Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler portrays the societal roles of gender and sex through Hedda as a character trying to break the status quo of gender relations within the Victorian era. The social conditions and principles that Ibsen presents in Hedda Gabler are of crucial importance as they “constitute the molding and tempering forces which dictate the behavior of all the play's characters” with each character part of a “tightly woven social fabric” (Kildahl). Hedda is an example of perverted femininity in a depraved society intent on sacrificing to its own self-interest and the freedom and individual expression of its members. It portrays Nineteenth Century unequal relationship problems between the sexes, with men being the independent factor and women being the dependent factor. Many of the other female characters are represented as “proper ladies” while also demonstrating their own more surreptitious holdings of power through manipulation. Hedda Gabler is all about control and individualism through language and manipulation and through this play Ibsen shows how each gender acquires that or is denied. Hedda is a product of the nineteenth century, when women were ordained to become either proper old maids (like George's aunts) or modest housekeepers (like Mrs. Elvsted), however Hedda is an anomaly. She has been raised by a dominating father and rebels against his leadership at the same time she revels in his power. General Gabler taught Hedda to ride and shoot, which symbolizes the origin of her attraction with the violent and the romantic, Hedda's intense preoccupation with pistols, her desire to have control over the fate of another individual and take part in the public life of men, her rejection of family life shown in her at times mal... ... middle of paper ... ... intricacies of the social milieu of the time and place” (Kildalh). Works Cited Embler, Weller. "A Note on Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler"" College English 7.8 (1946): 456-58. JSTOR. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. Kildahl, Erling E. "The "Social Conditions and Principles" of "Hedda Gabler"" Educational Theatre Journal 13.3 (1961): 207-13. JSTOR. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. Spacks, Patricia M. "The World of Hedda Gabler." The Tulane Drama Review 7.1 (1962): 155- 64. JSTOR. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. Thresher, Tanya. "'Vinløv I Håret': The Relationship Between Women, Language, And Power In Ibsen's Hedda Gabler." Modern Drama 51.1 (2008): 73-83. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. Thresher, Tanya. "The Performance Of Sex And Gender In Oslo Nye Dukketeatrets Hedda Gabler." Scandinavian Studies 78.4 (2006): 405-418. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Henrik Isben’s “Hedda Gabler” is a problem play that deals with several social conflicts that a newlywed woman experiences when we arrives back to her home town from her honeymoon. As the daughter of General Gabler, Hedda Gabler has been born into and grown accustom to being at the top of her town’s social hierarchy. Because of Hedda’s social status and undeniable beauty she has the ability to control and manipulate those around her – but to a certain extent. The time the play was set in, women did not have a lot of freedom to do anything outside of getting married, having children and attending to the house. Hedda did not fit this mould that was created for women of that time. She was not very maternal individual and reactive negatively whenever the subject of a possible pregnancy was mentioned. Hedda also had intimacy issues and avoided forming a close and personal bond with another human being. When she and Eilert Løvborg were beginning to develop a friendship the moment they started getting intimate she pulled her pistol out on him and told him to leave or she would shoot him. Eilert Løvborg fed her hunger for life she lived vicariously through his stories about his less than honourable, drunken nights. Soon Eilert started meant more to Hedda than she was willing to admit and she pushed him away. Hedda is unhappy with the way her life has unfolded because she is forced to form intimate relationships, her marriage to George Tesman, a possible baby, and being forced to spend time with Judge Brack. Henrik Isben’s “Hedda Gabler” resolves the thematic issue of social constraints through Hedda’s beautiful illusion that acts of freedom and courage do exist.
She was stuck in a loveless marriage with a man she only married for the money, yet some find it selfish that she killed herself at the end. The societal norm of women in the Victorian Era is that they were property of their husbands and had no free will. Hedda challenges that throughout the play as she tries to control people’s lives rather than her life being controlled by others. She makes her own decisions without asking for permission, even if they hurt someone else and benefitted her. When she threatened to no longer have free will due to blackmail from the Judge, Hedda felt that is was more important to remain free and under the influence of no one than continue her life. Another controversial topic from the play is whether she was pregnant. Many women did not like Hedda to begin with because of how manipulative and deceiving she was; she was a femme fatale from 1890. When the play hinted that she might be pregnant, the ending of Hedda killing herself, and ultimately her baby, did not sit well with women. The fact that she could have been pregnant and never gave that baby a chance to live made her decision to kill herself even more selfish that it already was. Hedda’s story may have ended in death but this play was another way for Ibsen to show that women can be independent and get what they want, whether or not it is what society wants. Ultimately,
"Compare and contrast the characters of Hedda Gabler and Miss Julie in the plays by Ibsen and Strindberg. Support your findings with comments on the writers attitudes to their characters."
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.
Gainor, J. Ellen., Stanton B. Garner, and Martin Puchner. The Norton Anthology of Drama, Shorter Edition. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. Print.
Ibsen, Henrik. Hedda Gabler. Four Major Plays. Trans. James Arup. Ed. James McFarlane. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.
Ibsen, Henrik. “Hedda Gabler”. Trans. Rold Fjelde. IBSEN Four Major Plays: Volume I. New York: Signet Classic, 1992.
Ibsen created an environment for women to question the society they lived in. Nora and Hedda, two feminists living in a masculine household bereft of happiness, desired to evade their unhappy life at home under the guidance of a man. Eventually, both women escaped from their husband’s grasp, but Hedda resorted to suicide in order to leave. Nora agreed with Lois Wyse by showing her strengths with pride to everybody, while Hedda hid her strengths like a coward by killing herself. Ibsen used numerous literary elements and techniques to enhance his writing and to help characterize the two protagonists.
The characters in the play are consistent with the stereotypical ones of the Victorian era. Women were expected to get married and stay at home, being seen as unintelligent and fragile. Hedda Gabler is neither of things, thus emphasizing Henrik Ibsen’s point of female oppression in the Victorian era. Hedda’s character does not present the typical affectionate trait a woman would have towards her husband; The idea that women were supposed to get marriage and have children early during the Victorian era. The male role was expected to be extreme dominance over the woman, and to be the bread winner. Henrik Ibsen’s reflection of the Victorian era in the story, Hedda Gabler emphasizes on the social standards imposed upon women and men. The play questions the power dynamics distributed between the two genders, the concept that a woman’s proper role in her marriage is to tend her husband, while the man’s role is to provide for the family and uphold its reputation. Henrik Ibsen presents two characters who are victims of this drastic social code and the measures of both characters have to take in order to structure their ideals around a strict society. When both characters ideals conflict with the social mores of society, the result is often unsatisfying or tragic. For example, Hedda’s lust for power in the story is a trait not often found in women during the Victorian period. The role of power is reserved for only the men in Victorian society. In order to behold power, Hedda sacrifices her stereotypical image as a woman. Hedda does not display the typical loving wife role, but rather adopts a vicious and manipulating female character trait. George Tesman breaks this stereotype as well, by depending on Hedda to get his professorsh...
Ibsen, Henrik. Hedda Gabler. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Trans. Michael Meyer. Third Edition. New York: Norton, 1981. 1443-1507.
The characters of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House and Hedda Gabler have problems relating to and surrounding their feelings towards the expectations presented to them by their society. The motivation behind their actions denote a fear of losing their respectability and status in their towns while implying a desire to be free of the expectations on them. The looming punishment of losing reputation and credibility in a community forces the characters in these plays to tiptoe around each other while trying to gain an upper hand and not be exposed in a possible scandal. The character’s actions are driven by a fear of losing respect in the community, being deemed disgraceful by neighbors, and damaging the character they have been building in the eyes
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”.
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.
1. Ibsen, Henrik. Hedda Gabler. The Bedford Introduction to Drama. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford Books, 1996. 672-709.
George Brandes once insisted that the only way literature could be made into a vital and living piece of art would be by "subjecting problems to debate" Indeed, it was the `problem' at the heart of Henrik Ibsen's plays that caused most of the controversy that surrounded them. Whereas other theatrical productions of Ibsen's time adhered to a standard plot and set of characters, Ibsen chose to break free of conventions by introducing topical issues into his drama, challenging contemporary assumptions about the role of women, the institution of marriage and the state of society.