Female Protagonist in Hedda Gabler and A Doll House

Hedda Gabler and A Doll House are indubitably two of Ibsen’s most well-known and finest works. In both, the central protagonists are women in strained marriages who do not accept societal norms. Both are independently-minded, but Nora in A Doll House still strongly feels the duty of marriage and motherhood, while Hedda in Hedda Gabler seems to think little of the institution of marriage and duty. Both A Doll House and Hedda Gabler were sensational in their times.

A Doll House, written in 1879, was Ibsen’s first foray into creating a sensation, soon to become his trademark. His subsequent Ghosts (1881) and Hedda Gabler (1890), among others, were scandals in their day, often even banned for periods of time, though now his canon is widely read the world over.

In both plays, the female protagonist is in a strained marriage, and takes drastic measures to leave that relationship. Nora has been married to Torvald for eight years, and has three children with him. However, she hides things from him and lies to him, i.e., her sweet tooth for macaroons, which he has forbidden, and, more importantly, the large loan from Krogstad. Nora hides, lies, and pleases – she plays the trophy wife for Torvald, but does as she wishes anyway. She does not do so in a cruel-hearted way, but she does so nonetheless. As the play goes on, she realizes that their marriage has been loveless, more “for show” than anything else, and has been based on trivial conversations and matters. She says to Torvald, “Eight whole years, no, more, even since we first knew each other – and never have we exchanged one serious word about serious things… [You] never loved me. You only thought how nice it was to be in love with me” (Ibsen 79-80). Nora was the “doll wife” in Tor...

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...Hedda knows what she wants and uses other people to get it. She is a manipulator, even a murderer in some readers’ eyes. However, the underlying reason she commits the actions she does stems from her wish to disregard her role in society. Again, like Nora, she makes choices for herself in a society where it is not her place to do so. Both of these plays turn nineteenth-century on its head. A sacred covenant, marriage in this light was seen as flawed, artificial, perhaps even destined for disaster. Both plays also leave with endings that are not clear-cut, or “well-made,” as the time period called for. The reader does not find out what happens to Nora after she leaves, nor what is to become of Tesmond and company post Heddda’s suicide; no stasis has been gained. “‘I do but ask….my call is not to answer,’” Ibsen wrote at one point. And indeed he asks with these plays.