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.
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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.
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Hialmar.

Oh, the whole dream has vanished. It is all over now. All over!

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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.

]

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Hialmar.

What is all this hocus-pocus that I am to be in the dark about!

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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!

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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

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Wild Duck Journal 3:

Hedvig
[ (standing by the table, and looking searchingly at her).]

I think all this is very strange.

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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.

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.

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Hialmar.

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.

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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

---

-69-

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.

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.

Oedipus Journals 1-4

Journal 1

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

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.

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.