Ibsen - The Wild Duck: Journal #2

Prompt: What is a question that underlie at least two of the works that you have read and how have the authors sought to answer those questions?

1) What is the cultural significance of exile/isolation in both Oedipus and Wild Duck?

In the play Oedipus, author Sophocles demonstrates the cultural significance of one's exile through the character of Oedipus, Tiresias and Creon. Throughout Oedipus' journey to find the truth, he threatens to exile both Creon and Tiresias from his city-state because he believes that they are conspiring to remove him from power. This threat of exile and the characters' reactions show how being placed in exile is not only frowned upon in society, but it is also a loss of one's place of power in it. Sophocles further proves this point through the character of Oedipus. He concludes the play with Oedipus wanting to make himself suffer. Oedipus asks Creon to place him in exile because he knows that exile, rather than death, guarantees more prolonged suffering when compared to the quick suffering of death.

However, in the play Wild Duck, Ibsen uses exile and isolation in a way that provides a sense of escape for the character. On page 196, Hjalmar tells Hedvig that he must leave in order to get away from everything. He cannot handle the severity of the situation and Ibsen shows that when individuals run away from their problems, it ends up having negative repercussions. Ibsen also mentions on page 156 that exile/isolation are both "humiliating," showing that Ibsen believes, in the context of the society in Wild Duck, that isolation is a negative concept frowned upon by society.