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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 …

…This death is the logical conclusion to Hedvig's martyrdom as the play's victimized innocent, and she literally appears the bloodless victim. Hedvig finally becomes the wild duck in substituting for her as an object of sacrifice. The chilling or even violent quality of the cast's pity for the martyred Hedvig becomes clear in Gina and Hialmar's reconciliation over her corpse. Though they could not mutually claim her in life, she is certainly theirs in death.