13th at Table: The Wild Duck

The number 13 is unquestionably a key theme in Ibsen's play, The Wild Duck. Below I have listed all noteworthy mentions of the number thirteen.

The First Act:

Werle: (Quietly, troubled.) I don’t think anybody noticed, Gregers.

Gregers: What?

Werle: Then you didn’t notice either?

Gregers: What should I have noticed?

Werle We were thirteen at table

Gregers: Really. We were thirteen at table?

Werle: As a rule, we prefer to be twelve.   –p211

Hjalmar is thirteenth at the father’s dinner table. When he returns home he denies his role as the thirteenth telling his wife and daughter: “There were about twelve—fourteen of us at table”  -p226

Hedvig is 13—dies on her 14^th birthday  -p232

Final Act:

Relling: Oh, life could be quite bearable, all the same, if only we were rid of the blessed moral bailiffs who badger us poor folk with their claims of idealism

Gregers: In that case I’m glad my destiny is what it is.

Relling: May I ask—what is your destiny?

Gregers: To be thirteenth at table

Relling: The devil it is.   –p287

Considering the conflation of Christ and Judas within Gregers character, and considering the salience of the Last Supper, in which Christ and Judas are arguably the central figures, I began my search of the number 13 in hopes of discovering whether Gregers was modeled off of Christ or Judas. 

Instead, what I found was a further conflation of good and evil within the number 13. 

In Judaism, 13 is considered to be among the holiest of numbers and is equated with God (HaShem), unity, mercy, and love. "Twelve is the number of maximal differentiation. It is the number of lines that border a cube, and according to Chazal, all of reality." As you can see below, the twelve border lines of the cube can all be drawn in such a way that they all connect in the center. This center connection is considered to be the 13th bond and thus the central force of unity. Jewish tradition points to the twelve tribes of Israel who are connected by their father Jacob, later called Israel. 

In Hebrew, each letter also has a corresponding numerical value. When added, the number values of the letters in the Hebrew word for "one" equal 13. The Hebrew word for love also has a numerical value of thirteen. Biblically, God is equated with both love and unity, thus the number 13 is the number that best exemplifies God. 

It was not until Christianity that 13 was paired with negative connotations. It was Judas who betrayed Christ, an act foreshadowed at the Last Supper where there were 13 at table (12 disciples + Christ). What is most interesting about the Last Supper is that it is at this point that both the positive and negative connotations of 13 meet. Judaism (assume for a minute they believe Christ to be the son of God), would say that Christ is 13th at table--that he is the point of unification that holds all twelve of the disciples together. Christianity however, skipping ahead to the end of the story, places Judas as the 13th saying that it is he who betrays Christ, thus making him the most lowly and last member at the table.

Caught between these two traditions is Gregers. He is simultaneously the savior and betrayer of Hjalmar and his family. I would suggest then, that best reading of Gregers is a Dostoyevskian reading. The freedom that Gregers forces onto the world simultaneously frees and condemns it. This is something which I discussed in greater depth in my previous blog. 

I would recommend www.betemunah.org for further research on the history and significance of 13. It is from this site that I have taken any non-Ibsen quotes.