Themes Of Hedvig In The Wild Duck

Improved Essays
2. Themes
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,

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    1.) Chapter 2: "a penalty, which in our days, would refer a degree of mocking infamy and ridicule, might then be interested with almost as strong a dignity as the punishment of death itself" pg 44 This quote shows us how in their time period being shamed was on the same scale of death. This also shows how much they cared of what others had thought of them. They would use this form of punishment.…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This book takes place in Denmark during the 1940s. The main character is Annemarie Johansen whose best friend is Ellen Rosen. This story takes place over a very short period of time. This book shows just how quickly everyone’s lives were turned upside down. Annemarie, her sister Kristi and Ellen are walking home from school when they are stopped by soldiers that question who they are and how they do in school.…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hester had to go through the problems of living in a strict Puritan patriarchy society. She proved her peers wrong by living her life like a saint and raising her daughter Pearl to become a successful, bright woman. At every choice Hester made, she stood by them and acted on what she thought what was best instead of being controlled by others. The novel portrays a feminist story because it highlights a woman who lives life against all…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hawethorne impeccably executes the utilization of language to represent Hester Prynne's outlook on not only her own existence, but that of other woman as well through the use of tone and appeal to pathos. Analyzing the passage, Hawethorne's tone, as reflected by Hester, becomes very evident quite quickly allows his views to come across puissantly to the reader; his tone not only engages the audience, but also allows them to ponder about the subject themselves. Broadly speaking, the author's tone is recalcitrant, and this is clearly displayed through Hester's own idea about the existence of women. Take the question,"Was existence worth accepting, even to the happiest among them?", as a perfect example of not accepting society's common rule…

    • 242 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ernest Hemmingway once said “When writing a novel, a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.” This quote to me exemplifies the importance for an author to create lifelike characters that are not static and are instead dynamic, moving, changing. In Rick Bass’s short story Antlers all three of the main characters can be seen as almost living people who share a genuine connection between their environment and between each other. Bass shows the connection that the three main characters have through their characterization.…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne’s masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter, focuses its attention around many predominant themes, which generate innumerable interpretations. Motifs such as adultery, revenge, and forgiveness are prevalent within the novel based on Puritan locale. The characters of Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, each exhibit behaviors, which have been placed upon them by the burdens in their everyday lives. The Scarlett Letter focuses on the puritanical judgment of what is deemed a sinful act and how this same act affects the three aforementioned characters who share this secret in an entirely different way. Hester Prynne impresses the reader by proving that she is unmoved by the public’s judgment, and this ability…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hedda is a very controlling and complex character in this book. She controls her new husband into buying this grand house that she doesn’t really want. Furthermore, she tends controls Judge Brack with her sexual charisma that in no way leads to anything physical. Hedda also controls Eilert Lovborg her former affair mate which she obviously never truly cared about him just the beauty of his death. During the middle of the play we realize Heddas sanity.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the modern interconnected world of the twentieth and twenty first century, there has consistently been a clash of ideas and a struggle for women’s’ rights and place in society. Society is still lacking progress in this area and advancements are needed. Acts such as the 19th amendment and Title IX are critical to the equalization of the women’s role in society. During the time period of the novel, a women’s role in the community was diminished to domestic, and only domestic tasks. This view of the superiority of males to females was a normality, and caused many women, including Hester Prynne of The Scarlet Letter, to question their roles and value to the family and world.…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fantasies provide an escape from the daily hassles of life. When one thinks of a fantasy, one may conjure up things like unicorns flying in the wind, elves dancing around a Christmas tree, or like the poem expresses, touching dragonflies and stars. All incidences are unreal, imaginative. Ernest Bormann, however, had another perspective on fantasy altogether. Fantasy is dimensionally acquired through dramatization and rhetorical vision.…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    reality. This central theme, which runs through his entire work, can be described as the clash between utopianism and realism. He goes on to explain that utopia and reality are irreconcilable. He says, “Here, then, is the complexity, the fascination and the tragedy of all political life. Politics are made up of two elements - utopia and reality - belonging to two different planes which can never meet.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She had lots of money and freedom to do what she desired. Throughout the play Hedda is not satisfied with her new life as a housewife and she becomes really manipulative and deprived of life. Hedda Gabler’s cruelty emerges from deprivation because she is forced into a new lifestyle that she is not accustomed to, throughout the play she refuses to conform to her new role as a housewife, which eventually…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    3.3.5 TST Both Judge Brack and Stanley are very oppressive and antagonistic characters in their respective stories. Ibsen and Williams placed these characters in their stories for a very important reason nonetheless. In a Streetcar named desire, the character of Stanley assists in the audience’s ability to see the overall theme of the play: this being that one cannot use fantasy to cover up reality. Stanley helps to develop this theme because he is the “reality” that Blanche has to deal with in her life.…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Life is unpredictable and we are responsible for having a good or bad life, so ending our life instead of fixing it is not the right way of solving our problem. Hedda Gabler is a naturalism type of dramatic writing, written by Henrik Ibsen who narrates Hedda Gabler as a scandalous, independent, coward, egotistical and a deceiving character who wants who experienced so many problems in life. Starting from having an unwanted marriage with George and pregnancy; disappointments of controlling Lovborg’s life; black mail from judge Brack about her scandal, after convincing Lovborg to commit suicide; Hedda’s insecurity to Mrs. Elvsted; and the feeling of no purpose in life. In Hedda Gabler, Hedda is a scandalous, egotistic, and a coward character…

    • 1754 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    In Henrik Ibsen’s play, Hedda Gabler, the title character states that more than anything in life, she wants control over another human being; this desire reveals Hedda’s challenge of the mandate promulgated by patriarchy that control is the purview of males, not of females. Hedda Gabler challenges the patriarchal paradigm of control in three specific ways; her pure love of control is verified throughout the novel as she plots the lives of the people surrounding her. It is also demonstrated by her superior attitude that determines the technique in which she treats the people around her, and through her horrific reaction to her loss of complete control that ultimately leads to her suicide. Similarly to the description of the stereotypical male monopolized quality of control, Hedda seemingly thrives through the ability of manipulating other people when in reality her need for control stems from her loss of regulation in her own life. Hedda Gabler challenges the patriarchal mandate that control is in the purview of only men through her lust for domination over other people.…

    • 1284 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Social Conventions: The Condemnation of Norwegians Within his play, Ghosts, Henrik Ibsen places great emphasis on the issue of social conventions that prioritize duties and obligations in the Norwegian society of 1880. During his era, 90 percent of all Norwegians belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran National Church, the Church of Norway, which yielded great influence and authority within the society (Lovoll). Throughout Ghosts, the issues faced by the Alvings are rooted in the predefined beliefs and traditions within society that have been upheld by the Church. The hypocrisy of the Church is manifested within Pastor Manders, who wrongfully oppresses the Alvings with what is deemed acceptable in accordance with the Church.…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays