Wild Duck #2

“Visual action can be as important on the stage as speech.” How far do you agree with this claim? In you answer you should refer to two or three plays you have studied.

I would agree with this claim only to some extent. In Oedipus the King, for instance, the stage directions are so sparse that they do not really provide any information about the different attitudes and feelings of the characters. They are more just for scenery, or very broad notes about who or what the speaker is talking about. Oedipus relies heavily on the speech of the characters, and this might be a cultural factor, because the ancient Greek actors always wore masks onstage, and thus were not able to convey many emotions to the audience. This created a need to make the dialogue as descriptive as possible, in order to make the audience understand. On page 194 Oedipus says, “When my enemy moves against e quickly, plots in secret, I move quickly too, I must, I plot and pay him back. Relax my guard a moment, waiting his next move—he wins his objective, I lose mine” (Sophocles 194). This quote is fairly lengthy, and Oedipus is only trying to say something very simple. Yet he uses many words, makes the meaning absolutely clear, because he cannot leave the audience in any doubt as to his meaning. If he relies on any emotions conveyed by the face, he will not be understood.

Stage directions play a much larger part in Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. Each Act opens with a lengthy description of the setting, and also of the feelings of some of the characters. Also, throughout the play there are many descriptions of the feelings of the characters while they say their lines. On page 142, we see just one example of this when Hjalmar says “I don’t see why not. (Casually.) Later we had a little quibble about Tokay” (Ibsen 142). By explaining to the audience and to the reader that Hjalmar is being casual, we are able to better understand whether or not his line was of much importance to him. With another descriptor, Hjalmar might have been humiliated, aggressive, or disgusted. It all depends on the way he says it.