Disguise and deceit is a common theme throughout all of the three plays. In Oedipus The King the disguise is what the prophet knows and what Oedipus doesn’t know. In The Wild Duck it is what Gina knows that Hjalmar doesn’t know, and in Blood Wedding it seems to be what the Bride knows that the Bridegroom doesn’t know. This repeated theme involves relationships and lies. The lies demonstrated in these books are not so much lies as they are deceits. The characters who are hiding something don’t flat out lie, but they do avoid the truth.
In Oedipus the King, Oedipus doesn’t know that he did anything wrong. He never knew that his wife was his mother. Sophocles explores a different kind of disguise in Oedipus’ story because no one in particular is lying to Oedipus. However his life was a lie. The prophet who talked to Oedipus didn’t lie to him he just didn’t tell him the truth.
In the Wild Duck, Ibsen presents us with a whole family with a bunch of secrets. They all pretend that everything is alright. When Gregers tries to uncover the truth to Hjalmar, everything goes wrong. In this play there are a few actual liars, Old Werle and Gina. This contrasts with Oedipus The King because a few people who actually caused the mess are the people who are avoiding the truth.
In Blood Wedding, Lorca is very ambiguous. In the beginning it seems that the Bride is having a lot of doubts and the antagonist seems to be Leonardo. I don’t know what is going to happen next but I don’t think that the Bride ran away with Leonardo. I feel like he took her away. So in that case I think Leonardo is the liar. For example his wife wanted him to ride on the cart to the wedding but he refused and rode his horse instead. Later he and the Bride ran away on that horse. I have a feeling he planned to escape. He never told a lie though. He was never asked directly if he was doing anything like that. He deceived everyone to make it seem like they ran off together. However, if the bride was in on it then she was the one who deceived her family and the Bridegroom.
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