jose ferre henrik ibsen, the author of the wild duck, wacalled idealist, skeptic, reformer, even pornographer. audiences of the 1880s were shocked by topics which well-bred people avoided. in an age which prized gentility, ibsen was scandalously provocative. he would not allow the appearance of respectability to conceal truth. at the same time, he recognized the danger of such revelations. a few years before the wild duck was written, he had aroused so much public hostility against the frankness of his play ghosts that he was labele an enemy of the people. upon reflection, he turned that accusation against himself into the title of still another play. the wild duck, some of the most severe attacks are directed against the so-called idealists. though ibsen's subjects-- contemporary corruption in clergy and business, sexual inequality, prudishness another victorian unmentionables-- were considered dangerous, his method of presentation was conventional. he used melodramatic devices, usually making quite explicit the division between good characters and bad. to make deceptively simple-looking pla