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    A Study Guide for Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck"
    A Study Guide for Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck"
    A Study Guide for Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck"
    Ebook41 pages29 minutes

    A Study Guide for Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateAug 3, 2016
    ISBN9781535840538
    A Study Guide for Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck"

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      A Study Guide for Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck" - Gale

      1

      The Wild Duck

      Henrik Ibsen

      1884

      Introduction

      In a letter accompanying the manuscript for The Wild Duck, Henrik Ibsen wrote to his publisher, This new play in many ways occupies a place of its own among my dramas; the method is in various respects a departure from my earlier one.. . . The critics, will, I hope, find the points; in any case, they will find plenty to quarrel about, plenty to misinterpret. Ibsen, however, was disappointed in these early expectations. When the play opened in Scandinavia early in 1885, critics paid relatively little attention to it. The play soon traveled throughout the continent. While a few luminaries commended it—notably the playwright George Bernard Shaw and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke—most early critics found the play incomprehensible and incoherent. Audiences, as well, showed little positive response to The Wild Duck.

      In ensuing years, however, and as people began to understand both Ibsen’s notion of tragi-comedy as well as his insightful characterization, the play began to develop the fine reputation it still holds today. Now popularly regarded as one of Ibsen’s more important works, The Wild Duck gains further eminence in its issuance of Ibsen into a new era of writing, one in which symbolism and characterization-as opposed to social realism-gained prominence. With The Wild Duck, an already esteemed playwright showed his continued interest in exploring new interests and concerns through his work.

      Author Biography

      Ibsen was born in 1828 in a small town in Norway. When he was fifteen years old, Ibsen left his family’s home to begin an apprenticeship as an apothecary. Two years later, Ibsen fathered a child with an older housemaid, and he was obligated to provide financial support over the next fifteen years.

      In the late 1840s, he began to prepare for university examinations. Once at university in Christiana (present-day Oslo), Ibsen became very involved with journalism. He edited a student paper, contributed articles to another paper, and worked on a satirical journal. He also spent a great deal of time on his writing. He completed and published his first play, Catiline, by 1849, and published poetry in a journal. In 1859, his one-act play, The Warrior’s Barrow, becomes the first of his plays to be

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