Point of View/Characters:
The point of view is the narrator. The narrator is third-person omniscient and does not seem to change at all throughout the first several acts. The narrator is reasonably reliable through the use of metaphors and other literary devices. The reader seems on the outside looking in at the characters which seems a little strange because its a play and the reader is supposed to know the motives of the characters but so far I haven't figured out any of the motives of the characters. I don't know much about the characters except for the minor conflict between Gregers and Werle. Most of the characters seem credible except for Gina. For example, she doesn't say a word about the person she got to rent the room even during or after the argument with Hjalmar and Gergers over whether or not Gergers could rent it. This seemed a little strange to me so there must be another reason for her keeping it from them. The women in this play are presented as women were portrayed in reality back in the 1800s: like slaves. The women seem to have to do all of the work. The exceptions are the two butlers Pettersen and Jensen who are paid for their services. We sympathize with Gregers because Werle seems to have a dark side that is mysterious and poses a threat to the other characters. For this reason the reader dislikes Werle. Hjalmar seems like a nice fellow and we sympathize with him because of his sense of humor and his wisdom.
3 comments:
I wouldn't necessarily disagree with what you are saying, but I'm not really sure if the narrator in The Wild Duck uses metaphors or similes. It seems to me that he/she just gives stage directions. And I'm not sure if this is third person omniscient, because we can't hear the characters' thoughts.
I don't think it's strange that we can't see the characters' thoughts in this play. I think it adds to how Ibsen gives hints about the true situation but doesn't reveal it completely
Play's dont have a single point of view like novels do. And while we can't hear the characters' thought directly, the stage directions, as well as things such as asides, give us insight into the thoughts of the characters. In a play, there's really no direct way to let all of the characters thoughts be know.
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