Wild Duck #2

The motif of decay develops over the length of the play and shows up in several different ways. The first being positive, while at the dinner party the guests discuss what makes a good wine, and the year is important to telling if the wine is good or not.

Hjalmar Is there a difference between the years?
The Fat Guest: Oh that's rich!

Overtime the wine is decaying which adds to the flavor, and depending on the year determines the greatness of the wine. So in the beginning of the novel the motif of decay is attached to wealth, class, superiority to lower classes. Hjalmar doesn't know the difference between the years in the wine he drinks and the other guests make fun of him for his ignorance. Just a little bit later the bald guest comments on Hjalmar's ignorance.

The Bald Guest Tokay wines are like photographs Mr. Ekdal...

I think that Ibsen chooses to mentions photographs right after the wine to make the connection to Hjalmar not only being ignorant to the ages of wines but also to reality. Wine in this example serves a symbol for Hjalmar's ignorance, much like his photographs do. Eventually throughout the novel Hjalmar's ignorance decays though until he finally learns the truth.

The motif of decay occurs in Act 3 again accompanied by photographs ignorance of Hjalmar. When Hjalmar is talking to Hedvig about his decaying strength and he expresses his wishes for Hedvig to not use the brush because of her decaying eyes he says the stage directions become very interesting.

Hjalmar But don't ruin your eyes! Hear me? I won't take the blame; you can take the blame yourself--you hear me?
Hedvig (at work retouching) Yes, yes, sure I will.

The interesting thing is that right when Hjalmar mentions Hedvig going blind Ibsen writes in that Hedvig begins retouching. As Hedvig's eye sight decays, more and more retouching is done to photos, which seems to me like Hjalmar and Hedvig are almost retouching reality for them and choosing to be ignorant to certain aspects of their lives. For example Hedvig going blind and Old Werle going blind.

Another form of decay that become important later in the novel is the decay of memory

Gina No. Good Lord, I'd almost forgotten that old affair

Gina claims that her memory of the affair she had with Old Werle is fading, however I think that she is lying. I think what she means to say is that she wants to forget the affair and that it meant nothing to her, however this message is not conveyed to Hjalmar, which causes him to get incredibly angry. The decay of memory shows the death of ignorance in the story. What was almost forgotten becomes known and with that knowledge comes the end of decay