“The Wild Duck” is, overall, a serious play tragically ending with the suicide of a young girl, Hedvig. There are many comic elements too but they do not outweigh the tragic ones, so the play cannot be called a comedy. Some critics regarded the play as “a comedy from start to finish”. The play is a blend of tragedy and comedy so it should be called a tragic-comedy.

Act I begins with cheerful conversation at Mr. Werle’s luncheon-party during which Mrs. Sorby remarks wittily. A courtier remarks that the quality of a wine depends upon the amount of sunshine received by the grapes and also that sunshine is equally essential for photography. At this Mrs. Sorby addressing him says that people at the Court want to bask in the sunshine of royal favour.


Then there is a pun upon the word “vintages”. Mrs. Sorby says that vintages differ and old ones are the best. When a guest asks her what vintage in her opinion he belongs to, Mrs. Sorby wittily replies:


This comical chat is preceded by a very grim dialogue between Gregers and Hjalmar and is pursued by an even more grim dialogue between Gregers and his father. So, we have a blend of comedy and pathos.

Ekdal’s behavior is much comical in his dark garret with a large collection of animals. He used to hunt into the forest when young. Overtaken by a disaster he was jailed for some years. After his release he finds life wretched. When in garret, he imagines himself in a forest with wild animals. There is a touch of pathos in his funny behavior. The same applies to Ekdal's putting on his lieutenant’s uniform at times. He is not entitled any more to wear it but he puts it on to recall the days when he was a lieutenant.

Hjalmar's behavior is comical while giving a garbled report of the party to his family. He talks as if he was the hero there and that he flatly refused to recite a poem desired by the guests. When Gina says that he should have obliged the guests, he replies that he is not a man to obey people’s whims. He says:


And Old Ekdal tries to humour his son by saying:


Hjalmar lies about the claims, in fact made by Mrs. Sorby, to rise in the opinion of his family He takes the credit of saying that the quality of wine depends on how much sunshine the grapes had received and that he informed the guests that all vintages were not equally good in their case. Ekdal happily remarks:



Hjalmar says that the guests had it “straight to their faces”.

Hjalmar complains of overwork when actually he hardly does any work. Amusingly, being a lazy man, he claims of inventing a machine which would help him to restore dignity to his father and ensure a happy life for Hedvig. When Gregers asks him about his progress, he says that he has not yet gone very far. The invention is an illusion in his mind encouraged by Relling. His lies, pretence, boasting, all are comic.


Hjalmar is more comic when he declares that he cannot live with Hedvig and is leaving the house. He leaves but goes to drink. He returns home next morning and tells Gina that he has come to collect his stuff but collects nothing. He rejects Gina’s offer of coffee and bread-and-butter but later begins to eat and drink without being asked again. He appears to be hesitant. He wants to leave the house but is in no position to face the life alone. His whole behaviour is comic though it has a pathetic touch also.

Despite comic elements, the play is deeply moving with several sad situations. In Act I, the story by Hjalmar of the mishap which overtook his father is pathetic. He was unable to continue his studies because of his father’s bankruptcy and that it is painful to talk about the terrible catastrophe that overtook them:


The talk between Gregers and his father is quite moving revealing how badly Mr. Werle has tortured his wife by leading a dissolute life. He has also been unfair to his business-partner, Old Ekdal and tricked Hjalmar also by getting him married to a girl whom he himself seduced. At the end of Act I, we find Gregers leaving his father’s house forever. Mr. Werle thinks that Gregers is a neurotic.

In Act II we find Gina feeling the pinch of poverty and Hedvig waiting for Hjalmar to bring something to eat from the party. We pity her when she finds Hjalmar barehanded. Out of poverty they let one of their rooms to a lodger. Their misery is heightened by Hedvig’s eye-ailment. Hjalmar tells Gregers that Hedvig is the brightest joy and also the darkest sorrow in his and Gina’s lives for she would become blind.


In Act II, Hjalmar’s comment upon the misery of his father is very moving. It is humiliating to him to see his grey-haired father going about like a beggar and asking for copying work. He says that his father can rely upon him and can lean upon his strong shoulders.

In Act III, Hjalmar’s account of the role of Ekdal’s pistol is also pitiful. When Ekdal was to be imprisoned, he had this pistol and wanted to shoot himself but his cowardice stopped him. Hjalmar too tried to shoot himself not bearing his father’s disgrace but failed. The pathos rises when Gregers says that Hjalmar has, like the wild duck, dived down and taken firm hold of the sea weeds. He has landed in “a poisonous swamp”. According to him, Hjalmar has got “an insidious disease”. While our opinion about Gregers’ idealistic philosophy is not high yet we feel sorry for him also when his father says that Gregers has a diseased mind inherited from his mother, when Relling says that Gregers is suffering from severe inflammation of the conscience and when Gina says that Gregers had always been “a queer fish”.

The pathos deepens in Act IV. Gregers told Hjalmar that Gina was seduced by Mr. Werle before her marriage to Hjalmar. Gina confirms when Hjalmar asks her about it. He receives shock and accuses her of keeping him in “a swamp of deceit” and that his whole future would now be ruined. He cannot reconcile himself to the reality. Gina’s plight is now pitiable. When Gregers comes she says:


Gregers urges Hjalmar to accept the claims of the ideal and to adjust with new facts. But Hjalmar could not bear the burdens of life. He thinks to pay back Mr. Werle’s money he received as financial help, but finds it difficult too. Then he gets a bigger shock when he reads Mr. Werle’s letter for Hedvig confirming that Hedvig is Werle’s daughter. Unable to bear this reality he disowns Hedvig overall and says:


Hjalmar’s plight is now really very moving. The effect of Hjalmar's disowning Hedvig overwhelms her with the feeling that her father no longer loves her and shoots herself with a pistol. The calamity consists in the death of Hedvig and the ending becomes deeply poignant because of Hedvig’s death.