Analytical Essay On Hedda Gabler By Ibsen

How Does Henrik Ibsen’s Use of the Huldre in Hedda Gabler Influence the Characters of the Story?

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

In the play Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen’s main character, Hedda Gabler, is a sociopath and acts out of sociopathic tendencies including but not limited to a lack of empathy and impulsive behavior, shallow emotions, manipulativeness and secretivity, sexual deviance, and a low tolerance for boredom.

Hedda uses the ordinary metaphor of life as a journey to describe the situation that she has created for herself. Hedda constantly use and manipulate the people around her. Ibsen may be utilizing this metaphor somewhat ironically. After all, the image of life as a journey usually indicates growth and progress. In Hedda Gabler none of the characters seem to make any improvement over the course of the play. The only change appears to be backward. For example, Tesman reverts into a childlike state at the conducting of Auntie Julle. Lovborg’s seem to fall from grace. Hedda commits suicide at the end of the play when she decides that there is no other way for her to express her autonomy. Hedda and the other characters lives is one that has a sense

With no focus on Hedda’s mother we can imagine that the general did little to prepare his daughter for wifehood or motherhood. Hedda inherited his pride, coldness, and an authoritative attitude toward others of a lower rank. She lacks compassion for weak and submissive characters like Thea and Aunt Julia but has admiration for power and freedom, qualities she finds in Brack and Lövborg. Even after marrying Tesman, she keeps her father’s portrait and guns, which signifies her desire for masculine control as well as her personal form of mourning of the power she has lost by marrying Tesman. This perverse behavior can be attributed greatly to the era in which Hedda lives, because her choices are highly influenced by the male dominated society.

Since the beginning of time there have always been a particular set of societal and gender roles for men and women. Some were very openly known and others were known without even being said. The story of Hedda Gabler by Ibsen Henrick tells the story of what seems to be a disturbed woman and her manipulative charades that ultimately lead to her suicide. As one may say Hedda deserved her fate others may sympathize with Hedda and understand the pressures that were being placed upon her from society. During the Victorian period gender roles were strictly enforced and women had a certain place in society and that was it. Ibsen Henrick understood this and painted a vivid picture of the everyday life for women during the time and how lonesome, unfulfilling, and (INSERT WORD) it could have been for some. Granted not all women felt this way because they were so consumed by the society and tradition they merely followed suit, but there were women who began to feel the need to want more out of life and to be empowered and have control over their own destiny and Hedda Gabbler was one of those women. I don’t believe Hedda was just a disturbed and vindictive woman. I believe Hedda was a victim of societal pressure and her own circumstances and they drove her to do things she would not normally do if she was happy in her own home and in a more free and comfortable place in life.

Hedda arouses sympathy from the readers through her own personal conflicts. She is a woman trapped by herself in a loveless marriage to an “ingenuous creature” (52 Ibsen) named George Tesman. Tesman is a simple soul with very little to offer. Not only is he an entire social class below Hedda, but he is oblivious, insecure due to his own banalities, and overly reliant on his Aunts’, despite being thirty-three-years-old. Hedda married George due to a “bond of sympathy. . .” (31 Ibsen) formed between them and she “took pity. . .” (31 Ibsen) on George. This brings a sense of sincerity to Hedda that was not turned to such a high magnitude preceding this discussion between Judge Brack and herself. Hedda is a lonely, yet independent, soul that wants sexual freedom without

    Hedda Gabler is perhaps one of the most interesting characters in Ibsen.  She has been the object of psychological analysis since her creation.  She is an interesting case indeed, for to "explain" Hedda one must rely on the hints Ibsen gives us from her past and the lines of dialogue that reveal the type of person she is.  The reader never views Hedda directly.  We never get a soliloquy in which she bares her heart and motives to the audience.  Hedda is as indifferent to our analysis as she is to Tesman's excitement over his slippers when she says "I really don't care about it" (Ibsen  8).  But a good psychologist knows that even this indifference is telling.  Underneath the ennui and indifference

Even from the beginning Hedda Gabler’s character comes off very strong and very blunt, her dreams though are also very deliberate. Wishing to provide the best for her husband no matter who she must run over while doing so is the reason that keeps her alive for so long. She does not wish to see another authors book ( Lovborgs’) ruin her husband’s chance for glory. This dream leads her to do the unthinkable and destroy not only Lovborg’s manuscript but also his will to live on in life. Hedda’s dream seems almost complete and the madness almost subsided until Brack gains control over

Hedda wants a life of beauty, perfection and appearances regardless of success or failure professionally, thus she will do anything to make her life perfect. She is driven to do anything to make her dreams and wishes come true which made her actions foreseeable. She suggests to Eilert “make life beautiful”. When her plan to make Eilert kill himself fails and Brack blackmails her, she kills herself instead caring tremendously about her reputation. She goes to extremes to have her ideal life as she pins Eilert and Mrs. Elvsted against each other about drinking alcohol, being jealous of their friendship, gossiping, despite hating it herself, and convinces Mrs. Elvsted confides in her. She sees death as a means of escape and it is her final act

(Act IV). This was before Hedda committed suicide, she was at her breaking point at that moment, affirming very clearly, that she could not endure that situation. This was the reason behind it, which was the pressured built up to the point where she no longer was able to tolerate it anymore. Hedda came to a point where her only option in her eyes was to kill herself and not have to deal with any of this anymore. Apart from Lovborg’s death, Hedda was also pushed by judge Brack to kill herself, as he

Those become small scale when compared to what is really happening. Ibsen’s play is considered to be social realism, and rightfully so. He is trying to get a message across with Hedda about the issues of her life and that of women’s lives, in general, during the time period. Hedda is not just wanting control for herself. She is representing women in their need for equality and desire for independence. The play is meant to be a break from the conventional past and an introduction to a new era. Hedda’s immoral behavior and transgressions only show how desperate the calling for freedom and self control really is among women. Therefore, her death is an emotional blow to the audience and becomes a call to action. Society’s view of women needs to change in order for the next Hedda to

In Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler, symbols are used to convey a deep, psychological meaning that would otherwise go undetected. Throughout the play, Hedda must continuously confront the Jungian archetypes of her personality in order to remain in total control. Ibsen uses the pistols to symbolize Hedda’s over dominate animus which leads to her ultimate demise and her journey to self-realization.

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.

Hedda Gabler is a text in which jealousy and envy drive a woman to manipulate and attempt to control everyone in her life. The protagonist, Hedda, shows her jealousy in her interactions with the other characters in the play, particularly with Eilert Loveborg and Thea Elvsted. Because Hedda is unable to get what she wants out of life because of her gender and during the time of the play, her age, she resorts to bringing everyone else down around her. Hedda lets her jealousy get the best of her and because of this she hurts many of the people around her as well as ultimately hurting herself.