Point of view/Characters
The story "The Wild Duck" is told from the point of view of a 3rd person narrative. This voice does not change throughout the play- or at least it hasn't changed through acts 1 and 2. The narrative voice can be considered to be quite reliable as it offers information from all parties within the play, and does not simply express the views of one mere character. The reader gets to know the characters quite well. The reader is privy to information including affairs and scandals, and sentiments held by all the characters. These tid bits of information allows the audience to experience various characters perspectives. Some of the characters, such as the elder Werle, are not credible. They offer a dubious front and seem like they may not be trusted. Also, there are several nameless characters whom are also not credible due to their lack of individuality. They seem to be flat characters placed within the play in order to advance the plot. The characters are presented individually with their desires, suspicions, and thoughts on display. The author persuades the reader to like and dislike characters by having other characters display their opinions on them, and through characterization.
I agree that so far there seems to be just a 3rd person narrative going on through out the play. Do you think that if the audience didn't know specifically each scandal that was going on in the book, but we some what had a vague concept of them, do you think that it would change our perspective on each character? Ibsen seems to give a lot of foreshadowing throughout the play. You think that possibly this foreshadowing helps clarify and solidify each character?
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