Wild Duck 5

A dramatist often creates a gap between what the audience knows and what the characters know. With reference to at least two plays, discuss how and to what effect dramatists have used this technique.
Ibsen uses dramatic irony in his play Wild Duck to help create a feeling for characters. The daughter of Hjalmar and Gina, Hedvig, is said to be be going blind, but she does not know it. Having her go about as if she were a normal child creates a feeling of pity for her, and makes the reader think how the parents could go on without telling her. There is also the other way around, where the characters know something the reader does not. At the beginning of the story, the reader knows nothing, and it starts in the middle of everything. The characters also make reference to many things the reader has not heard of before. This makes the reader pay more attention to what does happen, as the events of the past are slowly revealed.
Sophocles, on the other hand, did not mean to make that form of information gap in his play Oedipus the King. At the time, everyone knew the story of Oedipus, so he could only exaggerate the gap between what the characters knew and what the audience knew. He does this by having the characters use lots of foreshadowing, while someone laughs at it. Such as Oedipus when Tiresias tells him he would be as blind as him. The audience knows it is true, and watches as Oedipus mocks him. The use of dramatic irony emphasizes Oedipus' human trait and downfall.