Henrik Johan Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright,
theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father
of realism" and is one of the founders of Modernism in theatre. His
major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People,
Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The
Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, and The Master Builder. He is the most
frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and
A Doll's House became the world's most performed play by the early
20th century. Several of his plays were considered scandalous to
many of his era, when European theatre was required to model strict
morals of family life and propriety. Ibsen's work examined the
realities that lay behind many facades, revealing much that was
disquieting to many contemporaries. It utilized a critical eye and
free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality.
The poetic and cinematic play Peer Gynt, however, has strong
surreal elements. Ibsen is often ranked as one of the truly great
playwrights in the European tradition. He is widely regarded as the
most important playwright since Shakespeare. Ibsen wrote his plays
in Danish (the common written language of Denmark and Norway) and
they were published by the Danish publisher Gyldendal. Although
most of his plays are set in Norway-often in places reminiscent of
Skien, the port town where he grew up-Ibsen lived for 27 years in
Italy and Germany, and rarely visited Norway during his most
productive years. Born into a merchant family connected to the
patriciate of Skien, his dramas were shaped by his family
background. In the Wild Duck the first act opens with a dinner
party hosted by Hakon Werle, a wealthy merchant and industrialist.
The gathering is attended by his son, Gregers Werle, who has just
returned to his father's home following a self-imposed exile.
There, he learns the fate of a former classmate, Hjalmar Ekdal.
Hjalmar married Gina, a young servant in the Werle household. The
elder Werle had arranged the match by providing Hjalmar with a home
and profession as a photographer. Gregers, whose mother died
believing that Gina and her husband had carried on an affair,
becomes enraged at the thought that his old friend is living a life
built on a lie. Hjalmar runs a busy portrait studio out of the
apartment. Gina helps him run the business in addition to keeping
house. They both dote on their daughter Hedvig. The family eagerly
reveals a loft in the apartment where they keep various animals
like rabbits and pigeons. Most prized is the wild duck they
rescued. The duck was wounded by none other than Werle, whose
eyesight is failing. His shot winged the duck, which dove to the
bottom of the lake to drown itself by clinging to the seaweed.
Werle's dog retrieved it though, and despite its wounds from the
shot and the dog's teeth, the Ekdals had nursed the duck back to
good health."
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