Alexandre Dumas once wrote, “If…I can exercise some influence over society; if, instead
of treating effects I can treat causes…” The mind and mental processes can affect and shape
human behavior. This is shown in the novel Hedda Gabler. In this novel, the author, Henrik
Ibsen, portrays Hedda as a manipulative and unhappy woman who is trapped in marriage. Like
Dumas, Henrik Ibsen concerned himself with problems of human behavior and morality in
society. The symbols and images in Hedda Gabler really show his naturalistic depiction of a
woman that is constricted by her society. This really shows how it was taking life away from
individuals. Also, the following articles show how society can really impact someone and how it
may affect him.
First, Hedda liked to manipulate others because she felt as if she didn’t have
independency. She tried to make the people around her feel powerless and trapped, so that she
could release her anger, which would certainly fill the “hole” in her, since she herself felt trapped
in her marriage. She is always living in the past. She always would respond to people very
rudely due to the fact that she didn’t feel independent. General Gabler’s pistols are an important
symbol in this novel. They show how she was brought up in a militaristic way and how she had a
masculine nature. She really wanted to be less feminine. However, she wasn’t able to handle her
own emotions and thought that her life was worthless at that point. She thinks that she would
find more peace in death than in life. So, the pistols literally kill her. All of these examples really
show how society can impact someone.
The article “The Pressures of Media and Society on Body Image” is a great article that
shows...
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..., if one thinks about it, the human mind and the emotional center can really
affect someone’s behavior. However, all of this can easily tie to society. Society put so much
pressure on us and also influences us far beyond we think about. In the novel Hedda Gabler,
Hedda is stuck in a marriage that she doesn’t want to be in. Making it worse is the fact that
society during those times always thought of women as second to men. As we know, this has
significantly changed, as today, women have many of the same occupations and jobs as men do.
However, I believe that there is still room for improvement, as many people can still be sexist,
even today. The articles also show how society can affect a person. More people need to have
the characteristic of being an individual or else they will never be able to be themselves, which
isn’t good for them, or society.
way she downed their inner feelings and did not treat them as real people . From
What her reasons for it were I don’t know. But she did a good job. She raised twelve children. She led a good life.”
She shows the nature of power and how it slowly slips away from the person’s grasp. First it corrupts the mind of a person and changes them, and then it slips away from their hands leaving them with nothing but arrogance, pride and
her will to survive by responding to the negativity that surrounded the lives of females, especially the
Hedda grew up with a general as a father, therefore living as she pleased in her higher statured aristocratic ways. She had freedom and a voice, which she never thought would be taken away. However her age began to show and she soon had to choose between a lonely life, or to comply with society’s rules. Hedda is meant to be married, have children and please her husband, but for Hedda this is not what life was about.
Hedda married Tesman, an academic student who supposed to have a potential success, not because she loves him, but just because as she said “It was a great deal more than any of my other admirers were offering”. In this quote she is showing her real feelings meaning that she never loves him and she just married him because he was the best option among the
lot to the point in which it not even sexist anymore. In the article Declaration of Sentiment and
...her to feel despair. Her misery resulted in her doing unthinkable things such us the unexplainable bond with the woman in the wallpaper.
Hedda Gabler is a play with an undoubtedly interesting main character; Hedda herself. While she may have her faults, neurotic traits and undeniable issues it would be glaringly ignorant to ignore the fact that she is, above all a tragic victim. In order to properly showcase how Hedda falls somewhat perfectly into the mould of a tragic victim we must first figure out what exactly a tragic victim is. The most prominent and fitting description seems to come from the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his ‘Poetics’, while his definition is actually of a tragic hero instead of victim it is never the less still an extremely accurate definition and is still able to depict both victims and heroes equally well; he tells us that a tragic victim –or hero- is usually of noble birth, had a tragic flaw that usually leads to their downfall, be a character that the audience can relate to and feel pity or fear for and that the fall of the character is at least partially of their own making. By this definition Hedda is most certainly a tragic victim, and there is little room to argue against this.
obedience to show that she is a weak and entirely dependent character. Nothing that she
Human society does not really change. The roles each gender plays in society has not changed drastically since the time of the ancient Greeks, and this goes to suggest that these roles are deeply rooted and possibly genetic. However chauvinistic Greek myths are telling the truth, which explains why they have influenced modern culture to the extent it has.
She was forced to cross beneath her social class and marry this commoner in the hopes that he would make a name for himself as a professor. As for love everlasting, Hedda disgustedly comments to Judge Brack, "Ugh -- don't use that syrupy word!" Rather than having become a happy newlywed who has found true love, "Hedda is trapped in a marriage of convenience" (Shipley 445). Hedda was raised a lady of the upper class, and as such she regards her beauty with high esteem. This is, in part, the reason she vehemently denies the pregnancy for so long.
her life. She longed to live an independent life, but struggled to earn a living wage with the jobs she
For one, brief hour she was an individual. Now she finds herself bound by masculine oppression with no end in sight, and the result is death.
Society is a social factors that has many ways in which its mold a individual and