Comparing the Truth in A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler

Truth Exposed in A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler

"No other dramatist had ever meant so much to the women of the stage," claimed Elizabeth Robins, the actress who performed the title role in the English-language premier of Hedda Gabler in London in 1891 (Farfan 60). Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian dramatist and poet whose works are notorious for their unveiling of the truths that society preferred to keep hidden. Ibsen was sensitive to women's issues and through his works, he advocated for women's rights, a controversial issue for a male writer in the 19th century. Although Ibsen has alluded to the fact that he was not a part of the women's movement, his brave portrayal of women in their socially confined positions can earn him the title of 'feminist writer.'

In two of Ibsen's most famous works, A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler, the main characters are females who strive to be self-motivated beings. Because of the male-oriented society that dominates their lives, which resembles the world women had to deal with at the time when Ibsen created his works, the confined characters demonstrate their socially imposed roles. "Ibsen's Nora is not just a woman arguing for female liberation; she is much more. She embodies the comedy as well as the tragedy of modern life," insisted Einar Haugen, a doyen of American Scandinavian studies, over twenty years later, after feminism has resurfaced as an international movement (Templeton 111). Many people admire Ibsen for portraying Hedda and Nora as women who are able to take action and escape the conventional roles expected of them.

Ibsen uses the role of motherhood to display battles women must fight involving their desires to be independent individuals and the directio...

... middle of paper ...

...Companion to Ibsen. Ed. James McFarlane. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994.

Garton, Janet "Ibsen: The Middle Plays." In James McFarlane (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen. Cambridge University Press. 1994

Goodman, Lizbeth In James McFarlane (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen. Cambridge University Press. 1994

Hemmer, Bjorn. "The dramatist Henrik Ibsen." http://odin.dep.no/ud/nornytt/ibsen.html

Ibsen, Henrik. Hedda Gabler. Four Major Plays. Trans. James Arup. Ed. James McFarlane. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.

Saari, Sandra. In James McFarlane (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen. Cambridge University Press. 1994

Tammany, Jane Ellert. Henrik Ibsen's Theatre Aesthetic and Dramatic Art. New York: Philosophical Library, 1980. Published in Theatre Journal (December 1982),

Templeton, Joan. Ibsen's Women. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997.