The Wild Duck: Journal 5

Prompt: “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 agree with this claim to a small extent in all cases. However, I think the importance of visual action varies with the particular play. For instance, for a play that derives its intensity from conflicts between characters, visual action is absolutely critical to make the conflict both authentic and clear. In a relatively dull play with little conflict between the characters, it is still important, but certainly less. Character traits also play a role in how important visual action is. For a highly emotional character, supplementary visual action is essential to make the play enjoyable, whereas flat static characters would require a less emotional performance to convey the fact that they are in fact flat and static. Oedipus the King and The Wild Duck both require different levels of visual action, but the importance of having a small amount of visual action is just as critical as a large amount.


Oedipus the King


As you may have predicted, I believe Oedipus the King would require a much more dramatic performance than Ibsen's The Wild Duck. Oedipus was a highly emotional character, constantly in conflict with his surrounding characters, even those he was related to. He even went so far as to defy prophets, and Sophocles dedicated pages of the play to his ranting. As a result, visual action is critical to portraying this character accurately and demonstrating how unstable he was.


The Wild Duck


Visual action is also critical in The Wild Duck, but in the opposite direction. Ibsen's characters are relatively dry and do not undergo significant change in the play. The character Hedvig is completely satisfied with being in the home all day and never exploring her surroundings, opposite of what the typical fourteen year old would do. This stagnant repetitive setting must be reflected accurately through a lack of visual action. As mentioned, the primary literary techniques in this tragedy largely revolve around foreshadowing, something independent of character emotion.