By Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828-1906) A Study Guide | ||
. Study Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings...© 2008 Type of Work, Publication, and First Performance Hedda Gabler is a stage play that focuses in depth on the last day-and-a-half in the life of the title character. Ibsen published the play in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 16, 1890. It debuted on the stage on January 31, 1891, at the Königliches Residenz Theater in Munich, Germany. Ibsen
wrote the play in Dano-Norwegian, a mixture of the
Danish language and
Norwegian dialects. Dano-Norwegian evolved from
Danish while Norway was
a province of Denmark. Although Norway gained its
independence in 1814,
Norwegians continued to speak and write in
Dano-Norwegian, also known as
Riksmål. Beginning in the middle of the
nineteenth century, Norway
began developing a new Norwegian language,
Landsmål (the language
of the land or country), free of Danish influence.
Meanwhile, Riksmål
developed further and eventually became known as
Bokmål, the language
of books. Today both varieties of Norwegian are
written and spoken in Norway.
Stage directions describing the burning of a lamp indicate that the play is set before the invention of the electric light bulb. Most likely, the action takes place in the 1860s. The place is the home of George Tesman and his new wife, Hedda Gabler Tesman. The author describes the home as a villa once owned by a government minister, Secretary Falk. The scenes take place over one-and-a-half days in the elegant villa. On one of the walls hangs a portrait of Hedda’s late father, General Gabler. George
(Jørgen)
Tesman: Cheerful and well-meaning
thirty-three-year-old academic with
a stout frame and a round, bearded face. He has a
scholarship to research
the history of civilization and expects to receive a
government appointment
to maintain his home—a villa that once belonged to a
government minister—and
to sustain his new wife, Hedda, in the elegant
lifestyle she expects as
the daughter of the late esteemed aristocrat and
military officer, General
Gabler. George was reared by two aunts and their
servant, Berta. He tries
hard to please his picky, unpredictable wife.
Ibsen remains objective and neutral throughout the play, never using the dialogue to present his views or to exhibit pity or scorn for Hedda or any other character. Instead, Ibsen simply presents the story as it unfolds. Plot
Summary
Carrying
a parasol, Juliana Tesman enters the drawing room
in the villa of her nephew,
George Tesman, whom she reared as a son after his
father, Juliana's brother,
died. Following her with a bouquet is Berta, a
servant. George and his
new wife, Hedda, are still asleep. They had
arrived home by steamboat the
night before from a six-month wedding trip.
Juliana had met them at the
pier with an acquaintance, Judge Brack. .
Themes Free Will vs Environmental Influence From the very beginning—even before her marriage to George Tesman—Hedda's failure to act on her primal longings springs in large part from her upbringing in a rigidly conventional, male-dominated society, one that emphasizes propriety and conformacy in women and hinders the free and independent spirit inside of them. But if society stifles her spirit, it does not paralyze it. She yet retains free will. She could be different. She could take risks. Her counterpart and foil, Thea Elvsted, did so, acting decisively to escape her environment. But Hedda keeps her will in check. To the end, she is her father's child, Hedda Gabler, and never risks becoming anyone else. Repression As
the daughter of the late and esteemed General
Gabler, Hedda requires a
husband with social standing, an elegant home,
money, servants, and other
amenities stamping her as a refined and respectable
aristocrat. However,
stirring within her is a desire to live with
democratic derring-do—to think
and act independently, to take risks. But she
largely represses this desire,
preferring to maintain the appearances of propriety
and stability instead.
Thus, she rejects the intriguing but irreputable
Løvborg for the
humdrum but reputable Tesman. She lets it be known
that she will not tolerate
even insignificant offenses to her standards of
propriety, such as Juliana
Tesman’s new bonnet. “Just fancy, if any one should
come and see it,” Hedda
says.
Control When
she arrives at the Tesman home after her wedding
trip, Hedda begins exercising
control over others. First, she orders Berta to
remove chintz covers from
the furniture in the drawing room. Berta then learns
from Juliana Tesman
that Hedda had earlier directed that the drawing
become the newlyweds'
"everyday sitting room." The audience and readers
next discover that it
was Hedda who arranged for the six-month wedding
trip. George tells his
aunt, "Hedda had to have this trip, Auntie!
She really had to. Nothing
else would have done." Also, she had obtained
financing for the Tesman
home through Judge Brack.
Selfishness vs Selflessness Hedda
takes but does not give. She thinks only of herself.
What she cannot have
or control she rejects or destroys. Judge Brack also
acts out of selfish
motives. His assistance in securing financing for
the Tesman home is a
way to ingratiate himself with Hedda. Later, his
report to Hedda of Løvborg's
behavior at Mademoiselle Diana's is an attempt to
discredit Løvborg
so that he, Brack, can eliminate the competition for
Hedda. Finally, his
veiled threat to implicate Hedda in Løvborg's
death is an attempt
to gain control over her.
Jealousy Løvborg and Thea regard the manuscript of his next book—one destined for greatness, according to George—as their “child.” Hedda enviously compares it with George’s child growing in her womb, which she does not care about and does not want. Fiercely jealous, she destroys the manuscript and provides Løvborg the means to kill himself, the same pistol she fired to scare Judge Brack. Cowardice The
tragedy of Hedda Gabler is that she lacks the
courage to act on her human
instinct. Instead, she follows the dictums of a
conformist society preoccupied
with the appearances of propriety and
respectability. In so doing, she
paralyzes her ability to act with meaning and
resolve except when injuring
others. Her suicide is a cowardly reaction to the
prospect of scandal,
not a glorious declaration of independence.
. autumn leaves: Hedda and her marriage. After only six months, she is utterly bored with her life with George. Whatever hopes and expectations she had for it are already dying. Here is the dialogue, which occurs after Juliana leaves: TESMAN. [Picks up the slippers from the floor.] What are you looking at, Hedda?George's research notes: The unfinished state of his scholarly endeavors. George is a collector of information but seems to lack the creative fire to interpret and present it. As his aunt tells him in a statement meant as a compliment, "Yes, collecting and arranging—no one can beat you at that." The notes in the portmanteau he brings home from his wedding trip end up in the attic. George's Slippers: His simple, easygoing personality. piano: (1) Hedda's finickiness and preoccupation with appearances; (2) her old life as General Gabler's daughter. Here is the dialogue supporting these interpretations: TESMAN. Is there anything the matter with you, Hedda? Eh?pistols: Hedda Gabler herself and the explosive emotions building inside her. Ibsen hints that she is a weapon in his description of her: "Her steel-grey eyes express a cold, unruffled repose." In other words, she is like the guns in the case: steel, grey, cold, unruffled—until the trigger is pulled. Thea Elvsted's hair: (1) The growth and creativity she fosters in Løvborg; (2) a source of power, like Samson's hair in the Bible. In his stage directions, Ibsen describes her hair as "remarkably light, almost flaxen, and unusually abundant and wavy" and Hedda's as "an agreeable brown, but not particularly abundant." As a school girl, Hedda envied Thea for her hair and threatened to burn it. After receiving flowers and a calling card from Thea, Hedda identifies her to George as "the girl with the irritating hair, that she was always showing off." vine leaves: Vine leaves were an ancient symbol associated with the Greek god Dionysus (Roman name: Bacchus), god of wine and revelry and a revitalizing force in nature. He was often depicted as wearing an ivy wreath. Women called maenads, or Bacchantes, followed him to participate in his wild, orgiastic rites. Later he became associated with Greek drama as its patron. Hedda uses the term vines leaves to refer to the dissolute, reckless, boozing side of Løvborg that she coaxed to the surface. The climax occurs when Hedda burns Eilert’s manuscript. This vindictive act destroys the “child” that Eilert fathered with the help of Thea Elvsted and precipitates developments that lead to the tragic ending. Judge Brack's description of Mademoiselle Diana as a "mighty huntress of men" is an allusion to the goddess of the hunt in Greek and Roman mythology. The Greeks called this goddess Artemis, and the Romans called her Diana. This important goddess had many duties, including presiding over and protecting wild animals and all of nature in the company of nymphs. Løvborg, of course, was wild and licentious in his drinking days and frequently visited the mademoiselle's brothel to seek the arms of Mademoiselle Diana herself or one of her "nymphs." Ironically, most of the mythological tales about this goddess describe her as a chaste deity, although her nymphs were said to have had many love affairs. Brack's reference to Mademoiselle Diana as a nineteenth-century nature goddess helps Ibsen add significant brushstrokes to his portrait of Løvborg as wild and unpredictable. In
keeping with his realistic plots and dialogue,
Ibsen's stage sets attempt
to capture the atmosphere of the everyday life of
his characters. On the
Ibsen stage, actors did not embellish their lines
with broad flourishes
of a hand or other exaggerated body movements. They
become ordinary people
going about their ordinary lives. The proscenium
arch was important, however.
This arch, from the sides of which a curtain opens
and closes, acts in
an Ibsen drama as a frame for the realistic portrait
painted by Ibsen,
a portrait that moves. The proscenium arch became a
doorway or window through
which the audience—peeping through the arch—could
eavesdrop on people in
quiet turmoil. The arch helped Ibsen create the
illusion of reality. 1. Who is
the most admirable
character in the play? Who is the least admirable?
Explain your answers.
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