Drama
ENG332• 19th Century Theatrical
Drama
• Henrik Ibsen
• The Wild Duck
Prepared by
Alvina Yousaf
Historical Background
Industrial Revolution
Replacements of hand made tools and
power by machinery. Development of
factory system
Rise of Middle Class(Bourgeois)
People who challenged traditional beliefs
Karl Marx
Charles Darwin
Sigmond Frued
Glancing back at 16th Century for an
understanding of Modernism : Influence of
Classics at 16th Century
The Renaissance : which revived the study
and interest in the “Classics”
Ideas based on Neo-Classicism
• Poetic Justice
• Characters of high stature. The tragic flaw
• Verisimilitude : All dramas must “true to life”
• Unities (Time, Place and Action)
• Genres
• Revival of knowledge and learning. New
experiments based on ancient studies
The Restoration Drama
The Age of Reason : focus on logics,
reasons and action than poetic justice
Genres : Satire, Essays and Novel
Rationalism=(Based on reasons and
logics)
Sentimentalism
Women on Stage(most revolutionary
change)
The Romantic Theatre The Age of Independence
(Patriotism, Nationalism, Revolution as secondary themes)
• Abiding trust in Nature’s goodness(Main theme)
• The focus on subjectivity = (the writer and critics were totally personal). They tended to appeal emotions than intellect.
• The hero was usually a social outcast who searched for knowledge, justice and truth
Romanticism in Art
1. MusicLudwig van Beethoven
Frederic Chopin
2. LiteratureEdgar Allan Poe
Nathaniel HawthorneEmily DickinsonLord Byron
Romanticism as a stepping
stone towards Realism
Melodrama = Literal meaning is a ‘song drama’ or a ‘music drama’
“If you believe, as the Greeks did, that man is at the mercy of the gods, then you write tragedy. The end is inevitable from the beginning. But if you believe that man can solve his own problems and is at nobody's mercy, then you will probably write melodrama.” OR
Characters are types, not individuals. Action is exaggerated. Language is overemphasized.
o Died away in 1915 because of people’s shift towards Los Angeles for film Industry
o A typical standard of Hollywood
19th Century Theatrical Drama Development of
the Box Set = With three walls and a ceiling to represent interiors
Other features
Interest in Historical Accuracy
Amazing props
• Elevators
• Revolving stages
• Electric Lighting and lighting effects for
scenic realism
• 4th wall convention
20th Century’s Dramatic -isms Symbolism Expressionism Futurism Surrealism Social Realism Epic Theatre Existentialism Absurdism Magic Realism Hyper-Realism Not to mention musicals,
films, street theatre, etc., etc.
The Well Made Plays: “La piece
bien-fait”
First coined by Eugune Scribe(1791-1861)
"Through their example", Marvin Carlson explains, "the well-made play became and still remains the traditional model of play’s construction.”
Characteristics
• A tight plot + most of the action taking place before the story opens + action open by coincidence and chance + open-ended conclusion(life of the character after the story)
Modern Drama
Major Playwrights
Henrik Ibsen
Strindberg
Anton Chekov
Oscar Wilde
G.B.Shaw
Synge
Lingui Prindello
Henrik Ibsen (1826-1906)
Father of Modern Prose Drama
Father of Realism
He took drama from Realistic plays to
Naturalistic and to Symbolic plays
Famous for his ‘social dramas’ : A
reaction to societal norms and issues
of immorality
Famous work A Doll’s House (1879): the tale of a housewife who
walks out on an apparently perfect marriage when she comes to know its actually destroying her.
Brand (1866): the story of a pitiless priest with a holy mission against society
Peer Gynt (1867): a fantastic adaptation of Norweign folklores and pens down ‘the destruction of the ideal hero’ and ‘clain of the ideal’
An Enemy of People (1882): a story of an individual who rallies against mass opinion
More Plays
Hedda Gabler (1890) tells the story of a
married woman pregnant with an unwanted
child who caused her the death of her lover.
Pillars of Society (1877) : describes the story of
a wealthy and hypocritical businessman
unwittingly almost causes the death of his son.
The Wild Duck (1884) is Ibsen’s masterpiece. It
tells the ‘life lie’ and delusions one needs to
flee a reality too difficult to bear.
Ibsen’s contribution to Modern
Drama
He paved way to clear cut Realism and demystified the romantic hero
Psychological Drama : main concern on characters’ conflicts
He stood for an individualism in the rest of the world.Ibsen’s plays offers lessons on the hypocrisy and dual
standards of society. Example : the discussion of the position of women in society.
o The Theatre of Ideas: ‘Ibsenites’ – young enthusiastic intellectuals for the new plays inspired by Ibsen – seized on the idea of theatre as a political force
Retrospective analysis
His characters do not reveal information
until the situation demands.
It’s first used by Ibsen and then became
essential in Modern Drama
Story in a nutshell : The Wild Duck
This play is about the Ekdal family which is ruined on the
hands of Werle family. This family consists of Hialmar
as the father , Gina as the mother and Hedvig as the
daughter . They were a happy family until Gregers
Werle appears in their life and changes it upside down .
Gregers tells the family many tragic facts and leads to
the distraction of the family . He claims that he calls for
an ideal life . His idealism leads Hedvig to kill herself
at the end of the play .
The Characters : Major
Gregers Werle :
o The impassioned, idealistic son of Hakon Werle. He has returned
from a self-imposed exile to avenge his father's crimes against the
Ekdal family.
o “returned of the repressed” + “claim of the ideal”
o Speaks in a language of forgiveness, exaltation, redemption,
sacrifice.
o Makes a final exit from the world where he has no place
Hialmar Ekdal
Hialmar Ekdal : Comic double of romantic hero. Fiery and melodramatic. Hialmar'shandsomeness, ‘sympathetic voice’, and talent for declaiming the verses and thoughts of others have always made him appear the "great light of the future" among his intimates . Dreams of restoring the family’s honor. Considers himself as a great father and provider.
Hedvig Ekdal
:o The Ekdals' fourteen-year-old daughter. She is the play's most pathetic figure: an innocent and
victimized child. She is of uncertain parentage, belonging either to Hialmar or Werle. o She is marked by a growing blindness which symbolizes the predominance of ‘life-illusion’ in the
Ekdal house o Her characters goes perfectly with the title
Gina Ekdal
Gina Ekdal : o Ekdal's wife and the former house servant of the Werles. By far the most practical members of the
family. o She keeps herself busy by household work and photographic studio.o She has successfully suppressed her past with Werle to ensure the survival of her marriage
Relling
Rellingo Hialmar's long time antagonist .The cynical Dr. Relling works and his rival over the fate of Hialmar.
Clearly appearing as a figure of knowledge, of truth and honesty.o Rather than correcting the false ideologies of Hialmar(that of ‘spiritual tumults’) he engages the
discussion on medical terms by saying that man does not need redemption but treatment, an inoculation he terms as “life-lie” or “life-illusion”
Hakon Werle
Hakon Werle : A wealthy industrialist who is responsible for the ruins of his former partner, Old Ekdal, and his family.
He makes amends by being the provider of Ekdal and tries to clear up the mistakes of past.
Old Ekdal
Old Ekdal : o The victim of Werle's betrayal who suffered public disgrace years ago. He is
a socially tabooed figure.o Lives in the memories of pasto Another person whose personality is apt to the title.
Meaning of the title
Hialmar EkdalHedvig
Old Ekdal Ibsen’s own life
It is quite difficult to say which character actually represents this bird because the hints the author provides can be applied to several characters.
Famous Quote
“The wild duck is the most important of all the things in there”.
“The wild Duck” as a title is most apt for this play because it gives us a definite clue to the major theme of the play – the value of illusions in the average man’s life. The wild duck is an important symbol. The wild duck symbolizes the life of Hjalmar and his father, the life of Hedvig and also Ibsen’s own life at the time he wrote this play. Gregers too becomes a symbol by wishing to play the role of the clever dog and to bring the wounded duck back to the surface. As all this symbolism is the hub and the heart of the play, the title “The Wild Duck” is most suitable for it.
Some important techniques
used in the play
o Irony :
In The Wild Duck, Hjalmar Ekdal is unconscious of the fact that despite his image as a loving husband and father, he is not the real father of Hedvig .
o Foreshadowing :
a. The mess Gregers makes of his room while building a stove fire
b. When Hjalmar emerges from the garret with a doubled-barreled pistol and warns Hedvig not to touch it because it still has a bullet