Introduction In Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. semblances and world are set into a struggle within the narrative of a son’s personal desire to face idealism. Throughout much of the drama. the boy. Greger. argues the value of truth with the loath Dr. Relling. Relling insists on the importance of semblances. but fails to deter Greger’s purposes and a drama that begins as a comedy rapidly turns into a calamity because of these struggles. At the bosom of the semblances in this drama are the ways that people assume many functions in a household. portraying multiple ideals as ways for pull offing their relationships.
This subject of caricature is besides developed in Ibsen’s Ghosts. where household dealingss are easy undone as the semblances and misrepresentations are stripped off. In both dramas. misrepresentations are strategic and designed to protect the kids from the strivings and battles of their families’ histories. Ultimately. in these dramas. households are held together by semblances. yet lacerate apart by truths that have been concealed to protect the kids. Illusions and Realism
In The Wild Duck. as Relling continues to deter Greger from uncovering damaging truths about household secrets. Relling insists. “If you take away pretense from the mean adult male. you take off happiness as well” ( Ibsen. 294 ) . Relling is mentioning to the ways the Ekdal household is structured on peculiar misrepresentations ; nevertheless. these are designed to protect the inexperienced person every bit good as the guilty. Hedvig. the 14 twelvemonth old girl. represents one of the inexperienced persons. and Greger’s male parent. Old Werle. represents a portion of the guilty side.
The key to these dualisms of false and truth. guiltless and guilty. semblance and world. lies in Ibsen’s art of pragmatism. which was a theatrical production of the complicated togss that hold ordinary lives together. Within the ordinary lives of the households in Ghosts and The Wild Duck are narratives of unfaithfulness. corruptness. greed. lecherousness. disease. and other afflictions that characterize household secrets. For illustration. in Ghosts. the female parent. Mrs. Alving. reveals the ways she has protected her boy Oswald from the truths of her unhappy matrimony.
She tells her friend and priest. Manders. “…Yes. I was ever swayed by responsibility and consideration for others ; that was why I lied to my boy. twelvemonth in and twelvemonth out. Oh. what a coward I have been” ( 315 ) . Manders responds. “You have built up a happy semblance in your son’s head. Mrs. Alving – and that is a thing you surely ought non to underestimate. ” ( 315 ) repeating Dr. Relling’s belief that semblances are sometimes more than a inquiry of world. In both dramas. the deeper inquiries are about whose world affairs. and who may find another person’s world.
Relling accuses Greger of holding a pestilence of “…integrity-fever ; and so — what’s worse — you are ever in a craze of hero-worship ; you must ever hold something to adore. outside yourself. ” which Greger agrees to. without sing the effects of this claim ( 297 ) . In fact. Greger’s certainty about the dangers of semblances provokes the immature Hedvig into an emotional desperation. and she kills herself. The issues presented in this drama are non about what is true. or false. but about the ways people build their lives on the yesteryear.
Hedvig’s male parent. Hialmar. protects his girl from truths that concern the actions of others. with effects that have indirectly affected her life. In Ghosts. Mrs. Alving is protecting her boy from truths that. in the terminal. have effects on Oswald’s life. as he has inherited poxs from his womanizing male parent. The flood tides of these two narratives result in the deceases of Hedvig. and Oswald and both deceases come about as a consequence of their larning the truths of their yesteryears. In each of these dramas. the world is what destroys the characters.
Once the life semblances are taken off. there is nil for the persons to keep onto. As the semblances are shattered. world becomes impossible to digest. Ultimately. by utilizing pragmatism to portray the value of semblances. Ibsen produces complicated inquiries about what is existent and what is sometimes a necessary semblance. Conclusion Both The Wild Duck. and Ghosts are calamities that involve what might be understood as “the wickednesss of the male parents ; ” nevertheless. Ibsen seems to propose that some truths are better maintained as semblances.
In both dramas. the truth destroys the lives of those who have been protected from the past and in both instances the past involves relationships that have indirect effects on the children’s apprehensions of their lives. In the terminal. whether it is right or incorrect to keep the semblances is non every bit important as the inquiry of who has the right to find what is existent. and what is true for others. Works Cited Henrik Ibsen. “The Wild Duck. ” Four Great Plays by Henrik Ibsen. New york: Bantam Books. Henrik Ibsen. “Ghosts. ” Playreader’s Repertory. M. R. White and F. Whiting. Eds. . London: Foresom and Company.
