The theme of Henrik Ibsen's play The Wild Duck is that those who work to reveal the "truth" in life in order to do good do not always end up doing good, and do not necessarily even know what the truth is. In Ibsen's play, the role of the truth-finder and truth-teller is played by Gregers Werle. Werle's self-appointed task is to awaken his friend Hjalmar Ekdal to the truth of Ekdal's marriage to Gina. It is Werle's intention to make the marriage better, to save the marriage, to make the Ekdal family stronger. However, precisely the opposite occurs. Werle's mission in the name of truth turns into tragedy for the Ekdals. Today, Werle would be seen as a co-dependent busybody who has stuck his nose where it did not belong, and the results would be seen as predictably disastrous. Aligned with the same theme, and just as importantly, the play is saying that the self-important truth-teller who tries to do good by spreading that truth would do the world a lot more good if he would first face the truth about himself. Instead, Gregers remains in denial about his own shortcomings and as a result sets out to do good in the world but only destroys like a bull in a china shop.
It is certainly not that Hjalmar is the strongest and most admirable of men, and therefore in no need of being awakened to the reality of his marriage and life. To the contrary, he is a weak man, a frightened man, in a marriage which could certainly be improved greatly. In other words, there is a good argument that Gregers is correct in his assessment of the marriage as far as it and Hjalmar needing improvement. The problem is twofold. In the first place, if the truth be told, every individual is in need of improvement, of awakening, and of finding and facing the truth. The same can be said of marriage. No marriage exists which could not be improved---in compassion, communication, love, equality, respect.
At the same time, Hjalmar and his marriage are parts of the huma...