Wild Duck Journal 1

                To what extent would you agree that plot should be valued more highly than style in the work?            

                I believe that plays are meant to be performed.  They are meant to be entertaining.  Because of this, I think that to a certain extent the plot should be valued more highly than style.  What the audience will be most interested in and engaged in is the actual plot and events of the play, not the alliteration of the actors’ lines.

                In the play “Oedipus the King”, the plot is one that many people, if not everyone, in ancient Greece would have known.  They would have come to see that play performed because it is a story they know and love!  The common citizens of ancient Greece would not have cared much about the rhythm of the actors’ lines and what its effect is, they just would have liked the sound and the literal words.  However, the playwright’s style is also important and unique to the play, and I think it should also be valued.  I assume people liked, and still like, Sophocles’ work, and that is another reason why they went to see his plays.  I just think most people who were audiences of his plays were more interested in the plot than the style, so this is what the emphasis was placed on.

                In “The Wild Duck”, the style of the author, Ibsen, is more prominent.  There are more stage directions and costume details that are mentioned that are important to the style.  I still think the plot is important both to the audience of a live performance and readers of the play, but the stylistic elements seem to have a larger emphasis in “The Wild Duck”.  I personally prefer this because I think the style should be recognized in the actual writing of the play, not just in the performance.  Even though the plot is still more important, the style should be acknowledged and valued too.