"What is drama but life with the dull parts cut out?"

In the 'Wild Duck', Ibsen proves this statement true when he uses realism to create drama. Throughout 'Wild Duck', nothing to spectacular happens. The Ekdals go through day to day life but somehow it never becomes dull. The family has dysfunction, the grandfather goes hunting, and then one day Hedvig kills herself. "It's reached the heart. Internal hemorrhage. She died on the spot,"(Ibsen 215). This shows that this statement is applicable because Wild Duck is realistic while at the same time never dull.

In Blood Wedding, something dramatic is happening at all times. From an argument, to a married man riding to his ex-lovers house, to two married people running away together. So much spice and nothing nice. There is nothing dull about this play but at the same time, it is totally realistic (well, maybe not the talking moon). "They ran away! They ran away! She and Leonardo! On the horse! They rode off into each others arms, like a bolt of lightning!" (Lorca 76). This is a perfect example that drama is life with the dull parts cut out. It shows very realistic things but instead of being boring or dull, it is exciting and crazy.

Blood Wedding journal

In the play 'Blood Wedding' by Lorca, we witness many different themes and ideas. When pondering over the play a big theme became apparent, the theme of dysfunctional families. We explore this theme throughout the play, beginning with Leonardo's family. Leonardo, his wife, and mother in law are talking when the topic of Leonardo and his wifes cousin comes up. It is made known that Leonardo and the cousin were once a couple and his wife does not respond well. "Are you going to cry now? Stop it!" Leonardo demands, (Lorca 23). Leonardo replies very sternly and also violently which we notice in the footnotes. This is only the beginning of the dysfunction. We also see dysfunction broiling in the argument between Leonardo and his wife on page 25. We hear rude words such as "get away," "leave me alone," and the equivalent of "shut up." These few quotations foreshadow the despair to come later in the play. "They ran away! They ran away! She and Leonardo! On the horse! They rode off in each others arms, like a bolt of lightning!" (Lorca 76). In this passage, we come to the climax of family dysfunction. Leonardo and his wifes cousin have ran away together as the previous argument foreshadowed. The family of Leonardo and his wife and her cousin and her husband are brought to the point of major family dysfunction which creates this theme in 'Blood Wedding'.

Reaction to Leonardo at the Bride's window (guess)

Maid: Look-out there! Was it him?
Bride: It was him.
...
Maid: Do you have any idea why Leonardo would be at your window!?
Bride: Uhhh
Maid: What! Give me a complete answer, my dear! (Grabs at Bride's dress)
Bride: Stop! Get away! (Grabs her dress and yanks it out of Maid's hand)
Maid: (Furious)You idiot! Why the heck is Leonardo at your window! He is a married man! And you are a soon to be wife! Does your bridegroom know about this!
Bride: No! But it's not what you think!
Maid: (Sarcastically) Oh really? hm.
Bride: (Matter of fact) Yes. Really. (Turns her back to maid and starts to walk away)
Maid: You get over here and tell me why Leonardo is here! If he is not here for you, i'll send him away myself.
(pause)
Bride: Leonardo.
Maid: Yes'm
Bride: He is here because-
Maid: Spit it out already!
Bride: Leonardo is here because he wants me back.
Maid: What?
Bride: I had him, oh, it was awhile ago. A long while ago. Before mama passed.
Maid: Does he not know you are to get married thursday?
Bride: I told him.
Maid: And his wife! Oh his poor wife, and his baby!
Bride: I know, i shoo him away every time he comes. But he never fails to come back night after night.
Maid: You never thought to tell me of this! And why did you deny seeing a horse!
Bride: I didn't want any problematic events that anyone had to deal with. You and daddy are too dear for me to have you get caught up in this. This is my problem. I'll fix it.
Maid: You cannot do this alone, sweetie. He isn't going to stop coming. You know how persistent men can be. Look at your father!
Bride: But, Maid! (Grabs for her arm and she runs toward the door)
Maid: You cannot stop me, i'm going to talk to Leonardo's wife.
(Maid runs out the door and Bride runs after. Leonardo hears chaos and confusion overcomes him until he finally realizes what going on and races his horse to catch up).

Doubt/Certainty

In Oedipus the King, we witness Oedipus' certainty of himself when he is speaking the the town of Thebes. He is trying to figure out who has killed the former King, Laius. Oedipus demands the townspeople to tell him if they know who has killed King Laius, or else. "Oh dear gods, my curse on those who disobey these orders! Let no crops grow out of the earth for them-shrivel their women, kill their sons, burn them to nothing in this plague that hits us now, or somethin geven worse," (Sophocles 173). This passage shows Oedipus' certainty that he is not the killer because he would not have said such terrible things if he knew it was true. Later in the book, we witness Oedipus' doubt that he is the one who has killed Laius because he believes that King Laius is not his father. "Apollo told me once-it is my fate-I must make love with my own mother, shed my father's blood with my own hands. So for years I've given Corinth a wide berth, and it'd been my good fortune too," (Sophocles 216). Oedipus explains this oracle and how he keeps away from Corinth so he could never commit these actions. This shows his doubt that he has killed Laius because he still believes the King on Corinth is his father. In Wild Duck, we also see this doubt in a family relationship. Hjalmar gets filled with doubt that Hedvig is not really his daughter. "Just answer me this: does Hedvig belong to me-or? what?" (Ibsen ?). By comparing these two works, you witness that the two authors both use doubt to show the disfunction of families. 

Point of View/Characters

In the play Wild Duck, there is no apparent narration or main character. The play is written in a way where the reader could imagine watching it. The only narrative voice in this would be the stage directions. In Wild Duck, many things about the characters are obscured from the reader. We do not have much background information on the characters and this creates a bit of uncertainty. The characters are set up and displayed in  a way that makes the reader sympathize with the ones who are being hurt and dislike the ones doing the hurting. Because we do not have much background on the characters and feel a little uncertain about them, there is a bit of mystery in the book that makes the characters seem unreliable.

Conversation between Ibsen and Sophocles on Tragedy

Sophocles: Ibsen, I was reading Wild Duck and wondering why you prefer pathos over tragedy?
Ibsen: Well Sophocles, you see, when writing tragedy, as you did in Oedipus The King, you have no choice but to make the story or play about somebody suffering or in pain. When writing pathos you have the choice to write about extreme sadness or happiness. 
Sophocles: That makes sense. I guess the reason I write tragedy is because I enjoy showing life in a realistic way. Not many people enjoyed it at first, but now it brings joy to many.
Ibsen: If you are, indeed, writing about realism then don't you believe that would involve writing about joy as well? Realistically, everyone experiences despair and joy.
Sophocles: You have a good point, Ibsen. And I agree. But it is the joy that causes such an extreme emotion of gloom to occur. Without the joy, tragedy would be nothing because what is tragic if it has nothing to be compared to?
Ibsen: I see. So I guess tragedy and pathos are alike in ways and are very opposite in other ways. 
Sophocles: That is very true. Kind of like us, Ibsen? Would you agree?
Ibsen: Yes! Exactly, we're both play writers, but completely different people.
Sophocles: Yes, my point proven.
Ibsen: Well if this is, in fact, true. I want to be like pathos.
Sophocles: I call tragedy!

Journal 2-Effect of love and friendship theme

In Oedipus, Sophocles uses the theme of love and friendship between lovers and between friends to expose two very opposite effects. The love between Oedipus and his mom/wife is a very weak relationship. We witness this when, in the end, Jocasta hangs herself. Instead of supporting and helping her son/husband through the terrible troubles he was going through, she gets so self absorbed in her own despair that she kills herself. The effect of this theme of love shows the effect that when two people in a relationship do not view the significant other higher than themselves they will always take the easy way out, even if it means hurting the other person. The relationship between Oedipus and Creon is one of great value, however. Sophocles uses the theme od friendship in this case to show that even when a friend is completely in denial over a subject and rejects the other person, if the person is a true friend they won't ever give up on their friendship. In comparison, Ibsen uses the theme of love and friendship in Wild Duck to get another point across. The relationship of Hjalmar and Gregers is one we can see a great difference in. Hjalmar is in the lower class and Gregers in a higher however the great friendship they have is evident. Through this friendship, Ibsen indicates that a great friendship is not based off of outer or worldly things/views. True friendship is based on the insides of people and that connection of the soul. The love between father and daughter is also one we can see a great effect come forth. When Hjalmar gets home from the party, his daughter asks about the treat he promised her. When he realizes he has forgotten the treat, he says sorry and Hedvig is disappointed. Even though the treat was something Hedcig was looking forward to, she realizes that he was sincerely sorry and she says that it is okay because he is still her father and she loves him. Sophocles demonstrates by this love that when you have such a great love as Hedvig does for her father, nothing can get in the way of that; it's inevitable. By comparing the effects of the theme of love and friendship between Sophocles play and Ibsens play we see that Sophocles has a more negative view that tells the world the 'ugly truth' while Ibsens play shpws a more positive and reassuring view.

Journal 5-Diary entry by Gregers

Dear diary,
Tonight was, indeed, an eventful night. I had the opportunity to catch up with a boyhood friend whom I haven't spoke to in a while. It was very nice. Hjalmar did inform me on a couple of things that I was not aware of, and that is what has got my mind pondering over tonight. I've tried to sleep but questions keep appearing in my mind and they won't seem to disappear. Why would my father act so sincerely kind to a man he has told me to stop seeing? And the letters from my father have been getting shorter and shorter, with no evidence of these kind acts. My father of all people, sets up a marriage? For one of MY close friends? This is an act of insanity is seems. I can't seem to forget about it. I'd like to speak to my father of it. But who knows what he'll think. He might accuse me of being nosey for all i know. That would be the least of problems. My father and I have not seen eachother for fifteen years, we've grown apart to say the least. Oh this talk about photography school? What is with this? I am udderly confused and baffled. I'll find out my fathers motives for this. And no, I will not stop seeing Hjalimar. He is MY close friend and he's gonna stay that way without any interupption of my fathers opinion. Well diary, it seems that now I have gotten this out of my system and it may be a great time for that thing some people call sleep. Oh how i hope to figure this out soon. Bye for now,
Gregers

Journal 4-Narrative Structure

In Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, the plot is structured in chronologic order, with events happening in a timely manner. There are a series of different parts of the whole in which case different characters make an appearance. In Oedipus the King we do not witness any subplots and the ending of the play is very satisfying. The plot starts with a dilemma or conflict and throughout the plot we piece together secrets kept from Oedipus. In the end, we do not conclude with an answer to the original conflict but we examine the destruction of character by a God-this is called tragedy. We do have a couple unanswered questions in the end but we get caught up in the dramatic happening and the questions seem of less importance. Time is not very important in this play, it seems to go very quickly as we move through different scenes and before we know it, it's already over. Overall the plot of the story is very interesting in the fact that it is not comparable to most text.

Journal #3-discussion on literary topics

In Sophocles' play, Oedipus the King, we witness a series of stylistic techniques. Sophocles uses excessive punctuation which adds to the tone of the play and the motif of family tension and secrets is shown throughout the play. Sophocles also uses dialect to better convey the time and setting of the play and to give readers (or watchers) a sense of the comedic atmosphere. We notice the motifs when Oedipus realizes that the king and queen of Corinth are not his blood parents. When he fonds out that he has slept with his mother and killed his own father, this creates internal and external conflict. He realizes that his whole life has been a lie and this is when we experience the comedy of the play.