Hedvig as the "Wild Duck"

I agree with Mary McCarthy's statement about Hedvig being the "Wild Duck." Hedvig is perhaps the play's most pathetic figure by its innocent and martyred child. She is of uncertain parentage, belonging either to Hialmar or Werle and potentially passed from the former to the latter in a marriage designed to avoid public scandal. Hedvig's beloved father dispossesses her at the moment when her future is assured through Werle's beneficence. Hialmar even makes special contraptions for the duck and Hedvig identifies with it completely. …