Summary and Analysis Act I

Summary Mr. Werle is giving a party in honor of his son’s homecoming. Besides influential political friends, he has also invited Hialmar Ekdal, an old school fellow of Gregers. Feeling out of place and uncomfortable among the guests, Hialmar is more gloomy than ever when he overhears Werle whisper to […]

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About The Wild Duck

The Wild Duck represents an investigation of a problem that Ibsen wrestled with throughout his life. Always concerned with “the claim of the ideal” and proselytizing this claim to others, Ibsen, on the other hand, found in himself qualities of material indulgence and a weakness for worldly recognition. He suspected […]

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Play Summary

Gregers Werle has avoided his father, whom he detests, by spending fifteen years in the family mining concern. Gregers is so unattractive in appearance that he has given up all hope of marrying and having a family; instead, he has become an idealist and goes about advocating and preaching a […]

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