Essay on Othello and Hedda Gabler: Breaking from Tradition

She shows herself mentally unfit to fight off the verbal attacks of Iago, which are demeaning to her: “her tongue she oft bestows on me”; “chides with thinking”; “Bells in your parlors, wildcats in your kitchen / Saints in your injuries, devils being offended.” So Desdemona intervenes on Emilia’s behalf with: “O, fie upon thee, slanderer!” directed to Iago. She continues to critique the ancient’s answers to her questions:  “These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i' the alehouse” and “O heavy ignorance! thou praisest the worst best.” Desdemona is Emilia’s protectress against her husband.

She is then disowned by Barbantio with no further words directed to her by him but is referenced as a liar and should be kept on watch for her conniving ways by him towards Othello. Which then begins Shakespeare’s in depth writing on Othello and Desdemona’s relationship where she is as “a child to chiding” (4.2.119-120). Not even a moment after her father leaves Othello commands Iago to tell his wife, Emilia, to tend to Desdemona as a babysitter. Irony occurs within (2.1.169-171) where Desdemona challenges Iago and stands as an independent woman for Emilia objecting to his conclusion, that women no matter how beautiful or intelligent play the same “foul pranks”. However, as Othello’s jealousy and rage arises throughout the play it seems as her character has to fight even harder to breathe under his control; symbolic for her death of suffocation. Desdemona is a gentle women living under her love’s control with no power to object even if she had opposed this type of controlling relationship. As a higher class woman she had more power and respect over other women characters such as Emilia or Bianca, but is this dominance enough to feel in control of oneself? It is believed that Shakespeare added the 2 other

Women form an important part of each society, however their role and importance to its function are often times overlooked. Society is/was organized and directed by men. All of the most important positions and purposes within it`s routine were filled by males. This societal organization is often times reflected in many pieces of literature of various time periods, however there are texts in which contrary to the patriarchal society models, women are given substantial importance within the plot. Homer`s The Odyssey, Heart of Darnkness by Joseph Conrad and Aeschylus`s Oresteia each demonstrate or conceal female importance in a given society.

Brabantio’s rage, among other reasons, necessitate that Desdemona live with Iago and Emilia during the Moor’s campaign in Cyprus against the Turks. While awaiting the arrival of Othello’s ship at the seaport of Cyprus, Desdemona shows herself an intelligent, educated debater. She grows tired of Iago’s derogatory comments directed at his wife, and she quite matter-of-factly states her mind: “O, fie upon thee, slanderer!” She continues to critique the ancient’s answers to her questions:  “These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i' the alehouse” and “O heavy ignorance! thou praisest the worst best.” She is not fearful or reticent in the least.

In the play Othello, jealousy is shown to be very evident through the actions of the characters. Jealousy is an emotion that everyone shares, and it is ultimately responsible for the tragic ending of the play. Everyone feels jealous at certain times of their lives, and this feeling can cause people to do irrational things. This human emotion also shows people to be weak in the sense that they are never happy with what they have. Shakespeare shows through Othello, Iago, Roderigo, and Brabantio that jealousy is the most corrupt and destructive emotion.

In addition, Emilia proves her underrated intelligence by standing up for what she believes is right. Desdemona, Othello's wife, and Emilia's relationship grows because of her great loyalty towards her. At the end of the play Emilia stands up for Desdemona because Othello kills her. She explains Desdemona's true love for him and would never do anything to hurt him, which proves Desdemona's innocence. Not only does Emilia stand up for Desdemona, but she also voices her opinion to Othello. Emilia shows no fear standing up to Othello to prove to him that his wife has always been faithful. At first Othello finds it implausible but then Emilia says, "Thou art rash as fire, to say that she was false. O, she was heavenly true!" (Shakespeare V: ii, 165-166).Women are looked at in Othello as unintelligent and unfaithful, but Emilia changes that stereotype by standing up to the men. From the start Emilia and Iago's relationship always seemed rocky. Emilia's confidence in herself shows that she is not afraid to stand up to her husband. Emilia realizes the danger she puts herself in when she stands up to Iago. In order to make things right, she does whatever it takes, even if that means ruining their marriage or taking her life.

Hedda is a play written by Carol Brown and adapted by Max Hunter. The play is set in a dark room centered around five characters, depicting how they react and communicate with each other through their individual dark fantasies. The play was produced as an adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler in a modern day and age version. It portrays an absurd and darkly comedic perspective of playwright and actress Carol Brown, disrupting the conventional assumptions about classic theatre while injecting the familiar with spontaneity and vitality, "bridge" the divide between the plays of "then" and the audiences of "now”. As such, it dismantles and exploits an audience's expectations of mundane theatre. By restructuring and reimagining scripts, utilizing mixed media, and blurring genre and theme, the play creates an experience that is visceral, stimulating, and immediate. Each character embodies a certain emotional and inner psychological struggle that is triggered by one another, pertaining to themes of perverted self-love, suicide, self-destruction, deprivation, angst, desire for freedom, desire to be loved, women in society, wealth and success, sexuality, manipulation and borderline mental illness. Hedda, the daughter of General Gabler and married to George Tesman, seems to be miserable, craving entertainment through unremorseful manipulation of Eilert Lövborg, Thea Elvsted and Judge Brack. As far as costume design, each character's outfit portrays its personality. Hedda, is dressed

Reflecting upon their role in society, women in literature are often portrayed in a position

Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler focuses on the life of a strong willed woman named Hedda Tesman. Act one of Hedda Gabler introduced Hedda’s newlywed husband George Tesman. Hedda Gabler married George after her father, General Gabler passed away and became Hedda Tesman. It could be possible that Hedda only married George Tesman because she needed security in her life while adjusting to the loss of her father. On the other hand, Hedda was unsure that a secure and stable life was what she truly desired. Hedda Gabler’s upbringing, the death of her father, and the unhappiness and unsatisfactory life all played a role in the lack of passion she had to genuinely connect with other be people.

In an introduction to Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, Gosse and Archer explain that in naming the play, Ibsen’s intention was to identify Hedda as “her father’s daughter” rather than as “her husband’s wife” (Ibsen 77). Ibsen’s choice is peculiar because it draws attention to the fact that, whether she is Hedda Gabler or Hedda Tesman, she lacks any real power. She will always be under the control of man. Hedda, the spoiled daughter of General Gabler, manipulates those closest to her in order to exert her power as a form of entertainment. Throughout the play, Hedda controls her husband George, who bores her, his Aunt Julie, and Thea Elvsted, a former classmate who has fallen in love with one of Hedda’s past lovers. Judge Brack, a family friend, is the one person she is honest with, but he ultimately gains control of their relationship by blackmailing her into an affair.

The male characters of the play view women in varied ways. Cassio often idealizes Desdemona, praising her positive characteristics, even believing that she is "perfection" (2.3.25). Iago's attitude towards women is largely critical and negative. He tells Emilia that women are "pictures out of doors, Bells in your parlors, wildcats in your kitchens, Saints in your injuries, devils being offended, Players in your huswifery, and huswives in your beds" (2.1.111-114), meaning that women are often deceptive. He later says, "She never yet was foolish that was fair, For even her folly helped her to an heir" (2.1.137-138). Iago's cynical attitude towards women continues throughout the play, as he talks of women as being foolish and unfaithful creatures. Othello's views on women are more complex than Iago's. Othello loves and praises Desdemona often in the play. He tells Iago, "But that I love the gentle Desdemona, I would not my unhoused free condition Put into circumscription and

In Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, Hedda is a very manipulative and unpredictable individual, who cannot seem to accept her life as it is. She, who is a general’s daughter, marries the scholar Tesman, who is awaiting his university post. Upon wedding Tesman, Hedda becomes unhappy; she is used to living in luxury, while Tesman is from a lower class. Hedda, who seems to be miserable in her marriage, lashes out at Tesman often through her impatience and stuck-up attitude.

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.

Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler introduces its audience to a paradoxical protagonist, Hedda Tesman. Ibsen’s delineation of Hedda presents her as a petty and frivolous woman whose sole motivation is to seek her own amusement with no regard to those around her. If some tragedy had befallen Hedda in her formative years and thus shaped her into the cold, callous woman she would become, Ibsen purposely omits this from this play: whatever judgment the audience might make of Hedda as a character must derive almost exclusively from the behaviors she exhibits in each of the work’s four acts. Ibsen does not intend for his audience to readily sympathize with Hedda. By not endearing Hedda to his audience, the subject of her suicide in the final act is

Hedda is the product of aristocratic birth.  She is, as I mentioned earlier, the daughter of General Gabler, whose portrait hangs over this play not unlike the portrait of the absent father in Williams' The Glass Menagerie.  And in case we have missed the significance of the portrait in the stage directions or have overlooked it as an audience member, Miss Tesman rivets our attention to it and the reality of Hedda's aristocratic life:  "Well, you cant's wonder at that--General Gabler's daughter!  Think of the sort of life she was accustomed to in her father's time.  Don't you remember how we used to see her riding down the road along with the General? In that long black habit--with feathers in her hat?"  (Ibsen  2).  Her aristocratic birth and her past is contrasted by her choice of a husband who has neither noble blood nor bourgeois money.  We are told that this motherless child of an aristocratic general often gave in to fits of cruelty as a child:  "At the finishing school the presence of a girl with a head of abundant, wavy flaxen hair irritated her and provoked her to outbursts of cruelty which had their source in equal measure, perhaps, in envy and in a deep-seated temperamental antipathy; for dearth of abundance, physically and temperamentally, is a characteristic of Hedda's nature" (Weigland  246-247).