The Wild Duck Lesson Plan

What does this section reveal about Hjalmar Ekdal’s personality? What does this imply by extension about Gregers’s personality?

In this section, we learn that Hjalmar Ekdal is not quite so capable and righteous as Gregers makes himself out to be. We are told as much by Dr. Relling, who, in his treatment of Hjalmar, has observed histrionic and self-mythologizing tendencies. But we also see it visibly when Hjalmar returns home to his wife and tells her that he must postpone his departure because he is not quite "ready" to leave yet. Hjalmar may talk a big game, but his actions don’t measure up to his words – and this gives us cause to doubt the man betting on him, Gregers.