Hedda Gabler Research Paper

This shows that Hester’s strength and compassion as a woman and as a feminist leader of her time. With the restraints put on Hester because of the social hierarchy and the oppression that society scorned upon her, any normal woman of her time would not be able

For any healthy relationship to last, both partners have to be fully committed to each other. In both plays, none of the relationships really offer any type of fulfillment. The title of Hedda Gabler, uses Hedda’s maiden name, Gabler, even though her married name is Hedda Tesman. Based off of the initial reading of the title, one can already tell that there is a strong intention behind it. Isben purposely wrote the title that way to indicate that Hedda wanted to be recognized as her father’s daughter, not as her husband’s wife. This already proves that she is not fully in love with her husband and there is more that is going on beyond just the

On the contrary, Hedda is a character who deeply desires control and freedom, yet has neither due to her fear of scandal. At 29 years old, she married George Tesman, whom she does not love, but felt she had, “danced [herself] tired,” (Act II). Hedda is subsequently disappointed with the dullness of her role in marriage, where she was hoping for a new adventure outside her father’s control. Similarly, she refuses to even consider the possibility of an affair with Brack, even as he pressures her so; she reacts with repulsion at the suggestion. Hedda’s deeply-ingrained fear of scandal prevents her from living up to her potential; she resorts to following a path of unemployment and

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.

The judicious actions foreshadow disaster. Having no control over their relationship, she maximizes this opportunity of diverting his life. Although she is conservative, she also tries pushing the boundaries by continually being discontented, as opposed to what is expected of women during that era, and thus she is a victim of society. Her curiosity towards the outside world is a result of her being trapped indoors and explains her jealousy towards Lövborg, Thea or anybody who has freedom. Hedda withholds and controls her emotions; nonetheless this gives the audience an impression that she is mysterious and secretive.

It is hard not being accepted in society like the characters in these works they know how it feels to be pushed aside whether it be by their by family or by society or even both. For instance, in Hedda Gabler is a women who is forced into alienation by the choice she made where on the other hand in The Metamorphosis Gregor who feels alienated from the start but by in a strange twist of fate we see him become isolated even more through his change into a bug. This is a very difficult thing to handle in life and for Hedda and Gregor they try to cope the best that they can with these issues in their life. As a result, it affects many aspects of their thought process it makes them mentally weak it makes them question themselves.

The reign of Great Britain’s Queen Victoria is famous for both scandal, and a desire to fit within the molds of society. These societal expectations extended far east of the English channel, into Norway, and into the life of Henrik Ibsen and his work. His play, Hedda Gabler, gives a true insight into the tight social constraints. Because Hedda wanted the curtains closed, the play’s true light source was Mrs. Elvsted—or as Hedda demanded to call her—Thea. Her light was not always a beautiful morning sunrise, it was quite often a dim streetlamp. She took risks that would be simply detestable during the Victorian era. Thea leaving her husband, then having an open relationship with Eilert Lovborg, would be a social death sentence during that time. Though she is so scandalous, the reader cannot help but to like her. Ibsen choosing to make his most likable character the one with the life which most opposes society reveals his opinion on the world he lived in.

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 was bound by courageous acts, in the end of act four, Hedda kills herself, and in act three, she burns Eilert's manuscript. Not because she wants to help her husband George, as she tells him. But because she hates Thea, I honestly thinks it’s jealousy, because Thea seems happy with her life and Hedda doesn’t really seem to be happy, as shown in act four where she shoots herself. Thea is bound by convention, she was helping Eilert write a book, but when Eilert tells her that he lost it she is very much upset with him, but unfortunately never tells him she is sorry because she never gets the chance, he dies in a hospital room all alone, shot himself in the breast. Hedda thinks it’s an act of pure beauty until Judge Brack, to when he tells

Hedda Gabler is a play in which the author, Henrik Ibsen, demonstrates the heavy shackles of society and the burden it impinges on women through the words and actions of the protagonist, Hedda Tesman. Hedda is a woman living for her own pleasure. At twenty-nine-years-old and having been recently married, she is under enthused with her surroundings and yearns for titillating experiences. Obsessed with the aesthetics of the world, she wants to lead a poetic life filled with lust and luxury, yet is too frightened by what her Victorian values deem proper, to do so. Ibsen constructed a brilliant character that simultaneously arouses both sympathy and scorn from the reader through Hedda’s own words and actions.

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.

In many modern societies, a common belief is that women should have equal standing with men politically, socially, and in the workforce (Alesina, Guiliano, and Nunn 1). This support is generally associated with feminism, which advocates for equality between all genders (Issist). In other societies, women are unable to seek opportunities past traditional gender roles, such as domestication and childbearing (Alesina, Guiliano, and Nunn 1). This ideology is often referred to as patriarchy, which expects women to conform to stereotypes that are based on assumptions about femininity and maternal instinct. The influences of traditional gender roles revolve around conditioning, restraint, and submissive characteristics, which can result in women living in boredom and misery (Yildirim 47). To reveal the corrupt nature of the customary expectations of women living during the 1800s, the author illustrates Hedda’s marriage to George Tesman, as the husband expects his wife to devote her life solely to the wellbeing of her household and family. If Hedda decides to conform to the traditional gender roles of the Victorian era, she will not be able to express her individuality or intelligence. The only purpose that she will serve in society will be to raise children and attend to the needs of her husband. This imposes limitations on her basic human rights, as her society views her as inferior and

Ibsen uses the relationship and conflict between Hedda and Brack to illustrate Hedda’s struggle to assert her free will and power in a male-dominated society. The two characters are united as social equals who are members of the aristocracy as

Henrik Ibsen’s, Hedda Gabler is set in Oslo, Norway during the late 1800s It is during this time that Victorian female values such domesticity and male superiority were all that were socially acceptable. Women were prevented from having any real life of their own and instead, their mere existence was only in relation to men. For Hedda, a newly married woman, she was already unhappy with her role as a wife. A feeling of emptiness and boredom consumed Hedda as she sought out for meaning and happiness for her life. In that search for self discovery, Hedda becomes manipulative and rebellious with hopes that such actions will allow her to free herself.

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.