HEDVIG: And there's an old bureau with drawers and flaps, and a big clock with figures that go out and in. But the clock isn't going now.
GREGERS: So time has come to a standstill in there — in the wild duck's domain.
HEDVIG: Yes. And then there's an old paint-box and things of that sort; and all the books.
GREGERS: And you read the books, I suppose?
HEDVIG: Oh, yes, when I get the chance. Most of them are English though, and I don't understand English. But then I look at the pictures. — There is one great big book called Harrison's History of London. It must be a hundred years old; and there are such heaps of pictures in it. At the beginning there is Death with an hour-glass and a woman. I think that is horrid. But then there are all the other pictures of churches, and castles, and streets, and great ships sailing on the sea.

This dialogue appears in Act III, offering a view into the space in the Ekdal household dedicated to the production of fantasy: the back room garret. As we recall, the garret is the home of the wild duck and dream-space of the more fanciful members of the Ekdal household. It is here that Hedvig daydreams her fantastic journeys, Ekdal theatrically returns to his hunting days, and Hialmar finds a diversion from his toil. Accordingly, the dialogue between Hedvig and Gregers lends the garret a frozen, mythic temporality. Its broken clock indicates that time has come to a standstill. The allegorical image of Death, the hourglass, and the woman suggest that a mythic or cosmic time is at work within. This mythic time becomes especially important with Hedvig's ultimate suicide, her death figuring in a sense as a revenge for the mysterious crime committed against the woods many generations ago. With this in mind, note that Hedvig does not so much read her history book as a chronicle than as a visual point of departure for her flights of fancy.