In the following essay, Johnston discusses the symbolic meaning that lies within The Wild Duck.

In 1906, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote to Clara Rilke about his cultural activities in Paris and noted:

But the most remarkable part of this very long day was the evening. We saw Ibsen's Wild Duck at the Antoine. Excellently rehearsed, with a great deal of care and shaping marvelous. Of course, by reason of certain differences in temperament, details were distorted, crooked, misunderstood. But the poetry! ... all its splendour came from the inside and almost to the surface. There was something great, deep, essential. Last Judgement. A finality. And suddenly the hour was there when Ibsen's majesty deigned to look at me for the first time. A new poet, whom we shall approach by many roads now that I know of one of them. And again someone who is misunderstood in the midst...