Wild Duck #3

I think that the prompt is mostly referring to the suicide of Hedvig, so on that note I think that no one is to blame except for Hedvig herself. The reason that I say this is because I recently watched the movie World's Greatest Dad, and I learned that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Literally if Hedvig had chosen to shoot the duck instead of herself she would realize that Hjalmar still loved her. It is Hedvig's fault that she chose to shoot herself. It may have been that her young age clouded her judgement or maybe her poor eye sight however in the end it would not be fair to blame others for the choices she made. Blaming her actions on Hjalmar would likely destroy him and cause him to become a drunk. Blaming Gregers would accomplish nothing because he feels that he did the right thing. It was Hedvig's choice to select a permanent solution to a temporary problem. In the end no character has any blame for what Hedvig did besides herself. No character should carry the blame more than another. It would be foolish to blame someone else for Hedvig's choices

Wild Duck #2

The motif of decay develops over the length of the play and shows up in several different ways. The first being positive, while at the dinner party the guests discuss what makes a good wine, and the year is important to telling if the wine is good or not.

Hjalmar Is there a difference between the years?
The Fat Guest: Oh that's rich!

Overtime the wine is decaying which adds to the flavor, and depending on the year determines the greatness of the wine. So in the beginning of the novel the motif of decay is attached to wealth, class, superiority to lower classes. Hjalmar doesn't know the difference between the years in the wine he drinks and the other guests make fun of him for his ignorance. Just a little bit later the bald guest comments on Hjalmar's ignorance.

The Bald Guest Tokay wines are like photographs Mr. Ekdal...

I think that Ibsen chooses to mentions photographs right after the wine to make the connection to Hjalmar not only being ignorant to the ages of wines but also to reality. Wine in this example serves a symbol for Hjalmar's ignorance, much like his photographs do. Eventually throughout the novel Hjalmar's ignorance decays though until he finally learns the truth.

The motif of decay occurs in Act 3 again accompanied by photographs ignorance of Hjalmar. When Hjalmar is talking to Hedvig about his decaying strength and he expresses his wishes for Hedvig to not use the brush because of her decaying eyes he says the stage directions become very interesting.

Hjalmar But don't ruin your eyes! Hear me? I won't take the blame; you can take the blame yourself--you hear me?
Hedvig (at work retouching) Yes, yes, sure I will.

The interesting thing is that right when Hjalmar mentions Hedvig going blind Ibsen writes in that Hedvig begins retouching. As Hedvig's eye sight decays, more and more retouching is done to photos, which seems to me like Hjalmar and Hedvig are almost retouching reality for them and choosing to be ignorant to certain aspects of their lives. For example Hedvig going blind and Old Werle going blind.

Another form of decay that become important later in the novel is the decay of memory

Gina No. Good Lord, I'd almost forgotten that old affair

Gina claims that her memory of the affair she had with Old Werle is fading, however I think that she is lying. I think what she means to say is that she wants to forget the affair and that it meant nothing to her, however this message is not conveyed to Hjalmar, which causes him to get incredibly angry. The decay of memory shows the death of ignorance in the story. What was almost forgotten becomes known and with that knowledge comes the end of decay

Wild Duck- Option 1

Ibsen creates many boundaries in The Wild Duck. I think the most important boundary that he creates is the stage. While I am reading this I like to imagine it actually being acted out on the stage, and I think that many boundaries arise as a result of the stage. For example in the beginning of Act 3 Ibsen describes Hjalmar as sitting at the table retouching photos. Ibsen limited the creativity of the reader by writing this in. However it is interesting that Ibsen makes Hjalmar retouch photos at this point in the play. Just as Hjalmar decides to become his own man, and become independent, he retouches photos. I think Ibsen is showing through photography how Hjalmar  thinks he can change the past and become independent when in reality not very much changes. The important thing to note is that Ibsen set the boundary of Hjalmar retouching photos for a reason at this point. How the actor actually acts this scene out though is something to consider. Hjalmar could be smiling while he is retouching photos. He could be frowning. Depending on either of those the entire meaning of what Hjalmar says later is changed. By making this a play for the stage Ibsen has granted a huge amount of freedom and made many boundaries disappear unlike other books. In the same passage in the beginning of Act 3 Ibsen writes that there are many photos on the table with Hjalmar. This could be representing all of the memories that Hjalmar would have to fix in order to truly become independent. Again though the importance of this is how few boundaries Ibsen has set on the actor. The actor playing Hjalmar could have basically any facial expression, any body posture, and all would change the meaning of the text. It is interesting how little boundaries Ibsen puts on the character of Hjalmar when one considers this text as a play as well.

We #3

Motifs- "It's strange-- there seems to be a blank white page inside my head." The motif of paper became extremely interesting to me at this point in the book because D-503 saying that he has a blank page in his head connects to several other places in the book. The one that really stand out to me was when D-503 previously talked about chemistry and he made the comparison that something was like the filter paper that chemists use. The idea that his mind is no longer like a filter paper, catching what is not wanted in the solution, is almost like D-503 is clearing his mind before his meeting with the Benefactor. He later goes on to talk about how all of the lines in his life were cut, and lines being what is perfect and representative of the one state, he is showing his disconnection to the one state while still fearing it. The one state controls him regardless of whether or not he supports them. This shapes my understanding of the society because it becomes more powerful than I previously thought. Later in the passage the Benefactor talks to D-503 about when Jesus was crucified, and this made me think about the whole idea of previous people being ancient and inferior, and it's just incredibly interesting how the Benefactor is able to use it to convince D-503. The motif of things being ancient across the novel have shaped my understanding of the society because it shows how the people of the one state view themselves, and especially the benefactor himself. Little is known of that character for a really long time, so when Zamyatin uses the motif of ancient civilization it characterizes the Benefactor a lot more than other motifs would.

Setting- "It's strange: the barometric pressure is falling, but there is still no wind, just silence." (pg. 148)

The setting is very important at this point in the novel because the weather is showing how changes are being made and effects are taking place but no major effects have actually occurred. I think that at this point in the novel the weather has become a symbol of the internal struggle that D-503 is going through. Looking back on the novel the weather was nice and perfect, much like how D-503 was content with his life at the point in the novel. However at this point in the novel the barometric pressure is dropping, much like how D-503's feelings are changing, but nothing major has happened to him at this point. This connects to later in the novel because after he has had the operation the barometer goes back to normal, which would reflect his reaffirmed belief in the triumph of reason over emotions. The use of the barometer is significant in shaping my understanding of the society because weather is something that I can connect to in my personal life. Especially having lived in Oregon my whole life when I read about how the weather is changing for D-503 is makes me think of the weather that I have encountered, which is mostly just rain, with a few snowy days and a few sunny days a year, but these connections bring up all of the feelings and then I feel like I understand D-503 and his society better as a result. If Zamyatin had not chosen to use weather in the setting of the novel I would lose that connection and then I would not be able to connect to D-503 in the way that I do. 

Language- "I noticed that she had sharp and very white teeth and that this was beautiful." (pg. 203)

The language becomes especially important in the last entry of the book. Once D-503 has had the operation, his language returns to the way that it was in the beginning of the book, precise and almost mathematical. Which confuses me, because it seems to me that the operation is basically a lobotomy, and I didn't think that people who had received lobotomies were still mathematial. I thought they leaned more on the brain dead side. However assuming that the great operation is different from a lobotomy, the language shapes my understanding of society in the sense that now I understand that there is still beauty without imagination. There was an episode of Star Trek titled, "Is there in truth, no beauty?" well we answers that question. By removing emotions beauty still exists, as shown by D-503. I think that Zamyatin uses this language to show that not while is may seem like a bad idea to lose your imagination, that fear is usually because we think that that means a loss of concepts like beauty. However I would argue that Zamyatin is showing not to fear the loss of imagination because we may lose beauty, rather because losing one's imagination means a loss of control over what beauty is. Overall the language used reflects the values that the society upholds, not what the individual upholds. 

These are the quotes I was talking about in my first journal that I forgot to put in

"Reason, which has been able to make infinity (something so frightening to the Ancients) into a digestible concept, by..." (pg. 54)

"Spring. From beyond the Green Wall, from the wild invisible plains, the wild brings the yellow honey-dust from a flower of some kind" (pg. 5)

"Nighttime. Green, orange, blue; a red "grand" instrument; a dress. as yellow as a lemon." (pg. 30)

We #2

Motifs- "I seem to recall something about a "soul" flashed past and some senseless ancient phrase flew by:
"a tortured soul". (pg. 125) Again the motif and things being "ancient" appears in the second part. However the significance of the above quote is that the soul is ancient. When D-503 uses ancient to describe the house it makes some sense because they are further along in time, but to call the soul ancient implies that they outgrown it in some way, or improved upon it. It is interesting to compare what D-503 finds senseless and what he doesn't. It's senseless to think about feelings, however it is important for everyone to gather to vote for the same person. I think that Zamyatin in this passage is warning against the propaganda of governments, but more specifically that we can't ignore our feelings. Regardless of what society tells us our feelings are our feelings. And we feel it for a reason. D-503 finds these feelings to be senseless at this point and remembers the ancient phrase a tortured soul. I think that Zamyatin uses the motif of ancient at this point in the novel who warn against valuing logic over feelings. The way this shapes my understanding of the society is that it makes me think that it's a lot like planet Vulcan. And D-503 is like Spock. Vulcan makes excellent science officers on a star ship, however they lack the emotion to make necessary decisions, emotions that D-503 is just beginning to feel more and more often.

Setting- "Up above the wall: the sharp black triangles of some kind of bird were cawing [...]" (pg. 105)
The significant part of the setting in the quote above is the wall. Walls generally serve two purposes, to keep things out, and to keeps things in. I think that the ciphers are all convinced that the wall serves the function of keeping things out. Things that could potentially harm them. But I think that the purpose the wall really serves is to keep the ciphers in. If they won the 200 year war, then why limit the amount a space they have? If they are the victors then potentially they could defeat their enemy again and take as much land as they want, however they choose to confine themselves. I think that one possible explanation for this is that they have a jealous leader, who wants to control his citizens and won't let them leave because that would damage his ego. Also I think that wall is significant because they often limit things progress and part of the message that I think Zamyatin is sending is that limiting one's imagination because it doesn't coincide with math or logic is a bad thing. What I don't understand is why they have a wall because if they are such a mathematical society shouldn't they realize that limiting their own space is counterintuitive to expansion? Why build an integral to colonize other worlds but keep themselves limited? This shaped my understanding of their society because it just confuses me.

Language- "R, baring white, African teeth, spattered some word into my face, dived off, and disappeared" (pg. 127) The significance of the above quote is that D-503 uses the word African to describe R's teeth. In the one state I thought that they would control for race so that no one feels inferior to someone as a result. This makes me think that Zamyatin envisioned a world in which the idea of hating someone else because of something as simple as skin color was so absurd that the government wouldn't have to control for it. Also I am surprised that they know what Africa is, and the stereotypes that go along with it because if they live in the "one state" then why would Africa be mentioned in their school? What purpose would that serve to teach the children about history? I mean they could teach about how terrible it might have been to be ancient but then they would have to account that at least 1 person would realize that lack of freedom they have and try to rebel. The language used just perplexes me because I don't understand why there would be different races of people in this society, or why the government would teach about different countries from history. This is significant for the second third of the book because D-503 is developing at a much faster rate, and his language reveals this. The other interesting thing is that Zamyatin has D-503 focus on body parts an awful lot, that's almost always how he identifies people, and if he describes R as a having African lips then Zamyatin is calling attention to R's african roots. This shapes my understanding of the society because it is a lot different than I had previously thought.