gregers' father had cheated hjalmar's father, old ekdal, years ago in a shady deal for which old ekdal took the blame. and gregers' father had apparently had a romantic affair with the very gina who is now such a devoted wife to hjalmar. there is the possibility that hedvig's poor eyesight may have been inherited from her actual father if werle is indeed her father. the wild duck deals with certain questions. should the truth be told? can the family endure truth, or must they continue to live according to the life lie which the doctor maintains most people require? ibsen might have stopped there with an interesting play about people the audience would learn to understand, but he wanted more, a larger theme. and for that, he needed a symbol, the wild duck of the play title. he allows for the realistic use of the creature by making it part of a menagerie living in an attic within the ekdal house. apparently, hjalmar's father was once a man able to indulge his hobby of hunting in the forest. now his hunting is confined to shooting tame animals in this collection of which the duck is a pri