Hedda Gabler Analysis

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen is a play about Hedda, a woman living in Christiana, Norway in the 1860’s who manipulates others, but her efforts produce negative results. During this era, there were Victorian values and ethics which were followed by almost all. The main values comprised of women always marrying and, their husbands taking care of them. Women were always accompanied by chaperone and were not allowed to be left alone with an unfamiliar male. It was Bertrand Russell who said “It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly”. This quote brings light to how Hedda acts on a daily basis where she is driven by possessions. In Hedda Gabler the theme of internal pressure is portrayed throughout the play. This can be seen through Hedda’s greed and materialism, her uncaring attitude and her manipulative personality.

Firstly, Hedda is shown as a very uncaring person towards the people around her. She shows that with many different actions such as when she burns the manuscript she acts as if she hasn’t done anything wrong. Tesman says “Burn’t! Burn’t Eilert’s manuscript!” Hedda says “Don’t scream so. The servant might hear you” Tesman says “Burnt! Why, good God-! No, no, no!

She is shown to be manipulative, greedy/materialistic and uncaring towards everybody. After a long analysis of her actions one could believe that she is a victim of her very own internal pressures. Research has shown that people with personality disorders who manipulate others personality tend to live a rather paranoid life because they always want to gain one thing or the other from the people around. When they don’t get what they want; the discontent makes them do drastic things that could cause harm to themselves or