Blood Wedding Journal #2

Diary entry written by the Mother in Blood Wedding

Now it is over, I need not fear the loss of another son, for I have no more sons to loose. Curse the man who first thought it right to kill his fellow man. His heart was black as ash and ashes is what he should become. Why is it me who must suffer, why is it my sons must die. Why does god choose to take away all who would keep me company. Oh if only I had one daughter to sit by the fireplace with. To hold close to me and not have to worry about her flying off to death. But in the end it is not met to be. I am destined to live alone, to sleep alone, and to die alone. This is the punishment for a crime I know not of. My one hope is that when I die, my life will be as it should have been, with my sons and husband at my side.

Blood Wedding Journal #1

"Not rounding off, but opening out." The ending to both Blood Wedding and Wild Duck the ending is used to show the consequences of secrets. Whether it is a forgotten love that was so forgotten or an old affair that produced a child, secrets are shown as a serpent that waits to be forgotten, then strikes. In this way both writers open up to the audience, the dangers of these secrets and motivates them to not let them penetrate their lives. It is the primary function of a tragedy to comment on a flaw in human behavior or culture. Both authors choose secrets as the the poison their characters must swallow.

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.

Wild Duck Journal #3

Letter written by Gregers to a friend back in the mine

All hear is just as I left it, may father has done his work well. All the city looks to him as the honorable man and to his ex-partner Ekdal they shower blame and disgust. My father tries to pretend like the past had not happened, he greats me with open arms but all I see are claws made of lies. With my cooperation he would be able to put the past behind him completely and move into a second marriage without suspicion. I turned down his offer, he may find comfort on his pedestal of descite but I will not join him. I will never forget the pain he caused my mother and I plan to do everything I can to keep it from happening again. Hjalmar is a poor fool who has been blinded by my fathers money and favors. He does not see that while he may appear to support him out of good will, it is only to cover his own back. I will bring Hjalmar into the light and show him the true face of my father, the face that only I can see.

Wild Duck Journal #2

I think that the plot should always be valued over style. While the style of great plays may change over time, the plot remains almost the same. The plot of tragedies from many eras share a basic set of characteristics that allows them to move an audience. The play Oedipus could be done in many styles and the plot could remain relatively untouched. This is also the case with The Wild Duck, it show that while styles may change, the plots stay. In essence the style is mealy rapping paper to make the plot inside seem more familiar to the reader or audience member.

Wild Duck Journal #1

"What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out" This statement is the pure definition of what drama is. All good tragedy and even comedy is based on real life. Its ability to draw us in with a situation in life that we may not have experienced personally but definably can recognize as a part of the human experience. But drama is not just observing the boring parts but rather those that are most intense. In Oedipus and Wild Duck the play focuses on the most important and emotionally charged points of the play and neglects to give to much time to past events. It focuses on moments were the charters go through struggle and not when they are at peace.

Oedipus Journal #4

Diary entry by Jocasta

The truth, that is what I fear now. That my husband should discover his true origin, that the when he thought he was running away from his fate he was in truth running towards it. Oh curse the day that I did not see to it that he was dead, for surely he will wish it on himself soon enough. Oh my poor husband, you have no idea how much the truth can hurt, how it takes the apperance of a flower only to stab at you with thorns. I have chosen that I cannot live in this world of truth. It piles on pain after pain though people still urn for it.

Oedipus Journal #3

In Oedipus as well as Romeo and Juliet, physical actions by the characters on the stage are extremely important. With out movement on the stage the play would seem dull and dead. In the real world most human communication is nonverbal and so it is only fitting that this ratio is repeated on the stage. In both plays the characters use their bodies as a way to communicate their emotions. As a character first steps on the stage, the audience immediately looks at his posture, gait, and facial expressions to get an idea of what kind of character he/she is. These physical actions are not spelled out in the script and it is up to the director and actors to bring life to the words they are given. Both Oedipus and Romeo and Juliet display extremely intense emotions and the reader can almost see the physical movement of the characters on the stage.