Henrik Ibsen is considered the father of modern drama. His plays had a significant impact on 20th-century theatre. There are different interpretations of his play The Wild Duck. At the heart of it lies a powerful conflict between idealism and realism, or illusion and reality.
Hjalmar Ekdal, the main character, lives a comfortable life based on lies he doesn’t know about, particularly concerning his wife. The story takes place between two families: the Werles and the Ekdals. Håkon Werle and Old Ekdal were business partners before, but a scandal destroyed Ekdal’s reputation and reduced him to poverty. Werle’s son, Gregers, returns after 15 years of working in the mines and meets his old friend Hjalmar. This reunion marks the beginning of the central conflict of the play.
Gregers Werle is the embodiment of idealism. He strongly believes that people should live by the truth, no matter how painful it is, and he tries to force this belief on others. He sees life in simple terms—good or bad, truth or lie—without understanding that people often live in the gray areas. These are the parts of life that are not perfect but help people survive emotionally. He can’t understand that Hjalmar finds comfort in his family life, even though that life is built on secrets. He enters the life of Hjalmar with a self-proclaimed mission to liberate them from the illusions that he thinks are imprisoning their lives. For Gregers, uncovering the truth is not only a moral duty but the only path to redemption. However, what makes him a tragic figure is his disconnect from human emotion. Gregers believes that truth is always healing, but Ibsen shows how truth, when forced on people without understanding, can destroy lives. Through Gregers, Ibsen questions the blindness of idealism.
Gregers, after returning, is shocked to find how unfairly his father treated the Ekdal family. So Gregers, who believes in moral justice, decides to stay with Hjalmar to fix things. He learns that Gina, Hjalmar’s wife, had an affair with his father Werle many years ago, and their daughter Hedvig might actually be the daughter of Werle. Learning this, Hjalmar confronts Gina and leaves the family.
Feeling rejected, young Hedvig is told by Gregers to prove her love for her father by sacrificing her beloved pet, the wild duck. But instead, Hedvig ends up taking her own life.
Fourteen years before the story, Werle and Gina had an affair. Then he arranged for Gina to marry Hjalmar and helped him set up a photography business. Gregers believes that his father did all this because he felt guilty. He thinks it’s his duty to open his friend’s eyes. But he never really thinks about the consequences of revealing such harsh truths. As Dr. Relling says, Gregers suffers from “inflamed integrity”—he is too obsessed with being morally right.
Gregers represents a kind of idealism that doesn’t consider real human emotions. His actions—like telling Hedvig to prove her love by sacrificing her wild duck—bring the tragedy. Hjalmar, after learning the truth, becomes angry and cruel towards his daughter. He even says he wants to kill the wild duck and pushes Hedvig away. This leads to her suicide.
The message of the play is clear: truth is important, but illusions also have a role in protecting people from unbearable pain. So the play is a critique of blind idealism.
On the other hand, Dr. Relling is a realist who strongly believes that illusions and dreams are necessary for people to live happy lives, especially for ordinary people like the Ekdals. From the beginning, Relling sees through Gregers’ obsession with truth and warns him not to interfere in Hjalmar’s life. For Relling, an illusion is like a “life-lie”—a necessary falsehood that helps people survive. If this life-lie is taken away, a person’s happiness may be destroyed.
In contrast, Gregers’ idealism brings disaster. Gregers believes Hjalmar is a man with great potential—someone capable of facing the truth and living an ideal life. But Relling sees him as just an ordinary man, not someone strong enough to handle harsh realities. Relling believes Hjalmar should be allowed to live with the lie—the comforting illusion that keeps him emotionally stable. He gives the example of Old Ekdal. When Old Ekdal enters the dark attic, he imagines that he is in the forest, and the rabbits and birds are wild animals. This illusion allows him to feel proud and useful again, even though his life is now filled with disgrace and poverty. So the attic and the animals become his “life-lie.”
Gregers can’t accept that people like the Ekdals need illusions to maintain their purpose. He sees illusions as falsehoods rather than coping mechanisms. Ultimately, Gregers’ idea becomes destructive. Ibsen suggests that life can’t be guided by pure ideals alone.