Wild Duck Journal #4

The gap between the audience and the charters in both Oedipus and The Wild Duck is extremely important. Its primary function is to show the reader or audience member how foolish people can be when they don't now all the facts. Oedipus pushes the messenger to reveal the truth about his origins. Oedipus has no idea the pain the answer will cause him, but since the audience has been able to look at the facts with an unclouded mind they see the truth before Oedipus does. This causes the reader to become more emotionally involved in the story as they see the charters on the stage destroy themselves. Likewise The Wild Duck shows Gregers insisting that he tell Hjalmar the truth about his fathers guilt and why Werle has been so kind to him. The audience has heard Gregers plan ahead of time and knows what pain it will cause Hjalmar. Again the audience is pulled into the story and come to pitty the ignorance of the charters and how it ultimately leads to their despair.