The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen – Plot, Themes and Analysis
The Wild Duck (1884) is Henrik Ibsen's dark drama about truth, illusion and the life-lie. It asks whether truth always liberates – or whether it can destroy.
In brief
The Wild Duck (1884) is a realistic and symbolic drama by Henrik Ibsen. It follows Gregers Werle, who returns home and decides to reveal the hidden truths behind the Ekdal family’s apparently happy life.
The play is one of Ibsen’s most ambivalent works. In An Enemy of the People, the truth-teller is heroic. In The Wild Duck, the truth-teller becomes destructive.
What to read first
If you need the plot, characters and ending explained, start with The Wild Duck summary and analysis. This page gives the broader work overview: key facts, context, themes and the play’s place in Ibsen’s authorship.
Useful starting points:
- The Wild Duck summary – plot, life-lie and ending explained
- Henrik Ibsen biography – Ibsen’s life and major plays
- An Enemy of the People – the related play about truth and public life
Key facts
| Author | Henrik Ibsen |
| Published | 1884 |
| Original title | Vildanden |
| Form | Realistic drama with symbolic elements |
| Central concept | The life-lie |
| Main figures | Gregers Werle, Hjalmar Ekdal, Hedvig, Gina Ekdal, Dr Relling |
Why the play matters
The Wild Duck is important because it complicates one of Ibsen’s own central ideas: that truth can expose hypocrisy and set the individual free. Here, truth does not liberate. It destroys.
Gregers Werle believes he is doing good by exposing the Ekdal family’s secrets. Dr Relling argues that ordinary people often need illusions in order to live. Hedvig’s death makes the question impossible to answer abstractly.
This makes The Wild Duck one of Ibsen’s sharpest plays for thinking about ethics: is it always right to tell the truth, even when the truth is forced on people who did not ask for it?