Tracking for The Wild Duck and Oedipus

I have been tracking the idea of fate and destiny in both The Wild Duck and Oedipus.

In Oedipus the King, the idea of fate or destiny is fairly obvious because of the prophecy that Oedipus fulfilled. The idea of fate is also mentioned throughout the play by the chorus. Ex p 209. Oedipus tried to get away from the prophecy or fix his life and instead he ended up gouging his eyes out.



The Wild Duck- I believe I saw the idea of fate and destiny in the symbol of The Wild Duck. Page 152 describes the capture of the duck. While trying to get away from being caught, the duck instead dove down to the bottom of the river and got caught in the weeds. This is similar to Oedipus and how he was trying to get away from the prophecy but instead ran into it. I believe this is fate because the duck was meant to be caught and he could do nothing about it.

I also see this in Hedvig's character. She was trying to fix things in her family by killing the wild duck. This only led to her messing up and killing herself. This is the idea of fate because she is unable to fix anything even though she was trying.


I found it interesting that in both plays, people were trying to get away from their issues. Instead they ended up causing more. This would be an excellent thing to write a world lit paper on!!