Tokay; Photographs; Chamberlains (Similes)
In the play's first act, when Hialmar is attempting to fit in with the hoity-toity chamberlains at Werle's party, they are discussing the ways in which sunlight can affect a harvest of wine grapes. To illustrate this point, one of the gentlemen in attendance attempts to make things more intelligible to Hialmar by saying "Tokay is like photographs, Mr. Ekdal: they both need sunshine" (8). Noticing that this is somewhat rude to her guest, Mrs. Sörby then makes a joke at the chamberlains' expense: "And it's exactly the same with Chamberlains—they, too, depend very much on sunshine" (8). While, on the surface, this is merely a quick turn of phrase that pokes fun at the chamberlains' grubbing ways, it belies a deeper figurative assertion about the importance of favor and favorable treatment. Like wine (which touches on luxury) and photographs (which, as mentioned, touch on elements of editing and selective truth), people too may need to be lavished with positivity and light, or else their lives may sour like wine or be ruined like photographs. After all, by the end of the play, we find out, though Hialmar resents it, that he is one such person.
Common Clerk (Simile)
At the end of Act 1, when Gregers confronts his father at the party, his father scolds him for not doing anything of value with his life. Specifically, Werle scolds him for working at the Höidal works, "drudging away like a common clerk, and not drawing a farthing more than the ordinary monthly wage" (13). In this simile, we see strong evidence of Werle's elitist mindset and focus on public opinion/status. Though Gregers apparently finds his life at the works to be perfectly satisfactory (otherwise he would not have kept to it for 15 years), his father wants to have his progeny do something greater and earn more money. Despite the fact that Werle seems to be turning over a new leaf with his marriage to Mrs. Sörby, here we still see vestiges of his old, greedier thinking.
Hedvig as a Bird (Simile)
Of course, one of the major symbolic correspondences in the play is between the wild duck that lives in the attic and Hialmar's daughter Hedvig. This association is cemented not only through the drama's plot and background, but also by the play's language. For example, in Act 2, just after Gregers arrives at the Ekdal home and meets Hedvig for the first time, Hialmar informs Gregers of her condition and the sadness it brings him and his wife: "Oh, you can imagine we haven't the heart to tell her of it. She dreams of no danger. Gay and careless and chirping like a little bird, she flutters onward into a life of endless night" (26). Here, note that not only is she like a bird in that she is unaware of the danger before her (dually meaningful in the sense of her blindness and her ultimate death), but also that this is a comparison that precedes even the first appearance of the wild duck in the play (the duck itself is revealed later in Act 2). This is thus an element not only in the play's symbolic language but also in its use of foreshadowing.
Gregers as a Clever Dog (Metaphor)
At the end of Act 2, Gregers enters into a brief moment of self-deprecation, saying that he thinks his own name to be hideous. Just then, Hialmar asks Gregers what he would like to be if he were not Gregers Werle, to which he replies, "If I should choose, I should like best to be a clever dog [...] one that goes to the bottom after wild ducks when they dive and bite themselves fast in tangle and sea-weed, down among the ooze" (33). This is lost on Hialmar and his family, but what Gregers is really doing here is setting up a metaphor: he views the Ekdal family as an injured duck lying in the depths of his father's deceit. Accordingly, he wants to be like the hunting dog and rescue them, ironically taking up the same hero impulse as his own resented father. The double irony, then, comes in the fact that Gregers in fact ruins the Ekdals' lives with his honesty.
Hedvig as an Animal (Simile)
In Act 5, after being confronted with the fact of his daughter's death, Hialmar voices his regret for his earlier anger and revulsion towards her, saying that, only moments ago, he had "hunted her from [him] like an animal" (86). This, of course, finalizes the symbolic parallel that has been set up throughout the play between Hedvig and the wild duck, and the other imagery from the scene of her death underscores this correspondence as well. All in all, we are left with the impression that Hedvig, like the wild duck itself, was an innocent creature, shot dead by the careless actions of others around her.
