Analysis Of The Book ' Hedda Gabler ' Essay

Ambiguity is a continuous battle within everyone 's mind. People are constantly pondering about one’s trustworthiness. Human beings are always questioning one another 's intentions and if there exists an ulterior motive in one’s mind. Trust is not easily earned from one another. This kind of motif is shown in many works of literature. For example, Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen shows the ways of character moral ambiguity and its way in deceiving others; this is shown through the character Judge Brack. Judge Brack is portrayed to be a good friend of George Tesman and Hedda Gabler Tesman, a psychological trickster and manipulator who is ultimately revealed to be a morally ambiguous character.

Setting and tone are both very significant within a play. With setting you're able to know the time and place of the events that are taking place, and what influences the character`s actions and behaviour. With the information regarding the setting you can determine how the play specifically reflects on the society that it takes place in, and what influence it has over the characters. The reader should be able to visualize the play with the reference of the setting. In addition, tone helps set the mood which is an crucial effort to determine the language of the character. The tone justifies the attitude of the narrator or the character's viewpoint.

In his work “On the Scarlet Letter,” D.H. Lawrence addresses the controversial character of Hester Prynne. He is just one of many critics who have analyzed Nathaniel Hawthorne’s fictional character, where some look to her as a hero and others blatantly shame her for her sin. Lawrence makes up the latter of this crowd, and is able to prove his case in a very meaningful manner. The critic believes that Hawthorne sugarcoats Hester’s image, and tries to make it look as if she is the victim of the tale. Disregarding this sympathy, he addresses the root cause of her sin rather than its consequences. As he writes, he uses a multitude of literary techniques to help convince readers of Hester’s seemingly evil character, using descriptive diction, a

Throughout the years, different forms of literature  have generally shown women as weaker than men. They have played archetypes such as the mother archetype or the lover which have traits less desirable than the roles that men would take. These archetypes tend to limit their personalities and they become characters that are solely there for inconveniencing the hero. Stereotypes for women have affected these archetypes, but throughout history many people have made efforts to change these archetypes and make them more desirable. Even though archetypes for women have been shown as weak, it has changed throughout the years.

Throughout many pays and novels, women have had important roles of helping form the main characters, in the way they think, move or change the story. Women have always been subordinate to men all through history, but in plays, novels, short stories, etc, they have been given large enforcing roles, showing the power within women. William Shakespeare and Sophocles use guilt, pride, and influence to demonstrate the importance of the women’s role to support the main characters in both the plays of Macbeth and Antigone.

In Macbeth, one of the most tragic and well known plays, William Shakespeare changes women’s part in society. During this time period, women are known to be both mentally and physically weaker than men. Women are called to be only housewives. Shakespeare reflected the image of women in society by giving the men bigger leads in his plays. Only in a few of Shakespeare's plays did he give women strong leading roles. Macbeth is one of the few plays where women play a more powerful role than the men. In Macbeth, he gives the women unusual traits like manipulation and betrayal. In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, women like Lady Macbeth , the trio witches, and Lady Macduff portray non-feminine traits.

The desire for power is the main driving force for many characters. A power struggle is a common recurring event in literature, whether it is a character trying to escape someone else’s power, gain power for themselves, or both. In Hedda Gabler, the main character, Hedda struggles with having power over others and her position in society. Hedda has not only a struggle manipulating those around her, but also trying to free herself of those that try to “own” her.

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

Hedda Gabler was a play written about a newly wedded bride who is bored with her life and begins manipulating the people around her. Hedda does this because she feels trapped in the oppressive society that dictates that she has to be this wonderful housewife who obeys her husband and is happy all the time. This leads her to her manipulative ways, Hedda wants to feel like she is in control at all times due to the lack of control that women had during this period in time. This is were feminism comes to play, had Hedda had some control in her life that was acceptable in society it is unlikely Hedda would feel the need to find control through manipulation. Hedda is portrayed as the woman who is evil and manipulative, and just a monster, which are

One way these women are oppressed in the bourgeois society is by having their values and beliefs belittled by those around them. In Ibsen’s play, Hedda Gabler is belittled by having her fathers’ pistols taken away from her. Hedda takes pleasure in using her father’s pistols. After discovering that George Tesman, her husband, is unable to afford the things Hedda wants, she says, “…at least I’ve got one thing to amuse myself with. My pistols, George... General Gabler’s pistols” (800). However, her husband George Tesman immediately expresses his disapproval by saying, “No, for the love of God, Hedda, dearest, don’t touch those dangerous things.” Women are not supposed to associate themselves with pistols. Pistols contain masculine traits, such as power and aggression -- all of which a woman should not be in a bourgeois society. Not only does this reinforce the stereotype of femininity, it inhibits Hedda from her pleasures, which is oppressive in itself.

Women are a very important part of this world although they are sometimes not portrayed that way. One would think they would be seen as significant because of the fact that women make up almost half of the world’s population. Throughout all of history, females have been considered the weaker sex. In the play, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, women are portrayed as weak minded and unfaithful. The inability to correctly make important life decisions, a weakened mental state, and complete obedience to men all contribute to this point.

The reflection of women in literature during the late eighteen-hundreds often features a submissive and less complex character than the usual male counterpart, however Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler features a women who confines herself to the conformities that women were to endure during that time period but separates herself from other female characters by using her intelligence and overall deviousness to manipulate the men in her life and take a dominant presence throughout the play. Hedda challenges the normal female identity of the time period by leaving the stereotype of the “quiet, subservient housewife” through her snide and condescending remarks as well as her overall spoiled aristocratic demeanor.

In the Middle Age literature, women are often presented or meant to come off as an unimportant character; which can also reflect on how the author wants the women character represent. Women are usually shunned, have no say or control in what they do; due to what men desire; like Ophelia and Gertrude did in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But these female characters that I will discuss are women with power, control, and a voice. Majority of the female character’s appearances are made to represent wickedness, evil, or a seducer who challenges a man belief; and does not symbolize perfect women.

Hedda has been interpreted as an “unreal, as a defective woman, as vicious and manipulative in nature, as a failed New Woman, or as a woman who is afraid of sex” (Björklund 1). She also could be seen as a woman who is afraid of sex or her own sexuality because homosexuality wasn’t accepted like it is today. According to Björklund, “Hedda’s masculinity defeats the dysfunctional masculinities of Tesman and Lovborg, but, in the bathe with Brack’s hegemonic masculinity, Hedda’s female masculinity becomes absorbed into the dominant structures. Hedda desires masculinity as represented by Brack—power and control—but, in the end, that masculinity is what kills her; she shoots herself with one of her father’s pistols, and her masculinity is absorbed into the patriarchy. Hedda’s masculinity is rejected, but what it represents—power and control—is mirrored by Brack, whose masculinity is reconstructed: he is the one cock of the walk” (Björklund

When the play was written, Hedda, being a woman, did not have many rights and had to do what was expected of a