Drama

ENG332• 19th Century Theatrical

Drama

• Henrik Ibsen

• The Wild Duck

Prepared by

Alvina Yousaf

19th Century Drama

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

Two examples of Melodrama

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

The Wild Duck

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