Ibsen's Wild Duck

WHEN IBSEN MAILED THE MANUSCRIPT OF The Wild Duck to his publisher in September 1884, he noted in his covering letter that the method of the new play gave it a place apart in his work. He would say no more, he added; the critics would find enough to squabble about and interpret. Ibsen's prediction has proved abundantly correct. Although some have found novelty in its mixture of tragedy and farce, in its involved, equivocal exposition, or in its notoriously squalid setting, most have agreed that the novelty of The Wild Duck is in its structure. As the title alerts us to see, the play is built around the wild duck which, though it remains unglimpsed by the audience, becomes the most instrumental element in the drama. Ibsen uses it to bring out the nature and relations of the characters and to point the way to our understanding of the course of events. In fact, his choice of title is our best clue to the meaning of his teasing remarks, for The Wild Duck all but ensures recognition of the peculiar concentric arrangement of the play.