Journal #3 The Wild Duck

Isben carefully lays the plot in a way where the reader has trouble naming the blame on one character. I have listed the characters I believe are guilty and list the reasons why.

Greggers: Instigating the whole plot. His hatred of his father leads him to want to anger him by telling Hjalmar the truth. He also convinced Hedvig to kill the wild duck as a symbol of her love and sacrifice. Greggers romanticizes how truth makes way for happiness, without looking at the consequences. He expected Hjalmar and Gina to resolve quickly.

Relling: He creates deception in Hjalmar's life. He thinks that the invention is a good lie though, to keep him motivated to live. This is debatable. He is guilty to adding more lies into his life.

Gina: She lied to Hjalmar from the very start and kept it a secret. I believe she is to be blamed the most. She also does not seem very apologetic when he finds out the truth. Rather, she calls Greggers a monster that has walked through their lives. If she had been truthful from the start, Hjalmar could have decided whether to forgive her or not.

Werle: He cheated on his wife which created Greggers suspicious personality. He pursued Gina. He supported Hjalmar financially, but by doing this, takes away his dignity.

Hjalmar: He does not tell Hedvig the truth about her eyes. He treats her as Gina has treated him. He also tries to make himself feel better by feeling guilty. Instead of facing the truth, he lies to himself. Saying how hard he works, and how hard it is to be a breadwinner.

All the characters can be argued that their action was justifiable because they thought it was the best thing to do. Isben does not directly show what he believed in. We don't know how Hjalmar ends up. He could end up an alcoholic according to Relling, or learn from Hedvig according to Greggers. Who knows? I do know that Isben believed that honesty was the best way to enter a situation, even if it is ugly. Mrs. Sorby and Werle are honest about everything and are able to forgive each other. It is hard to say what should have been done in Hjalmar's situation, but if Gina had been honest from the start, everything could have been prevented.

Mrs. Sorby, Hedvig, Ekdal, and Molvik are not to blame. Either they did not know the truth, were the victim of deception, or were not obliged to step into the situation.

Wild Duck Journal #2

Journal #2:  How does Ibsen use the motif of decay, disease, illness, etc and to what effect?  Use at least three quotes in the defense of you claim. 


Ibsen uses the motif of decay, disease, and illness to show secrecy and suspicion. He does this show how these thoughts began to infest the mind and body. Like a parasite or cancer, the owner can only cure it. It is with them for life until they do so. Gregers is described with this disease and acknowledges it himself. 
"Gregers: 'And besides-if I'm ever to go on living, I'll have to find a cure for my sick conscience'
Werle: It's never be sound. Your conscience has been sickly from childhood. It's an inheritance from your mother Gregers-the only inheritance she left you" (176). 
From the text, it is known that Greger's mother had been jealous of Gina and suspected Werle being with other women. These thoughts became a disease that eventually killed her, according to Gregers. Like most diseases, they are contagious. Since Gregers and his mother were very close, it can be understood they discussed many thoughts together. Even after her death, Greger's is embodies with the same life sickness that he is determined to cure. 
Relling explains to Gina Greger's condition, "He's suffering from an acute case of moralistic fever [...] it's a national disease, but it only breaks out now and then" (178). 
After Greger's reveals the truth to Hjalmar, he becomes infested with it. Greger recovers and expects Hjalmer to also. However, in his bitter conflict he asks, "Do you think a man can recover so easily from the bitter cup I've just emptied!" (185). Medicine is most often bitter and drunk in cups. As if by letting out his suspicions he drank the cup, and hopes to heal soon enough. 

Wild Duck Journal #1

• Option 2: Examine how characters perceive themselves or others.  Who has false conceptions of him/herself?  Who has misconceptions of others?  Who recognizes the facades created by other characters?  Does the character embrace the facade, ignore it, or confront it?

In the Wild Duck, characters perceive each other quite differently then they do themselves. At the start of Chapter 2, Hedvig and Gina are conversing. Hedvig brings up her Dad, Hjamler, numerous times, awing at how he is at a dinner party. "Isn't it something to think that Daddy's at a big dinner party at old Mr. Werle's?" (138). She is very excited when he returns as well. "At last you're home, Daddy!" (140). Hedvig's perception of Hjalmer is imaginative and full of illusions that even Hjalmer wants to believe. As his wife and daughter ask him about his dinner party, he weaves in lies about what really happened. "'So you served that up to them, eh?' Hjalmer. 'Smack between the eyes they got it'" (142). Hjalmer depends on his illusions for his life goal to make the Ekdals something to be proud of. Another interesting part of the text was the disagreement of whether or not Hjalmer's hair is curly or wavy. Although this does not seem to be important, it can be added to Hedvig's view of Hjalmer. Curly hair is natural and wild, amounting to a facade  of innocence. 

At times, Hjalmer does show signs of knowing that he is not as great as he appears to his daughter. He uses the method of self pity and ignorance though. "What incredible things a family breadwinner is asked to remember; and if he forgets even the tiniest detail" (144). And when Hedvig calls him 'dearest', he replies, "No, don't call me that. There I sat, helping myself at a rich man's table, gorging myself with all good things" (145). Hjalmer is obsessed with money, success, and his image. Having those things are what keeps him living. This is why when he learns Hedvig may not be his real daughter, he goes mad conceiving that Hedvig's admiration for him was all a disguise. 


Hedvig's happiness and innocence is also a lie. Hjalmer shields her from the truth; her eyes will fail her in the future. "She suspects nothing. She's carefree, gay, and singing like a tiny bird" (148). It is ironic, Hjalmer reacts so viciously when the truth was revealed to him but he has no problem keeping Hedvig's reality to himself. He says 'he doesn't have the heart to tell her'. Gina definitely took this approach as well when the to got married. 

Brave New World #3 Journal

Shakespeare is weaved into John's dialogue. Where as before Lenina repeated hypnopaedia now Huxley is showing how John was conditioned by the only book he read. The conclusion of the book i realized is also influenced by his readings of Shakespeare. There is a lot of killing and suicide in Shakespeare when the truth becomes too unbearable. In the World State people would take soma to forget. Both extremes do not try and learn from their mistake they either take their life or just completely forget it. I think Shakespeare is very important because it first appears good and real in contrast with the World State, but at the end it is evident that Huxley is pointing out the dangers of any method conditioning.

The setting of the World State remains the same, but with John there is a juxtaposition of two ideals. The reservation and the World State. When he is crying over Linda's death it directly contrasts with the ways of the World State and becomes a problem. In the Controller's secret room it contains things that are common in our society. The conversation between the Controller and John is important especially in the setting. The room contains books and knowledge. In John's world this knowledge is free to attain but the Indian's are still very rural. In the technological World State it is banned to remain stability.

The language in the last third stays relatively the same. John's language contrasts with the rest of the World State because of the influence of Shakespeare. However, he realizes how Shakespeare has mocked him, "The singing words mocked him derisively. "How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world …" (Chp 15). John's language becomes more and more emotional as he desperately please the people around him to see his cause, that they are not free.The rest of the World State continue to use uniform and scientific dialogue such as "Ford helps those who help themselves." Huxley continues to use descriptions containing crimson, twilight, and pneumatic as a motif. Crimson and twilight create an red glow atmosphere that has connotations of blood and flesh. Pneumatic demonstrates the comfort the World State allows and how problems are lost in the comfy airy chairs.

Brave New World Journal #2

Motif: I have noticed the use of 'crimson' and 'twilight' come up a lot to describe the setting and characters.

"The liftman slammed the gates, touched a button and instantly dropped back into the droning twilight of the well, the twilight of his own habitual stupor" (chp 4) This character is compared to the darkness of the well, inferring that his soul is empty. And than here: "and there, in the crimson darkness, stewingly warm on their cushion of peritoneum and gorged with blood-surrogate and hormones, the foetuses grew and grew or, poisoned, languished into a stunted Epsilonhood" (chp 10). On the dictionary.com I found that crimson means dark red and sanguinary.

Sanguinary: full of or characterized by bloodshed; bloody:

ready or eager to shed blood; bloodthirsty.

It is interesting Huxley chooses to describe the room in which humans are created as a bloodshed room. It could mean that the passion, flesh, real substance of humans is being lost because the babies are scientifically maid. His diction has connotations of negativity. Such as poisoned and darkness.

Setting: John learns in the World State that his home is: "savage reservation is a place which, owing to unfavourable climatic or geological conditions, or poverty of natural resources, has not been worth the expense of civilizing" (chp 11).

When Bernard and Lenina had gotten there, it was described as "THE MESA was like a ship becalmed in a strait of lion-coloured dust. The channel wound between precipitous banks, and slanting from one wall to the other across the valley ran a streak of green-the river and its fields. On the prow of that stone ship in the centre of the strait, and seemingly a part of it, a shaped and geometrical outcrop of the naked rock, stood the pueblo of Malpais. Block above block, each story smaller than the one below, the tall houses rose like stepped and amputated pyramids into the blue sky. At their feet lay a straggle of low buildings, a criss-cross of walls; and on three sides the precipices fell sheer into the plain. A few columns of smoke mounted perpendicularly into the windless air and were lost."

In the second description, it seems like a peaceful valley still raw with nature. Nature is lacking in the World State. There is too much technology. While in contrast, the World State's description depicts it as an awful place to be.

Language: Many of the characters speak robotic-ally because of their conditioning. "A gramme is better than a damn," said Lenina mechanically from behind her hands. "I wish I had my soma!" (Chp 7). They use sophisticated, unorthodox language. It demonstrates how the people in the society think. Comparable is John the Savage, although he speaks poetically it is still a repetition of what he has read, Shakespeare.

"Then suddenly he found himself reflecting that he had only to take hold of the zipper at her neck and give one long, strong pull … He shut his eyes, he shook his head with the gesture of a dog shaking its ears as it emerges from the water. Detestable thought! He was ashamed of himself. Pure and vestal modesty " (chp 9).

In the quote above, we see how language has affected the way John thinks. His words are elegant and passionate, and that's how he wants his life to be.

Brave New World Journal #1

Motif: In the first third, I noticed several things. The word pneumatic describing Lenina and chairs, identifying the people as animals, the phrase 'Oh Ford!', and the repetition of the hypnoaedic jingles. The dictionary definition of pneumatic is 1. containing air spaces to reduce weight 2. well rounded, esp with a large bosom. We first see the word used to describe Lenina. "Oh, she's a splendid girl. Wonderfully pneumatic" (chp 3) and than " When they had arrived and were comfortably stretched out on the pneumatic sofas in Bernard's room" (Chp 4). Pertaining to air holes is a strange way to describe things. It suggest the society has lots of holes, things that are lost in exchange for comfort. The repetitious use of 'Oh Ford' demonstrates what is important in the society. Ford alludes to Henry Ford who emphasized consumerism and technology. By changing the religious 'Oh Lord' to 'Ford', I can conclude that this society has replaced religion with materials and technology.

Setting: The first chapter is in some sort of science building. "And in effect the sultry darkness into which the students now followed him was visible and crimson, like the darkness of closed eyes on a summer's afternoon" (Chp 1). This description gives connotations of blood, organic body, organ pictures in the mind. Ironically, this is where they have replaced natural reproduction with decanting. As the Director shows the students around I can tell this society is very organized. People are in their places and doing their job.

Language: The language is rather formal. The characters use scientific words such as pneumatic and decanting in place of comfy and born. It is also mentioned about all the dead languages such as German, Spanish, and French. This novel was purposely written in English to show how the English prospered after the 9 years war. A lot of what the characters say is very rhythmical because they are repeating the sleep teachings. This society talks in very similar ways. Simple, scientific, and robotic-like.