By including many symbols in the play that refer to his personal memories, Ibsen provides further evidence that proves The Wild Duck is an outcome of his personal struggles. Hedvig, who stands between Gregers' idealism and Hialmar's romantic self-deceptions, is the name of Ibsen's favorite sister. Providing Ibsen with his only family contact, she was deeply religious and tried to imbue her brother with her mystic beliefs. Hedvig, who tells Gregers she reads from an old picture book called The History of London, represents Ibsen's mysticism. As a small child he too was fascinated by this same book mentioned in the play, whose illustrations of castles and churches and sailboats bore his thoughts to romantic far off places. Hedvig says the book was left by an old sea captain whom they call "the Flying Dutchman," and this too is true of the book Ibsen had as a child. The "captain," a native of the town of Risor, had been first enslaved in the Barbary states and then imprisoned in England. He died the year Ibsen was born, and the author invested all his romantic dreams in this unknown tragic figure.