Wild Duck Journal #2: Gap between audience and characters

In the play Oedipus, the chorus acts as the connection between the audience and what is going on on the stage. There is dramatic irony created because the audience knows Oedipus' story, but the characters have no idea of what to expect in the future. The chorus permits the audience to be more connected and included in the play because there is more of an interaction between the chorus and Oedipus and the chorus and the audience. When the chorus says, "I pity you but I can't bear to look. I've much to ask, so much to learn, so much fascinates my eyes, but you...I shudder at the sight" (239), it shows how they sympathize with Oedipus when he is in such agony and the audience does the same thing because they can see how this once-mighty character has torn himself down and is now so miserable. In Wild Duck, there is no 'chorus' that the audience can connect to. Instead, it is as if the detailed stage directions make up for it and the setting and backdrops help inform the audience instead of the chorus doing so. However, because the audience is supposedly viewing into this private setting through a "fourth wall," the audience is more disconnected and there is no chorus to add input throughout the play. There is a wider gap between the characters and the audience in Wild Duck than there is in Oedipus because of this lack of dramatic irony.