Illusions and Realities in Ibsen’s Plays The Wild Duck and Ghosts Essay

Illusions and Realities in Ibsens Plays The demented Duck and Ghosts In Ibsens The kooky Duck, illusions and reality are set into a conflict within the stratum of a sons personal desire to confront idealism. passim much of the shape, the son, Greger, argues the value of truth with the reluctant Dr. Relling. Relling insists on the importance of illusions, moreover fails to discourage Gregers intentions and a play that begins as a comedy quickly turns into a tragedy because of these conflicts. At the heart of the illusions in this play are the ways that people assume many roles in a family, impersonating multiple ideals as ways for managing their relationships. This theme of impersonation is also authentic in Ibsens Ghosts, where family relations are slowly undone as the illusions and deceptions are stripped away. In twain plays, deceptions are strategic and intentional to protect the children from the pains and struggles of their families histories. Ultimately, in these plays, families are held together by illusions, yet torn apart by truths that have been concealed to protect the children. In The Wild Duck, as Relling continues to discourage Greger from revealing damaging truths about family secrets, Relling insists, If you enlist away make-believe from the average man, you take away happiness as well (Ibsen, 294). Relling is referring to the ways the Ekdal family is structured on particular deceptions however, these are knowing to protect the innocent as well as the iniquitous. Hedvig, the fourteen stratum old daughter, represents one of the innocents, and Gregers father, Old Werle, represents a part of the guilty side. The key to these dualisms of false and truth, innocent and guilty, illusion and reality, lies in... ... necessary illusion. Both The Wild Duck, and Ghosts are tragedies that involve what might be understood as the sins of the fathers however, Ibsen seems to evoke that some truths are better maintained as i llusions. In both plays, the truth destroys the lives of those who have been protected from the bygone and in both cases the past involves relationships that have indirect consequences on the childrens understandings of their lives. In the end, whether it is right or wrong to maintain the illusions is not as significant as the mind of who has the right to determine what is real, and what is true for others.Works CitedWorks CitedWorks Cited Henrik Ibsen, The Wild Duck, quaternity Great Plays by Henrik Ibsen, NY Bantam Books. Henrik Ibsen, Ghosts, Playreaders Repertory, M.R. White and F. Whiting, Eds., London Foresom and Company.