Journal #2: The Wild Duck

With the motif of sickness, Ibsen is using illness to explain what happens when you are surrounded by lies. He ties in decay because that's what happens to you emotionally. When surrounded by lies, it is hard to know what is the truth. The sickness most common in the book is blindness in Hjalmar, Werle, and Hedvig. Their lives are mostly lies. Hedvig doesn't even know that Werle is her dad because she cannot "see" the lie she is living. Hjalmar doesn't "see", until Gregers makes it apparent that Hedvig isn't his daughter and Werle is supporting her with money by passing it off as his photography pay.