The Wild Duck: Journal #3

Themes and Ideas in the Wild Duck

 The metaphor of the wild duck and its story to how it ended up in Hjalmar's household compares the reputation and relationships between characters. In the beginning of the play Gregers states how he wishes he could be a dog, and in this third act Gregers compares Hjalmar to the wild duck. In Gregers point of view Hjalmar has lost everything because of his father and now Gregers wants to be the dog to help bring Hjalmar back up to the surface because it was Mr. Werle who had caused him to be in that situation in the first place. The comparison of Gregers to the dog however gives us the impression that there is going to be some hardship/pain endured by Hjalmar because of the bite the dog takes to bring the duck to the surface. Through Gregers point of view Hjalmar's reputation has been hurt by Gregers father and Gregers wishes to redeem his reputation in his own eyes because of this injustice done to Hjalmar by his father Mr. Werle. However the question remains does Gregers do this out of his own personal wishes to make his reputation look better or does Gregers do this to redeem his old friend Hjalmar's reputation. It seems that Gregers does this out of his own personal commitment to restore his family name he believes has fallen because of his father's lack of supporting Edkel during the trial.

Another interesting idea is Hedvig refers to Gina as "mother" and Hjalmar as "Daddy". The formality in which Hedvig addresses Gina shows that she is not a little girl she does work when she is around her mother. In choosing this diction to refer to her mother as give the impression that Gina has the authority in the household as opposed to her daddy. In Act 3 when Hedvig convinces Hjalmar to give her the brush to touch up the photograph Hjalmar says " But don't ruin your eyes! Hear me? I won't take the blame; you can take the blame yourself-you hear me?" which shows there is blaming happening because she is participating in an activity that could affect her eyesight (Ibsen 161). The blame is coming from her mother not her father which shows Gina has more of a concern for Hedvig's health and she is the head of the household as opposed to Hjalmar. Hjalmar has a more informal title which is "daddy". This informal title show he is less of a power compared to Gina even though he is the male of the household. The only time she does refer to Hjalmar as "father is when Gregers arrives early for dinner and says ""You seem to have workmen in the house." Hedvig: "No, that's only Father and Grandfather."" and in this case she has reason to be formal because she is talking to someone who is not from her family which means she has to have formality around them to maintain the family reputation (Ibsen 161).