Hedda Character Analysis

In Act two, Hedda’s lust for power is shown, but a more personal Machiavellian power. Hebba is amused by the pistols that her father gave to her; that give her the power to destroy people lives. When you point a gun at a person, you hold that person's life under your control. This is exactly Hedda goal in Act two between Brack and Hedda’s desires are to feel that she has complete control over someone or something. Judge Brack represents the upper class, an example of how the highly powerful become corrupted. In the middle of Act two Hedda is described as "dressed to receive callers" while leading her revolver. When Hedda fires a shot in the Judge's presence that demonstration Hedda uncontrollable personality. This should be no surprise that this pistol is the very tool that Hedda kill herself with and she gives the other to Lovborg in order to carry out her romantic ideal of the perfect husband. With the pistol, not only shows Hedda's independence flaunted, but proves Hedda potential masculinity and evidence for a woman who will not live under her powerless stereotypical role in the Victorian era. We see from his first appearance in the play, how the Judge raises the stakes for George Tesman, by telling him that Lovborg is gunning for his job. We suspect that Judge Brack made the whole story up as a way of getting his wife to be his mistress and also to take control of Tesman household because of his love for Hedda. Hedda does attempts to gain some power over Judge Brack by flirting with him, meanwhile Brack is slowly pulling Hedda into his control. Irony occurs when the audience knows something that the character or characters do not. Irony emphasizes the inconsistency between appearances and reality - which conf...

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...her pistols. Judge suggests that it will come where you have to go to court. Hedda states, "I’d rather die" to which Brack says, "People say such things. But do not do them." This quote circle around one huge theme in the story that deals with the social boundaries. In the real world, people are very concerned with, acting normally, keeping up appearances, and playing their role in life. Hedda shooting herself in the head, doing what people absolutely did not do in the Victorian Era, Hedda breaks free from the social mandates governing her everyday action. Brack never gets to sleep with the woman he has been lusting for, and overall, Hedda wins the battle of position of power by getting the last laugh by proving people absolutely will do such things , by freeing herself from Victorian era values and maintaining her aesthetic ideal, when she kills herself.