Tracking Journal 1

I am tracking the comparisons between the upper and lower classes in each play. In Oedipus, the difference is clear between the royalty compared to the common people. Although the general population worships both king and god alike, they witness the fall of Oedipus and therefore witness the fall of hubris and powerful people. Also because of Oedipus' blindness towards truth and how even a sheperd has more insight than him on his own life helps express the downfall of the upper class and the rise of the lower class.

Although there is not much of a distinction between higher and lower class in Wild Duck by Ibsen, there is a detailed portrayal of the middle/lower class family in the Ekdals. Because of their debts with Werle, Hjalmar always attempts to be dignified about what he owes and how he will pay the money back. However this sense of dignity goes too far when Hjalmar promises he will pay back all of the family's debts on the account of mainly the invention that he cannot even describe. (he is just awaiting the inspiration for it).