The theme of “The Wild Duck” is the importance and contrast of illusions as distinguished from reality. It is the tension between illusion and reality which is liable for the tragic ending. Gregers, an idealist, preaches the ‘ideal’ which stands for unveiled reality. He insists people to shed their illusions to face the truth. Relling, the realist, believes in illusions. An illusion is a ‘saving lie’ behind which a man may find comfort from the strain of reality. If illusions are taken away from an ordinary man, happiness in his life would be lost. As Gregers fails in his mission, the play becomes a satire on his transcendentalism.

Hjalmar and Gina are happily living their married life for fifteen years with their daughter, Hedvig. Hjalmar finds comfort in the fact that he has a devoted wife and a loving daughter and that he would complete his invention and restore to his father the dignity and make Hedvig’s whole life carefree. Hjalmar also has illusion that he is going to invent a machine that will bring revolution in photography and it will earn for him fame and wealth.

Gregers, an intruder, meets Hjalmar after sixteen years and learns that Hjalmar is married to Gina. A doubt comes into his mind that Gina was his father’s maid in whom he was sexually interested.

Now Gregers wants to reveal the truth to Hjalmar, who is living in illusion, so that he should face the reality and reconstruct his married life in the light of true facts. READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

“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 a precise and an all-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.

Mr. Werle was sailing a boat and seeing a wild duck, had shot at, and wounded, it. The wounded duck dived down to the bottom of the sea and tangle there to never come up again. But Mr. Werle’s clever dog dived after the wounded duck and brought it up again. The wounded wild duck was taken to Mr. Werle’s house but it did not thrive there. It was passed on to Old Ekdal where it became used to its present abode, and had forgotten its natural, wild life.

The wild duck as a symbol appears first in Mr. Werle’s speech with reference to the sad fate which had overtaken Old Ekdal. He says:

“By the time Ekdal was released, he was a broken-down man, past help from anyone. There are people in this world who dive to the bottom the moment they are wounded, and never come up again.”

We recall this speech when Old Ekdal, speaking to Gregers, describes how a wild duck behaves when it gets wounded. If the particular wild duck had not been rescued by dog, it would have remained at the bottom and would have died there. READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Aristotle devotes great attention to the nature, structure and basic elements of the ideal tragic plot. Tragedy is the depiction of action consisting of incidents and events. Plot is the arrangement of these incident and events. It contains the kernel of the action. Aristotle says that plot is the first principle, the soul of tragedy. He lists six formative elements of a tragedy – Plot, character, thought, melody, diction, spectacle and gives the first place to plot.

The Greek word for ‘poet’ means a ‘maker’, and the poet is a ‘maker’, not because he makes verses but he makes plots. Aristotle differentiates between ‘story’ and ‘plot’. The poet need not make his story. Stories from history, mythology, or legend are to be preferred, for they are familiar and understandable. Having chosen or invented the story, it must be put to artistic selection and order. The incidents chosen must be ‘serious’, and not ‘trivial’, as tragedy is an imitation of a serious action that arouse pity and fear.

Aristotle says that the tragic plot must be a complete whole. It must have a beginning, a middle and an end. It must have a beginning, i.e. it must not flow out of some prior situation. The beginning must be clear and intelligible. It must not provoke to ask ‘why’ and ‘how’. READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Huxley writes in a style wonderfully suited to purposes of exposition and discussion. It is a lucid style, forceful and yet elegant. It is free from all kinds of obscurity. It is not too learned but is demands close attention to be understood. The theme is developed in a logical manner. He makes no digressions. Huxley is a persuasive writer with a style that is very useful to a propagandist. His style combines his intellectuality with intelligibility. Nor is it a bare style. It is a sumptuous style and free from what “surplusage”. Huxley often gives us crisp sentences and shows himself a master of the condensed statement. Here are a few examples to show.

“Recognizableness is an artistic quality which most people find profoundly thrilling.”

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Another of the popular clichés of Eliot is the phrase, “Dissociation of Sensibility”, and its opposite, “Unification of Sensibility”. The phrase was first used by Eliot in his essay on the Metaphysical Poets of the early 17th century. By unification sensibility, T. S. Eliot means “a fusion of thought and feeling”, “a recreation of thought into feeling”, “a direct sensuous apprehension of thought”. Such fusion of thought and feeling is essential for good poetry. This poetry results when there is, “dissociation of sensibility” i.e. the poet is unable to feel his thoughts. Eliot finds such unification of sensibility in the Metaphysical poets, and regrets that a dissociation of sensibility set in the late 17th century; there was a split between thought and feeling and we have not yet recovered from this dissociation. READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

How stern are the woes of the desolate mourner
As he bends in still grief o’er the hallowed bier,
As enanguished he turns from the laugh of the scorner,
And drops to perfection’s remembrance a tear;
When floods of despair down his pale cheeks are streaming,
When no blissful hope on his bosom is beaming,
Or, if lulled for a while, soon he starts from his dreaming,
And finds torn the soft ties to affection so dear.
Ah, when shall day dawn on the night of the grave,
Or summer succeed to the winter of death?
Rest awhle, hapless victim! and Heaven will save
The spirit that hath faded away with the breath.
Eternity points, in its amaranth bower
Where no clouds of fate o’er the sweet prospect lour,
Unspeakable pleasure, of goodness the dower,
When woe fades away like the mist of the heath.

Arthur Miller is a great modern American dramatist who keenly observes the ambitions and ideals of an individual as well as the internal and external forces which are responsible for the tragic failure of these ideals. “Death of a Salesman” is a beautiful example in this regard in which the protagonist of the play, Willy Loman, intensely desires an outstanding success for himself and for his sons but this desire is thwarted by powerful social and commercial forces which causes a tragic defeat of Willy Loman’s dreams.

“Death of a Salesman” is one of those great pieces of art which have been the subject of hotly debated controversy. Arthur Miller calls it a tragedy and there are several critics who see eye to eye with him but these are sources of highly learned critics who bring certain allegations to prove that it falls far short of having the status of tragedy. First of all they reject it on the basis of Aristotelian concept of tragedy and tragic hero and assert that, instead of being a king or prince, Willy Loman is a common man who remains unable to arise required tragic feelings. Therefore, it cannot be placed among great Sophoclean and Shakespearean tragedies.

There are certain critic like Eric Bentley and Eleaner Clark who regard Miller’s socio-political philosophy. They think that the play cannot attain the stature of a guanine tragedy because of its extreme awareness, not it can be a social drama because it is inflated by its tragic aspirations. READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>