2.1. Main Themes
2.1.1. Illusion vs. Reality
“Oh, life would be tolerable enough, even so, if we could only be rid of these infernal duns who come to us poor people’s doors with their claim of ideal” (Ibsen, 1961:260).
According to Halsey (1970:56), this sentence sums up the essence of The Wild Duck.
The Ekdal family lives happily in a seemingly perfect life. A life that was built on illusion. The main character, Hjalmar Ekdal, emphasises the theme through his doings, often turning a blind eye to the truth. He twists facts so they can assist his goals, eg. When Hjalmar talks about his father’s attempt at suicide, he says the man was too much of a coward to go through with it (Ibsen, 1961:202) but immediately after that he mentions …show more content…
Characterization of Hedvig
Hedvig is the fourteen year old daughter of Hjalmar and Gina Ekdal. While she is mentioned in the first act of the play, she only appears from the second act onwards.
She is described as being “gay and lighthearted” (Ibsen, 1961:176) by Hjalmar, a sweet child who dances around and sings her heart out. Unbeknownst to her, she is busy losing her eyesight, the possibility of blindness very high. Her parents have not had the heart to tell her about that yet (Ibsen, 1961:176), in fear of ruining her good spirit.
Due to her bad eyesight, Hedvig was pulled out of school and, even though her father promised to tutor her, she is currently not receiving any education (Ibsen, 1961:194). However, she does not let this stand in her way, and makes up for her lack in schooling by reading. Throughout the play she mentions things she read in books and from the very start her love for reading is emphasized by her sadness when she is told to stop reading (Ibsen, 1961:163-164). Along with her love of books, is a talent for drawing. She helps her parents with retouching the photographs and draws when she has nothing else to do.
Other than her bad sight, Hedvig is said to appear physically strong and healthy (Ibsen, 1961:176). It is also mentioned that she is rather big for her age (Ibsen,