal 1:
Lorca's Blood Wedding, Act 1.
Lorca delves into a style unfamiliar to me, so this journal is for the purpose of clarifying Lorca's style of writing . The prevailing style of Blood Wedding is short, terse dialog, interjected with passionate thoughts and ideas expressed by the mother and other women. The men stick fast to simple words. The women delve deeper, and through this, Lorca suggest the difference between men and women; the capacity to see further? (extention of sight motif).
Bridegroom
"To cut them with."
Mother
"The knife! The Knife! Damn all of them! And the monster who invented them!"
Bridegroom
"Enough!"
Mother
"Anything that can cut into a man's body! A beautiful man, with life like a flower in his mouth, who goes out to the vineyards or to his own olive groves, because they are his, inherited . . ."
Bridegroom
"Mother, be quiet!"
In this passage, Lorca sets the son from mother. The bridegroom only relays the simple factual information such as the use of a knife to "cut them[grapes] with", but the Mother sees much more in the knife than the son, or perhaps she can remember more. She remembers and later refers to the knives, that the Felix family was involved with a knife that killed her husband. However, Lorca uses a female to expound on the life of a man. He says that man has "a flower in his mouth, who goes out to the vineyards or to his own olive groves". Here, Lorca points out the controlling nature of men through the assumption of everything belonging to the man, as in the personal olive groves and that this nature has been inherited. Contrastingly, the actual present male, the bridegroom, frowns upon this talk and wants to hush the female, once again showing the domineering tendencies of man. But, Lorca's females also are not for characterizing males. In this passage, Lorca immediately characterizes Mother. She is one who is lost in thoughts as shown in her constant tangents. She also, along with other females, manage to explore deeper into the truth of things.
Lorca delves into a style unfamiliar to me, so this journal is for the purpose of clarifying Lorca's style of writing . The prevailing style of Blood Wedding is short, terse dialog, interjected with passionate thoughts and ideas expressed by the mother and other women. The men stick fast to simple words. The women delve deeper, and through this, Lorca suggest the difference between men and women; the capacity to see further? (extention of sight motif).
Bridegroom
"To cut them with."
Mother
"The knife! The Knife! Damn all of them! And the monster who invented them!"
Bridegroom
"Enough!"
Mother
"Anything that can cut into a man's body! A beautiful man, with life like a flower in his mouth, who goes out to the vineyards or to his own olive groves, because they are his, inherited . . ."
Bridegroom
"Mother, be quiet!"
In this passage, Lorca sets the son from mother. The bridegroom only relays the simple factual information such as the use of a knife to "cut them[grapes] with", but the Mother sees much more in the knife than the son, or perhaps she can remember more. She remembers and later refers to the knives, that the Felix family was involved with a knife that killed her husband. However, Lorca uses a female to expound on the life of a man. He says that man has "a flower in his mouth, who goes out to the vineyards or to his own olive groves". Here, Lorca points out the controlling nature of men through the assumption of everything belonging to the man, as in the personal olive groves and that this nature has been inherited. Contrastingly, the actual present male, the bridegroom, frowns upon this talk and wants to hush the female, once again showing the domineering tendencies of man. But, Lorca's females also are not for characterizing males. In this passage, Lorca immediately characterizes Mother. She is one who is lost in thoughts as shown in her constant tangents. She also, along with other females, manage to explore deeper into the truth of things.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Wild Duck Journal 5:
Journal 5: Literary.
Henrik Ibsen, author of the tragedy The Wild Duck, explores the use of irony. Throughout the entire play, Ibsen reveals knowledge through Gregers' pusruit of clearing Hjalmar's "spiritual tumult". But in fact, Ibsen never directly states what he is thinking. Not even does his revealer of truth directly say what is meant. The irony is the truth comes deceptively, through Gregers' continual nagging. Also, Rellings is used as a "doctor" in the play, to sweep aside Gregers' spiritual conviction of truth and places pyschological diagnostics in place to explain the family of the Ekdals. Ironically, the same Relling places a diagnostic on Gregers, saying that he suffers from too much integrity.
Ibsen also uses dramatic irony with the Livslognen that the whole Ekdal family is living under. Livslognen is literally the Life-lie in Norwegian. This is the word that Relling assigns to the "ideals" that Gregers places on Hjalmar. However, later on, Hjalmar is talking of the ideals, and because he doesn't know that they are really the life-illusions that Rellings brought forth, he continues to live in his lie until the very end of the novel, in which Hedvig commits suicide.
Henrik Ibsen, author of the tragedy The Wild Duck, explores the use of irony. Throughout the entire play, Ibsen reveals knowledge through Gregers' pusruit of clearing Hjalmar's "spiritual tumult". But in fact, Ibsen never directly states what he is thinking. Not even does his revealer of truth directly say what is meant. The irony is the truth comes deceptively, through Gregers' continual nagging. Also, Rellings is used as a "doctor" in the play, to sweep aside Gregers' spiritual conviction of truth and places pyschological diagnostics in place to explain the family of the Ekdals. Ironically, the same Relling places a diagnostic on Gregers, saying that he suffers from too much integrity.
Ibsen also uses dramatic irony with the Livslognen that the whole Ekdal family is living under. Livslognen is literally the Life-lie in Norwegian. This is the word that Relling assigns to the "ideals" that Gregers places on Hjalmar. However, later on, Hjalmar is talking of the ideals, and because he doesn't know that they are really the life-illusions that Rellings brought forth, he continues to live in his lie until the very end of the novel, in which Hedvig commits suicide.
Journal 5: Literary.
Henrik Ibsen, author of the tragedy The Wild Duck, explores the use of irony. Throughout the entire play, Ibsen reveals knowledge through Gregers' pusruit of clearing Hjalmar's "spiritual tumult". But in fact, Ibsen never directly states what he is thinking. Not even does his revealer of truth directly say what is meant. The irony is the truth comes deceptively, through Gregers' continual nagging. Also, Rellings is used as a "doctor" in the play, to sweep aside Gregers' spiritual conviction of truth and places pyschological diagnostics in place to explain the family of the Ekdals. Ironically, the same Relling places a diagnostic on Gregers, saying that he suffers from too much integrity.
Ibsen also uses dramatic irony with the Livslognen that the whole Ekdal family is living under. Livslognen is literally the Life-lie in Norwegian. This is the word that Relling assigns to the "ideals" that Gregers places on Hjalmar. However, later on, Hjalmar is talking of the ideals, and because he doesn't know that they are really the life-illusions that Rellings brought forth, he continues to live in his lie until the very end of the novel, in which Hedvig commits suicide.
Henrik Ibsen, author of the tragedy The Wild Duck, explores the use of irony. Throughout the entire play, Ibsen reveals knowledge through Gregers' pusruit of clearing Hjalmar's "spiritual tumult". But in fact, Ibsen never directly states what he is thinking. Not even does his revealer of truth directly say what is meant. The irony is the truth comes deceptively, through Gregers' continual nagging. Also, Rellings is used as a "doctor" in the play, to sweep aside Gregers' spiritual conviction of truth and places pyschological diagnostics in place to explain the family of the Ekdals. Ironically, the same Relling places a diagnostic on Gregers, saying that he suffers from too much integrity.
Ibsen also uses dramatic irony with the Livslognen that the whole Ekdal family is living under. Livslognen is literally the Life-lie in Norwegian. This is the word that Relling assigns to the "ideals" that Gregers places on Hjalmar. However, later on, Hjalmar is talking of the ideals, and because he doesn't know that they are really the life-illusions that Rellings brought forth, he continues to live in his lie until the very end of the novel, in which Hedvig commits suicide.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
marked passages
Hialmar.
After a past like yours? There are certain claims -- I may almost call them claims of the ideal --
(*"Livslognen," literally "the life-lie." )
_____________
Gina.
You don't suppose grandfather can get on without his rabbits.
Hialmar.
He must just get used to doing without them. Have not I to sacrifice very much greater things than rabbits!
_______________
Hialmar.
Oh those two brutes, those slaves of all the vices! A hat must be procured. [ (Takes another piece of bread and butter.)]
Some arrangements must be made. For I have no mind to throw away my life, either.
[ [Looks for something on the tray.]
Gina.
What are you looking for?
Hialmar.
Butter.
_______________
[ GREGERS WERLE enters from the passage.]
Gregers
[ (somewhat surprised).]
What, -- are you sitting here, Hialmar?
Hialmar
[ (rises hurriedly).]
I had sunk down from fatigue.
Gregers.
You have been having breakfast, I see.
Hialmar.
The body sometimes makes its claims felt too.
______________________
Gregers
[ (after a short silence).]
I never dreamed that this would be the end of it. Do you really feel it a necessity to leave house and home?
The setting of most of the play is in Hjalmar's home. It is a studio with photographing equipment and photo developing equipment. It is where most of the play unfolds, and so, in this way, is a photograph development area of the whole story, where from the darkroom (the questions that the characters have) truth arises.
_____________________
Hialmar
[ (wanders about restlessly).]
Gregers.
Hialmar.
Gregers.
Hialmar.
Relling.
Gregers
[ (going).]
After a past like yours? There are certain claims -- I may almost call them claims of the ideal --
(*"Livslognen," literally "the life-lie." )
_____________
Gina.
You don't suppose grandfather can get on without his rabbits.
Hialmar.
He must just get used to doing without them. Have not I to sacrifice very much greater things than rabbits!
_______________
Hialmar.
Oh those two brutes, those slaves of all the vices! A hat must be procured. [ (Takes another piece of bread and butter.)]
Some arrangements must be made. For I have no mind to throw away my life, either.
[ [Looks for something on the tray.]
Gina.
What are you looking for?
Hialmar.
Butter.
_______________
[ GREGERS WERLE enters from the passage.]
Gregers
[ (somewhat surprised).]
What, -- are you sitting here, Hialmar?
Hialmar
[ (rises hurriedly).]
I had sunk down from fatigue.
Gregers.
You have been having breakfast, I see.
Hialmar.
The body sometimes makes its claims felt too.
______________________
Gregers
[ (after a short silence).]
I never dreamed that this would be the end of it. Do you really feel it a necessity to leave house and home?
The setting of most of the play is in Hjalmar's home. It is a studio with photographing equipment and photo developing equipment. It is where most of the play unfolds, and so, in this way, is a photograph development area of the whole story, where from the darkroom (the questions that the characters have) truth arises.
_____________________
Hialmar
[ (wanders about restlessly).]
What would you have me do? -- I am not fitted to bear unhappiness, Gregers. I must feel secure and at peace in my surroundings.
-------
Hjalmar, like Relling's had diagnosed, feels that he is biologically incapabale of bearing unhappiness. Earlier, Relling had turned away from Gregers' idea of Hjalmar's "spiritual tumult" and turned to saying it was a psychological problem. Then he goes on to say that Gregers suffers from integrity fever.
___________
Gregers.
Hedvig! Is it Hedvig you are talking of? How should she blot out your sunlight?
Ironic b'c Hedvig is the one turning blind
________
Hialmar.
It was that blackguard Relling that urged me to it.
Gregers.
Relling?
Hialmar.
Yes, it was he that first made me realise my aptitude for making some notable discovery in photography.
Gregers.
Aha -- it was Relling!
Hialmar.
Oh, I have been so truly happy over it! Not so much for the sake of the invention itself, as because Hedvig believed in it -- believed in it with a child's whole eagerness of faith. -- At least, I have been fool enough to go and imagine that she believed in it.
________
Hialmar
[ (without answering).]
How unutterably I have loved that child! How unutterably happy I have felt every time I came home to my humble room, and she flew to meet me, with her sweet little blinking eyes. Oh, confiding fool that I have been! I loved her unutterably; -- and I yielded myself up to the dream, the delusion, that she loved me unutterably in return.
WHAT? "unutterably"?
___________
Ekdal
[ (quietly).]
The woods avenge themselves
Motif of the woods/garret
_______
Gregers
[ (huskily).]
In the depths of the sea --
Referencing again to the Flying Dutchman, the broken ship.
_______
Hialmar.
And I! I hunted her from me like an animal! And she crept terrified into the garret and died for love of me! [ (Sobbing.)]
I can never atone to her! I can never tell her -- ! [ (Clenches his hands and cries, upwards.)]
O thou above -- ! If thou be indeed! Why hast thou done this thing to me?
Change of dialect?
_______
Gregers
[ (looking straight before him).]
In that case, I am glad that my destiny is what is.
Relling.
May I inquire, -- what is your destiny?
Gregers
[ (going).]
To be the thirteenth at table.
__________
Gregers
[ (calls out to HIALMAR).]
She has shot the wild duck herself!
Wild Duck Journal 4:
Journal 4: Compare how the authors have explored disguise and deceit, and with what effect.
Sophocles, in his tragedy Oedipus the King, disguises Oedipus' affliction (his fate) through Oedipus' own flaws: his pride, temper, and inability to see despite having eyes. Oedipus is still blind to his fate even when Tiresias reveals it to him. He spun a web of deceit around his own life, ignoring all the facts, and the truth of what others said to him. Likewise, Ibsen explores disguise and deceit. He disguises all the people of The Wild Duck as the Wild Duck or the clever Dog, thus leading to the point discussed in a previous journal. While the duck encompasses all the lies of the Ekdal lives, and Oedipus spins his own demise and ultimately falls to the fate of the gods, both authors manipulate what is hidden to the reader and what is hidden to the characters, spinning a juxtaposing web of lies. In Oedipus, all Grecian citizens already knew of the story of Oedipus. However, Sophocles spins the deception not around Oedipus' famous actions, but around his revelation of knowledge, of the truth, to point to the common place idiom that ignorance is bliss, but also to speak as a message to the audience that what really lies in one's path to truth is oneself.
Ibsen follows a little bit in these same steps, but he shrouds the characters with disguise and deceit to convey the emotional loss of living falsely, as in Hjalmar's case, when he is clouded into thinking that all he is doing is going to help his decent family, until he learns that Hedvig isn't his daughter.
Sophocles, in his tragedy Oedipus the King, disguises Oedipus' affliction (his fate) through Oedipus' own flaws: his pride, temper, and inability to see despite having eyes. Oedipus is still blind to his fate even when Tiresias reveals it to him. He spun a web of deceit around his own life, ignoring all the facts, and the truth of what others said to him. Likewise, Ibsen explores disguise and deceit. He disguises all the people of The Wild Duck as the Wild Duck or the clever Dog, thus leading to the point discussed in a previous journal. While the duck encompasses all the lies of the Ekdal lives, and Oedipus spins his own demise and ultimately falls to the fate of the gods, both authors manipulate what is hidden to the reader and what is hidden to the characters, spinning a juxtaposing web of lies. In Oedipus, all Grecian citizens already knew of the story of Oedipus. However, Sophocles spins the deception not around Oedipus' famous actions, but around his revelation of knowledge, of the truth, to point to the common place idiom that ignorance is bliss, but also to speak as a message to the audience that what really lies in one's path to truth is oneself.
Ibsen follows a little bit in these same steps, but he shrouds the characters with disguise and deceit to convey the emotional loss of living falsely, as in Hjalmar's case, when he is clouded into thinking that all he is doing is going to help his decent family, until he learns that Hedvig isn't his daughter.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Marked quotes
Hialmar.
"Bad ways" do you call them? Little do you know what a man goes through when he is in grief and despair -- especially a man of my fiery temperament.
________________
Hialmar.
______________
Hialmar.
Hialmar.
"Bad ways" do you call them? Little do you know what a man goes through when he is in grief and despair -- especially a man of my fiery temperament.
________________
Hialmar.
And I, too, thought my home such a pleasant one. That was a delusion. Where shall I now find the elasticity of spirit to bring my invention into the world of reality? Perhaps it will die with me; and then it will be your past, Gina, that will have killed it.
______________________
Hialmar.
I ask you, what becomes of the breadwinner's dream? When I used to lie in there on the sofa and brood over my invention, I had a clear enough presentiment that it would sap my vitality to the last drop. I felt even then that the day when I held the patent in my hand -- that day -- would bring my -- release. And then it was my dream that you should live on after me, the dead inventor's well-to-do widow.
Irony - The audience knows Hjalmar to be the one who eats the bread literally.______________
Hialmar.
Oh, the whole dream has vanished. It is all over now. All over!
____________
Hialmar.
In certain cases, it is impossible to disregard the claim of the ideal. Yet, as the breadwinner of a family, I cannot but writhe and groan under it. I can tell you it is no joke for a man without capital to attempt the repayment of a long-standing obligation, over which, so to speak, the dust of oblivion had gathered. But it cannot be helped: the Man in me demands his rights.
___________
Hialmar.
And yet, after all, I cannot but recognise the guiding finger of fate. He is going blind.
_____________
[
[Silence. HEDVIG, discouraged, looks first at one and then at the other, trying to divine their frame of mind.
]__________
Hialmar.
What is all this hocus-pocus that I am to be in the dark about!
___________
Hialmar.
I don't want to attain it. Never, never! My hat! (Takes his hat.) My home has fallen in ruins about me. [ (Bursts into tears.)]
Gregers, I have no child!
______________
Hedvig.
In the morning it's light, you know, and there's nothing in particular to be afraid of.
What we can't see is the most terrifying
________________
Monday, December 7, 2009
Wild Duck Journal 3:
Hedvig
[ (standing by the table, and looking searchingly at her).]
[ (standing by the table, and looking searchingly at her).]
I think all this is very strange.
_____________
Conversation between the Wild Duck, Ibsen, and Oedipus:
Ibsen: Morning, Sophocles.
Oedipus: Morning Henrik, g'day Duck.
Duck: Quack ('Tis a fine day for a swim. Alas, I have a wounded wing and, just like you Oedipus, I cannot take pleasure in what should be mine.)
Oedipus: Oh? What is it you mean?
Duck: Quack (I mean the blindness in your sight, the prophecy stabbing you in the back.)
Ibsen: You know, Duck, I'm not too far away from you either. You used to be a king of fowl, the Wild Duck, but now you swim in a bucket. I used to live in a great mansion, trees towering over me. Now I am a humble playwright. Although, we are still more different than alike.
Oedipus: Yes, I'd agree with Ibsen. I am similar, but still distant from all you are.
Duck: Quack (Please tell.)
Oedipus: I am the Blind Beggar. The man with lost judgement. But I have found resolution in my punishment. I see only false living in your apparent comfort. Just like your family, the Ekdals.
Duck: Quack (I know what you mean. Those Ekdals just spoil me too darn much.)
Ibsen: That isn't what is meant, Duck.
Duck: Quack Quack (Then what?)
Ibsen: You are living a life of corpulence and yet you retain your title of Wild Duck. Your Ekdals lead lives of fantasy. Hedvig, who ironically is losing sight as you lose vitality, is finding comfort in the books she gazes upon. Hjalmar, Old Ekdal's son, is working on a invention that consumes his life. Old Ekdal has been reduced to copying booklets by hand, and he still fantasizes being a lieutenant again. It is almost shameful.
Duck: Quack.
Oedipus: Alas, the duck is only that. Quack.
some marked quotes. (i have no book)
Gregers.
Hialmar.
Gina.
Relling.
Gregers.
Relling
[ (goes up to him).]
-69-
that "claim of the ideal" large as life, in your coat-tail pocket.
Gregers.
Not exactly to that. I don't say that your wing has been broken; but you have strayed into a poisonous marsh, Hialmar; an insidious disease has taken hold of you, and you have sunk down to die in the dark.
___________________________
Now, my dear Gregers, pray do not go on about disease and poison; I am not used to that sort of talk. In my house nobody ever speaks to me about unpleasant things.
___________________________
Gregers
[ (leaves the table).]
No airing you can give will drive out the taint I mean.
Hialmar.
Taint!
Gina.
Yes, what do you say to that, Ekdal!
Relling.
Excuse me -- may it not be you yourself that have brought the taint from those mines up there?
Gregers.
It is like you to call what I bring into this house a taint.
Relling
[ (goes up to him).]
Look here, Mr. Werle, junior: I have a strong suspicion that you are still carrying about
that "claim of the ideal" large as life, in your coat-tail pocket.
Gregers.
I carry it in my breast.
_________________________
Relling.Well, I'll tell you, Mrs. Ekdal. He is suffering from an acute attack of integrity.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Wild Duck Journal 2:
Heh, it happens that I misplaced my book as well as my journal 3. I am using an online version, so the version may be different from the class'.
motifs noticed: Light, illumination, lack of light, shadowing, visualizing, DUCK
Irony:
Act 2 of Ibsen's The Wild Duck is riddled with irony. Hjalmar, Hedvig's father tells Gregers that his daughter "in serious danger oflosing her eyesight" (37). So far, as a class, we have reasoned that eyes and sight in the tragedies so far (mainly Oedipus) is for seeing the truth and the physical. However, it is ironic that the young girl is the one to lose sight. Hjalmar, Ekdal's son, had failed to see his father at the party; there are items of visualizing things littered about and yet someone still loses their ability to see (the photographing tools described in the setting). Also, the Wild Duck that Ekdal reveals to Gregers is in a position of irony. As Ekdal retells the ducks story, of it being shot to the bottom of the lake and being brought up by a "clever dog". Ibsen sets up two important and juxtaposing symbols with the duck and the clever dog. The duck, a wild and untame fowl, was captured and lives comfortably in captivity, adapted to the life of living inside. However, it is still called the wild duck, playing with Ekdal's longing to go hunting again. Ironically, Ekdal refuses to go with Gregers in Hoidal to hunt in the old forests. Ibsen does this to show the illusion that Ekdal and perhaps even his whole family is living in.
motifs noticed: Light, illumination, lack of light, shadowing, visualizing, DUCK
Irony:
Act 2 of Ibsen's The Wild Duck is riddled with irony. Hjalmar, Hedvig's father tells Gregers that his daughter "in serious danger oflosing her eyesight" (37). So far, as a class, we have reasoned that eyes and sight in the tragedies so far (mainly Oedipus) is for seeing the truth and the physical. However, it is ironic that the young girl is the one to lose sight. Hjalmar, Ekdal's son, had failed to see his father at the party; there are items of visualizing things littered about and yet someone still loses their ability to see (the photographing tools described in the setting). Also, the Wild Duck that Ekdal reveals to Gregers is in a position of irony. As Ekdal retells the ducks story, of it being shot to the bottom of the lake and being brought up by a "clever dog". Ibsen sets up two important and juxtaposing symbols with the duck and the clever dog. The duck, a wild and untame fowl, was captured and lives comfortably in captivity, adapted to the life of living inside. However, it is still called the wild duck, playing with Ekdal's longing to go hunting again. Ironically, Ekdal refuses to go with Gregers in Hoidal to hunt in the old forests. Ibsen does this to show the illusion that Ekdal and perhaps even his whole family is living in.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Oedipus Journals 1-4
Point of View:
In Sophocles' Oedipus the King, the story is mainly told around Oedipus. Sometimes, Oedipus is out of the scene, and the Chorus is speaking, but only as a sort of narration to align the reader's thoughts, mainly about Oedipus.
Characters:
Oedipus begins as the almost godlike king, when he addresses the people of Thebes in their "Huddling at my[Oedipus'] altar, praying before me" (2-3). Oedipus is portrayed as the prime example of a king and a regular citizen. He shows respect to the old Priest, as he is "Helping a Priest to his feet" (footnotes for actions, before L10). Oedipus is shown as the hero who saved Thebes from the mysterious Sphynx, and I suppose Oedipus' legend is well known in the time this tragedy was written. The character of Oedipus is given the heroic traits and called to be on the plane of mortal heroes, or even gods. BUT, Tiresias, the ironically blind seer and prophet, calls down Oedipus' own curse onto Oedipus. He indirectly accuses Oedipus as being the murderer that he seeks. Through the point of view as an audience, Sophocles gives us knowledge that the characters beside Tiresias knows. This narrative voice is triumphant and showy until Tiresias and Oedipus get into their shouting match, in which Oedipus' weakness, hot headedness, is revealed. He is given to loss of control over his actions, and his ideas are unreliable as a result. Sophocles' persuades the reader to side with one character and use that person's bitterness towards others to judge. The blind seer rouses up a storm in the conversation with Oedipus, and since the reader was first given the heroic information on Oedipus, Tiresias' "radical" sayings have a negative effect on the reader. Oedipus' new rage towards Creon also creates a bias against Creon justified by Oedipus' seemingly spotless reputation.
Oedipus Journal 2: Poem by Oedipus
Bold, leaping into challenge
Whipping with undeserved dignity
Following prophecies, not escaping
forces a cringe.
An equal unmatched
to my dearest heart,
releases the hypocrite
now incapacitated.
Truth revealed through lies.
I tell myself this:
I blindly yearn
for my mother's hand.
Sunset flashing beneath the last hill
Blood, the purest of hues
smears my judgment.
I seem to have not saved Journal 3 on my computer and I have misplaced it for the moment. I'll post it when I find it.
Oedipus Journal 4: Letter to Oedipus, from Creon.
Brother, beggar, Oedipus,
Let go of the suffering you have caused. Jocasta is gone, you now fulfill Tiresias' prophecy, and the citizens will begin throwing rocks painted with their miseries at you. You yourself have upset the equality of our joint ruling. Jocasta is gone, and you have gouged your eyes, your sight, your judgement. Remember, with your eyes the suffering did not go. It is only kind of me to allow you your rest; let me take the wheel of this unsightly ship. Already, the people spit at your feet, and even ask me to drive you out! Tiresias saw, and still sees. I pray, Oedipus, that you can break from your name in your suffering and that you may, in your blindness, seek your final vision.
In your search, yield to time, and in doing so, yield to the gods' will, never fleeing them again. You never were in the place to be master over your fate. You stumbled into a slip of fate, and hardly even juggled the unwieldy position of Thebes. Your children, a result of the most hideous of acts, will follow in your shame. You have failed to do many things, Oedipus. Do not fail in leaving further change alone.
Creon
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Wild Duck Journal 1:
I misplaced my journal sheet for this night, so I will just compare the expositions of Wild Duck by Ibsen and Oedipus the King by Sophocles, mainly focusing on the characters.
In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is presented as an outstanding man, rescuing Thebes from the Sphynx. However, beneath the facade of a proud king lies a confused man finding his roots. This comes out and finally his parents are no longer his parents. Just as in Sophocles' novel, Greger in Wild Duck doesn't view his father as being a father figure. He accuses him of having an affair with the maid and having ulterior motives in helping the Hjalmars. Greger Werle is like Oedipus he too loses trust in his roots, as Oedipus did when the messenger arrived. But, I feel that Greger will continue to be an impressive force throughout the play, while Oedipus fades into a pathetic creature, fated by the gods to suffer. Irony in the two plays also connects the characters. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles used dramatic irony with Oedipus' origins. In The Wild Duck, Werle says to his son "Listen, Gregers, there are so very many things that keep us apart, and yet, you know - we're father and son still. I think we should be able to reach some kind of understanding" (133). This is ironic because, from the readers perspective, the only reason that there would be a separation of significance between them is from the fathers actions. He hold grand parties, ignores a dear friend, and possibly even sleeps with the house maid. Werle then goes on to say that they need to reach an understanding. This is ironic because Greger is beginning to understand that his father had other reasons to do these things besides just pleasure.
In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is presented as an outstanding man, rescuing Thebes from the Sphynx. However, beneath the facade of a proud king lies a confused man finding his roots. This comes out and finally his parents are no longer his parents. Just as in Sophocles' novel, Greger in Wild Duck doesn't view his father as being a father figure. He accuses him of having an affair with the maid and having ulterior motives in helping the Hjalmars. Greger Werle is like Oedipus he too loses trust in his roots, as Oedipus did when the messenger arrived. But, I feel that Greger will continue to be an impressive force throughout the play, while Oedipus fades into a pathetic creature, fated by the gods to suffer. Irony in the two plays also connects the characters. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles used dramatic irony with Oedipus' origins. In The Wild Duck, Werle says to his son "Listen, Gregers, there are so very many things that keep us apart, and yet, you know - we're father and son still. I think we should be able to reach some kind of understanding" (133). This is ironic because, from the readers perspective, the only reason that there would be a separation of significance between them is from the fathers actions. He hold grand parties, ignores a dear friend, and possibly even sleeps with the house maid. Werle then goes on to say that they need to reach an understanding. This is ironic because Greger is beginning to understand that his father had other reasons to do these things besides just pleasure.
Oedipus Journals 1-4
Hi, I can use the internet again. I need to retype my journals, so I will put it up with my next journal.
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