A Study of Symbolic Mise-en-scenes and Objects in The WildDuck and Miss Julie

Modern texts are especially identified by their use of symbols. The two plays, despite sharing temporaland geographical similarities (The Wild Duck was staged only four years earlier than Miss Julie), bearsymbolic significance in terms of mise-en-scene and representation of objects. A symbolic reading inaddition to some of Lacan's theories on the symbolic and pre-symbolic stages are availed of in order tointerpret. The duck in The Wild Duck constitutes the main symbol, and the whole arrangement of the play,including mise-en-scene, could be interpreted in terms of it. Miss Julie contains symbolic mise-en-sceneaccording to what Bakhtin describes as the carnivalesque, as well as a reintroduction of Lacan's theories byKristeva's abjection. The essay finally concludes that despite the fact that Ibsen and Strindberg are notdirectly labeled as "symbolists", their works are abound with them.

Keywords:

mise-en-scene , symbolic objects , Lacan , Kristeva , abjection