Themes of The Wild Duck
A theme is a universal idea, lesson, or
message explored throughout a work of literature. One key characteristic of
literary themes is their universality, which is to say that themes are ideas
that not only apply to the specific characters and events of a book or play,
but also express broader truths about human experience that readers can apply
to their own lives.
The Wild Duck is a fine example. The major
theme of “The Wild Duck” is the importance in one’s life of illusions as distinguished
from reality. It is the tension between illusion and reality which is liable
for the tragic ending. Gregers, an idealist, preaches the ‘ideal’ which stands
for unveiled reality. He insists people to shed their illusions to face the
truth. Relling, the realist, believes in illusions. An illusion is a ‘saving
lie’ behind which a man may find comfort from the strain of reality. If
illusions are taken away from an ordinary man, happiness in his life would be
lost.
“Take
the life-lie away from the average man and straight away you take away his
happiness.”
As Gregers fails in his mission, the
play becomes a satire on his idealism. Hjalmar also has illusion that he is
going to invent a machine that will bring revolution in photography and it will
earn for him fame and wealth.
One of the important themes in the play
is based on the lies on which the character’s lives are built on. The Ekdal
family surrounded themselves with lies and lived as if everything were normal;
they refused to let Hedvig know that she might not be Hjalmar’s daughter and
they hid her illness from her, keeping her isolated from the outside
world. Senior Ekdal also lives
in a lie, spending most of his time inside a garret transformed into a fake
forest where Senior Ekdal can live inside an illusion and reminiscence his glorious
past.
Another theme is sickness which is both
a literal one and a metaphorical one. In the play, there are two characters
that have an eye illness; Hedvig and Håkon Werle. The illness is a progressive
one and both Hedvig and Werle were affected by their illness that forced them
to be confined to their homes. The theme of sickness is often found in literary
naturalism and it is also a theme commonly found in Ibsen’s plays. But the
illness is also a metaphorical one and it implies that Hedvig and Werle can’t
see clearly the world around them. Hedvig is too innocent to be able to see the
bad in people while Werle is too blinded by his desire to acquire wealth to
notice anything else. They are both sick because they can’t fit in and they are
always different from those around them.
The universality in the themes of
Ibsen’s play is closely observed which one holds willingly or unwillingly in
one’s life. The universality in the themes makes the plot well knitted and
causes tragic ending.
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