The Wild Duck Journal #5

"Not rounding off, but opening out." Comment upon the way the writers deal with the ending in relation to the whole. In your answer you should refer to two or three of the works you have studied.
In both the plays, Oedipus and The Wild Duck the authors both create events throughout that lead up to the final pages. In Oedipus, after finding out he had in fact fulfilled his prophecy he gauged out his eyes and wanted to be exiled. Oedipus only acted in this way due to how horrible his life turned out to be. Oedipus had married his mother and killed his father without even knowing it. He thought that he had escaped his fate by moving to a different city, but moving caused him to make it come true. Throughout the play the author adds small details (i.e. the mountains in which Oedipus wants to be exiled to are the mountains were his whole prophecy started) to further the readers interest and develop the story.
The Wild Duck ends with Hedvig shooting herself in her heart. This is significant because the way in which she killed herself was the way she was planning on killing the Wild Duck. Hedvig kills herself in the end because her father, Hjalmar wants nothing to do with her due to the fact he is unsure if she is really his daughter or not. Gregers tells Hjalmar the truth about Gina and Old Werle's relationship and with this new information Hjalmar leaves almost instantly. After not coming back for a day he walks in to try and get the things he needs and then leave again. Just like the play Oedipus, The Wild Duck uses small details that in the end prove to have significance (i.e. the way Hedvig killed herself). These two plays both have key events that lead up till the tragic ending, in both cases the death of one or more characters.