Reality Matters: Relevance of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck and Chekhov’s The Seagull to Daily Life

Abstract

Described as the pioneers of modern drama, Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov shed light on the realities of daily life. Two of them, Ibsen's The Wild Duck (1884) and Chekhov's The Seagull (1895), defined as realistic dramas, are constantly compared with one another due to their shared and contrasting qualities. Even though these comparative studies contribute to clarifying areas such as plot, character analysis, themes, and symbols to establish a link between the two works, they do not explain the degree of their relevance to real life. Indeed, the problem is that Ibsen is regarded as the father of modern drama, and Chekhov's implied to be inspired by Ibsen's The Wild Duck while writing his The Seagull; because of that, the general conception is inclined to first's literary supremacy over latter. Therefore, this study analyzes the relevance of these plays to daily life and examines which one is more realistic than the other. For such a comparison, it has been paid attention to the plots' developments and the dialogues between the characters in both plays.