Amy Foster's Father Brought Disgrace to His Family by
| The Wild Duck | |
|---|---|
 Title page kickoff edition, 1884 | |
| Written by | Henrik Ibsen |
| Characters | Håkon Werle Gregers Werle Sometime Ekdal Hjalmar Ekdal Gina Ekdal Hedvig Ekdal Mrs. Sørby Relling Molvik Pettersen Jensen Mr. Balle Mr. Flor |
| Date premiered | 9 January 1885 (1885-01-09) |
| Place premiered | Den Nationale Scene, Bergen, Norway |
| Original language | Norwegian |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | The 1880s. Werle'south house and after Hjalmar Ekdal'southward studio in Christiania, Kingdom of norway |
The Wild Duck (original Norwegian title: Vildanden) is an 1884 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It is considered the first modern masterpiece in the genre of tragicomedy.[1] The Wild Duck and Rosmersholm are "often to exist observed in the critics' estimates vying with each other every bit rivals for the top identify amongst Ibsen's works."[2]
Characters [edit]
- Håkon Werle, a wholesale merchant
- Gregers Werle, his son
- Erstwhile Ekdal, the former business partner of Håkon Werle
- Hjalmar Ekdal, Former Ekdal's son, a photographer
- Gina Ekdal, his wife
- Hedvig, their daughter, aged xiv
- Mrs. Sørby, housekeeper and fiancée of Håkon Werle
- Relling, a doc, lives below the Ekdals
- Molvik, formerly a student of theology, lives below the Ekdals
- Pettersen, retainer to Håkon Werle
- Jensen, a hired waiter
- Mr. Balle, a dinner guest
- Mr. Flor, a dinner guest
Plot [edit]
The first act opens with a dinner party hosted by Håkon Werle, a wealthy merchant and industrialist. The gathering is attended by his son, Gregers Werle, who has just returned to his father'due south home post-obit a self-imposed exile. There, he learns the fate of a former classmate, Hjalmar Ekdal. Hjalmar married Gina, a immature servant in the Werle household. The older Werle had bundled the lucifer by providing Hjalmar with a home and profession every bit a photographer. Gregers, whose mother died believing that Gina and Håkon had carried on an affair, becomes enraged at the thought that his onetime friend is living a life built on a lie.
The remaining four acts have identify in Hjalmar Ekdal's apartments. The Ekdals initially announced to exist living a life of cozy domesticity. Hjalmar's father makes a living doing odd copying jobs for Werle. Hjalmar runs a portrait studio out of the apartment. Gina helps him run the business organization in addition to keeping house. They both dote on their daughter Hedvig. Gregers travels directly to their home from the party. While getting acquainted with the family unit, Hjalmar confesses that Hedvig is both his greatest joy and greatest sorrow, considering she is slowly losing her eyesight. The family unit eagerly reveals a loft in the apartment where they keep various animals like rabbits and pigeons. Most prized is the wild duck they rescued. The duck was wounded by none other than Werle, whose eyesight is as well failing. His shot winged the duck, which dived to the lesser of the lake to drown itself by clinging to the seaweed. Werle'southward canis familiaris retrieved it though, and despite its wounds from the shot and the dog's teeth, the Ekdals had nursed the duck back to skillful wellness.
Gregers decides to rent the spare room in the apartment. The next day, he begins to realize that in that location are more lies hanging over the Ekdals than Gina's matter with his father. While talking to Hedvig, she explains that Hjalmar keeps her from schoolhouse because of her eyesight, but he has no time to tutor her, leaving the girl to escape into imaginary worlds through pictures she sees in books. During their conversation, Gregers hears shots in the cranium, and the family unit explains that Old Ekdal entertains himself by hunting rabbits and birds in the loft, and Hjalmar often joins in the hunts. The activity helps Former Ekdal cling to his one-time life as a great hunter. Hjalmar also speaks of his 'corking invention', which he never specifies. It is related to photography, and he is certain that information technology will enable him to pay off his debts to Werle and finally make himself and his family completely independent. In order to work on his invention, he ofttimes needs to lie downwardly on the couch and think virtually it.
During a lunch with Gregers and Hjalmar's friends Relling and Molvik, Håkon arrives to try to convince Gregers to return home. Gregers insists that he cannot render and that he will tell Hjalmar the truth. Håkon is certain that Hjalmar volition not be grateful for Gregers' intervention. Subsequently he leaves, Gregers asks Hjalmar to accompany him on a walk, where he reveals the truth near Gina's affair with his male parent.
Upon returning habitation, Hjalmar is aloof from his wife and daughter. He demands to handle all future photography concern by himself with no help from Gina. He also demands to manage the family unit'southward finances, which Gina has traditionally done. Gina begs him to reconsider, suggesting that with all his fourth dimension consumed he will not exist able to piece of work on his invention. Hedvig adds that he as well will not accept time to spend in the loft with the wild duck. Embittered past Gregers' news, Hjalmar bristles at the proffer and confesses that he would like to wring the duck's neck. Indulging his mood, Hjalmar confronts Gina about her thing with Håkon. She confesses to it, but insists that she loves Hjalmar intensely.
In the midst of the statement, Gregers returns, stunned to find that the couple are non overjoyed to be living without such a lie hanging over their heads. Mrs. Sørby arrives with a letter for Hedvig and news that she is marrying Håkon. The letter announces that Håkon is paying One-time Ekdal a pension of 100 crowns per calendar month until his death. Upon his death, the allowance will exist transferred to Hedvig for the rest of her life. The news sickens Hjalmar even farther, and it dawns on him that Hedvig may very well exist Håkon'southward child. He cannot stand the sight of Hedvig any longer and leaves the house to potable with Molvik and Relling. Gregers tries to calm the distraught Hedvig past suggesting that she cede the wild duck for her father's happiness. Hedvig is desperate to win her father'due south dear back and agrees to accept her grandfather shoot the duck in the morning.
The next day, Relling arrives to tell the family that Hjalmar has stayed with him. He is appalled at what Gregers has done, and he reveals that he long ago implanted the idea of the invention with Hjalmar equally a "life-lie" to proceed him from giving in to despair. The pair argue as Hjalmar returns to gather his materials to work on the invention. He is overwhelmed by the number of details involved in moving out of the apartment. Hedvig is overjoyed to encounter him, but Hjalmar demands to be 'free from intruders' while he thinks about his side by side move. Crushed, Hedvig remembers the wild duck and goes to the loft with a pistol. Later on hearing a shot, the family assumes Old Ekdal is hunting in the loft, but Gregers knows he has shot the wild duck for Hedvig. He explains the sacrifice to Hjalmar who is deeply touched. When Old Ekdal emerges from his room, the family realizes he could not take fired the gun in the loft. They rush in to meet Hedvig lying on the ground. No one can find a wound, and Relling has to examine the girl. He finds that the shot has penetrated her breastbone and she died immediately. Given the powder burns on her shirt, he determines that she shot herself. Hjalmar begs for her to live again and so that she can come across how much he loves her. The play ends with Relling and Gregers arguing over again. Gregers insists that Hedvig did not dice in vain, because her suicide unleashed a greatness inside Hjalmar. Relling sneers at the notion, and insists that Hjalmar will exist a boozer inside a year.
Assay and criticism [edit]
Guided by a fervent strain of idealism, Gregers endeavors to reveal the truth to Hjalmar, and thereby free him from the mendacity which surrounds him. To that cease, Gregers takes up residence in the Ekdal home.
He meddles in the affairs of a strange family unit, producing disastrous results. Figuratively speaking, he lives in a house whose closets are total of skeletons. Over the course of the play the many secrets that lie behind the Ekdals' manifestly happy home are revealed to Gregers, who insists on pursuing the absolute truth, or the "Summons of the Ideal". This family unit has accomplished a tolerable modus vivendi by ignoring the skeletons (among the secrets: Gregers' male parent may take impregnated his servant Gina then married her off to Hjalmar to legitimize the child, and Hjalmar's male parent has been disgraced and imprisoned for a crime the elder Werle committed) and past permitting each member to alive in a dreamworld of his own—the feckless father assertive himself to exist a great inventor, the grandfather dwelling on the past when he was a mighty sportsman, and little Hedvig, the child, centering her emotional life on an attic where a wounded wild duck leads a crippled existence in a make-believe wood.
To the idealist all this appears intolerable. To him equally to other admirers of Ibsen it must seem that the whole family unit is leading a life "based on a lie"; all sorts of evils are "growing in the dark".[iii] The remedy is apparently to face facts, to speak frankly, to let in the light. However, in this play the revelation of the truth is not a happy upshot because it rips upwards the foundation of the Ekdal family unit. When the skeletons are brought out of the cupboard, the whole dreamworld collapses; the weak husband thinks it is his duty to get out his married woman, and the petty daughter, after trying to sacrifice her precious duck, shoots herself with the aforementioned gun (overhearing the fatal words from Hjalmar: "Would she lay down her life for me?"). 1 of the famous quotes from the doctor Relling who built upwardly and maintained the lies the family is founded on is "Deprive the average human beingness of his life-lie, and you rob him of his happiness." "
Different translations apply different words for the "life-lie". In Eva le Gallienne'south translation, Relling says "I try to discover the Basic Lie – the pet illusion – that makes life possible; and so I foster information technology." He also says "No, no; that'southward what I said: the Basic Lie that makes life possible."
On a symbolical level, Gregers and Relling seem to be opposites (the virtue of truth against the "bones lie"). The two seem to take confronted each other at several cross-roads, and the play ends with an exchange, almost a wager between the two over the possibilities of Hjalmar and his future. In this respect, Relling is a cynic who is non able to think Hjalmar volition ever alter, while Gregers even so thinks there is hope for his eventual "redemption".
Before the play starts, Gregers worked on a establish in the mountains, and is defendant by Relling (present at that place likewise), of "intriguing" with the local serfs (actually commoners). Thus, in that location is a social criticism in the play, where Gregers is trying to get in affect with common men, whilst his father is mingling with high order figures – a setting in which his friend Hjalmar Ekdal is a stranger, and his father, disgraced by old Werle, is ignored by his son amid his betters. From a social rather than a symbolic point of view, Gregers is trying to root out an unhealthy system, arguing that "truth shall set you free". In that respect, Relling, plotting with old Werle, is an advocate for the same system, and initially the opposite of Gregers (who, like Hamlet, is trying to get the truth out).
One could contend that Gregers would feel responsible for the Ekdal family and their plight, as this is an apparent consequence of his male parent'due south manipulations and schemes. Early on, he mentions that his mother evidently died from neglect, or was driven into alcoholism by her husband's actions. As old Werle points out: "you run into me with the eyes of your female parent". In this respect, the Ekdal family are helpless victims, and and so is Hedvig.
Groundwork [edit]
Every bit in many of Ibsen'south plays, characters are based on or named after his family members to a greater or lesser extent. The graphic symbol Old Ekdal is regarded by virtually Ibsen scholars as i of Ibsen'south nigh of import literary portraits of his father Knud Ibsen. Ibsen had previously portrayed his male parent as the characters "Jon Gynt" and "Daniel Hejre", where the son's judgment of his father's wastefulness was both harsh and bitter. In erstwhile Ekdal'south graphic symbol, however, the poet looks at his father, "the forlorn Knud Ibsen, in a conciliatory and empathetic way".[iv]
According to Ibsen scholar Jon Nygaard, the character Gregers Werle represents the spirit of the Paus family and Upper Telemark, a broader theme that is found in many of Ibsen'south plays; Nygaard points out that Høydalsverket, where Werle lived for years, is an obvious reference to Upper Telemark and especially Høydalsmo (Ibsen'south ancestor Paul Paus owned Høydalsmo Stave Church).[v]
The character Hedvig is named after the Paus family, where the Hedvig proper name had been passed on for generations, and more than specifically after Ibsen's grandmother Hed(e)vig Paus and sister Hedvig Ibsen.
Ibsen's model for Hedvig, peculiarly her outward advent, was a 13-yr-old Italian-resident German girl he met in Gossensaß in the summer of 1884, Martha Kopf (born 1870), daughter of the sculptor Joseph von Kopf, who lived in Rome.[6] Ibsen wrote in a letter of the alphabet to his son Sigurd Ibsen: "The German sculptor, Professor Kopf from Rome, has with him a xiii-year-old daughter, who is the most excellent model for Hedvig that I could wish for; she is beautiful, has a serious face and personality, and is a little greedy."[7] [8] At that place is a bust of Martha Kopf past her later husband Hugo Berwald.
Robert Ferguson notes that The Wild Duck did not come easily to Ibsen. During the writing process, Kingdom of norway was characterized past political turmoil, and from his voluntary exile in Rome, Ibsen was concerned that "the strength of an intimate, personal play such equally The Wild Duck might drown in the political debate over the introduction of parliamentarism in Norway". After a visit to Rome in the spring of 1884 from a young relative, (subsequently Count) Christopher Paus, from whom he was eager to hear news regarding the family in Skien, Ibsen declared that he "writes with full force."[9] In the summer of 1884 he completed the play in Gossensaß.
Production [edit]
Alla Nazimova equally Hedvig in the first English language-language product of The Wild Duck (1918)
Amy Veness (Gina Ekdal), Alla Nazimova (Hedvig) and Edward Connelly (Former Ekdal) in the original Broadway product of The Wild Duck (1918)
Lionel Atwill (Hjalmer Ekdal), Alla Nazimova (Hedvig), Amy Veness (Gina Ekdal) and Harry Mestayer (Gregers Werle) in the original Broadway production of The Wild Duck (1918)
Premiere [edit]
The Wild Duck premiered 9 January 1885 at Den Nationale Scene, Bergen, Kingdom of norway.
Broadway [edit]
Produced by Arthur Hopkins, the get-go English-language production of The Wild Duck opened March xi, 1918, at the Plymouth Theatre in New York Urban center. The 3-human action drama[ten] ran through April 1918.[11]
- Dodson Mitchell every bit Werle[x]
- Harry Mestayer as Gregers Werle[ten]
- Edward Connelly as Old Ekdal[10]
- Lionel Atwill as Hjalmer Ekdal[10]
- Amy Veness as Gina Ekdal[10]
- Alla Nazimova as Hedvig[10]
- Norah Lamison as Mrs. Sorby[x]
- Lyster Chambers equally Relling[10]
- St. Clair Bayfield every bit Molvik[ten]
- Adelbert Knott as Graberg[10]
- A. O. Huhn as Pettersen[10]
- Frederick Gibbs as Jensen[10]
- Walter C. Wilson every bit A Flabby Gentleman[10]
- J. H. Wright as A Thin-Haired Admirer[10]
- George Paige as A Short-Sighted Gentleman[x]
West End [edit]
In October 2018, Almeida Theatre staged a new accommodation of the play, created by Robert Icke.[12]
Adaptations [edit]
In 1926 the play was adapted into a German language silent film The Firm of Lies.
In 1963 the play was fabricated into a motion picture by Tancred Ibsen, Henrik Ibsen'southward grandson.
On 7 March 1968, Irish national public tv, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, broadcast a new production starring Ann Rowan, Marian Richardson, Christopher Casson, T. P. McKenna, Blánaid Irvine, Geoffrey Aureate, and Maurice Proficient.[thirteen] [14] [xv]
In 1971, a television adaptation by Max Faber, directed by Alan Bridges, was broadcast in the BBC's Play of the Month series.[xvi]
In 1976, a film version in German, written and directed by Hans Westward. Geißendörfer, was released.[17]
A 1983 moving picture version in English language past Tutte Lemkow, directed past Henri Safran, with the characters' names completely anglicized, starred Jeremy Irons and Liv Ullmann.[eighteen]
In 2015, an Australian moving-picture show adaptation The Daughter, directed past Simon Rock was released.
References [edit]
- ^ Gassner, John. Masters of Drama. New York: Dover Publications 1954.
- ^ McFarlane, James (1999). "Introduction". In: Ibsen, Henrik, An Enemy of the People; The Wild Duck; Rosmersholm. Oxford Earth Classics. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. ix. ISBN 0192839438, ISBN 9780192839435.
- ^ Krutch, Joseph Forest. "Modernism" in Modern Drama: A Definition and an Estimate. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1953. Page fifteen.
- ^ Oskar Mosfjeld: "Vildanden". In Henrik Ibsen: Norske og utenlandske foredrag under minneuken 1956. Edda: Nordisk tidsskrift for litteraturforskning, vol. 56, p. 139, 1956
- ^ Nygaard, Jon (2012). "Henrik Ibsen og Skien: "... af stort est du kommen, og till stort skalst du vorde engang!"". Bøygen. 24 (one): 81–95.
- ^ Martha Kopf, Henrik Ibsens skrifter
- ^ Else Høst (1967): Vildanden av Henrik Ibsen, Aschehoug, p. 271
- ^ Henrik Ibsen (27 Baronial 1884): Letter to Sigurd Ibsen, Henrik Ibsens skrifter
- ^ Ferguson, Robert (2006): Henrik Ibsen: mellom evne og higen, Cappelen, ISBN 978-82-02-23875-nine, p. 312
- ^ a b c d eastward f k h i j k l g n o p Hornblow, Arthur (April 1918). "Mr. Hornblow Goes to the Play". Theatre Magazine. p. 217. Retrieved 2017-05-20 .
- ^ "The Wild Duck". Cyberspace Broadway Database. Retrieved 2017-05-xx .
- ^ "Robert Icke is reimagining another classic at the Almeida". Evening Standard. 2018-08-01. Retrieved 2019-10-14 .
- ^ "RTÉ Archives". 5 July 2012.
- ^ "RTÉ Archives". 5 July 2012.
- ^ "RTÉ Athenaeum". 5 July 2012.
- ^ The Wild Duck , retrieved 2019-07-26
- ^ The Wild Duck , retrieved 2019-07-26
- ^ Törnqvist, Egil (1999). Ibsen, Strindberg and the Intimate Theatre: Studies in TV Presentation. Amsterdam University Press. p. 209. ISBN978-ninety-5356-371-7.
- Ibsen, Henrik (1884). The Wild Duck; trans. Stephen Mulrine. London: Nick Hern Books, 2006
- Ibsen, Henrik (1961). The Wild Duck and Other Plays by Henrik Ibsen; newly translated by Eva Le Gallienne. New York: The Modern Library; p. 194.
External links [edit]
- Vildanden at Projection Gutenberg (in Norwegian)
- Ibsen, Henrik. The Wild Duck at University of Virginia Library
- The Wild Duck at the Internet Broadway Database
-
The Wild Duck public domain audiobook at LibriVox - Costume sketches and poster for the 1970 product at the Benchmark Theatre by Motley Theatre Design Grouping - Motley Collection of Theatre & Costume Pattern
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Duck
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