The Wild Duck (Dover Thrift Editions: Plays) - Softcover

Henrik Ibsen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486411168 ISBN 13: 9780486411163

Publisher: Dover Publications, 2000

Synopsis

This 1884 masterpiece may have its genesis in the hostile reception Ibsen — widely regarded as the father of modern realist drama — had received from the Norwegian public and critics for Ghosts (1881), which gave theater-goers a larger dose of truth than most were willing to bear. His next three plays — The Wild Duck, An Enemy of the People (1882), and Rosmersholm (1886) — focused on the consequences of telling the truth, or forbearing to do so.
In The Wild Duck, the idealistic son of a corrupt merchant exposes his father's duplicity, but in the process destroys the very people he wishes to save. Convinced that reality is always superior to illusion, Gregers Werle forces his friends, the Ekdals, to face the truth about their lives. Unfortunately, the truth, involving scandal, illegitimacy, imprisonment, and madness, only serves to wound the Ekdals further. In the play, the wild duck is a symbol of this injured family, and perhaps of the loss of Ibsen's youthful idealism.
Moving and powerful, this thought-provoking tragedy shows clearly why Ibsen is regarded as one of the giants of modern theater.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Extensive materials for the study of the backgrounds and sources of the play are included. Among these transcripts sources of the play are included. Among these are transcripts of Ibsen's notes and jottings and early drafts, selections from Ibsen's letters as he worked toward the final version, and materials suggesting biographical sources. The critical essays and opinions give the student a wide variety of points of view from which to come to his own judgments of this important play.

About the Author:

Only Shakespeare's plays are performed more frequently than those of Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906). The Norwegian playwright, theater director, and poet scandalized many of his contemporaries as he led the theater into the modern era by exploring the realities behind 19th-century social conventions.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0486411168
• ISBN 13: 9780486411163
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96