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. 

Language: Dano-Norwegian

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. 

The Dano-Norwegian of Ibsen is simple, concise, to the point. However, it takes a talented translator to capture the subtleties of the language and the nuances written into the dialogue of Hedda Gabler. Therefore, English-speaking students of Ibsen should choose their translations carefully. One highly respected Ibsen translator was William Archer (1856-1924), a Scottish-born London journalist, drama critic, and playwright who translated many of Ibsen's works, including A Doll's House. The 1889 translation helped popularize the play in the English-speaking world.

Setting 

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. 

Characters

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. 
Hedda Gabler Tesman: Beautiful young woman who had many male admirers before marrying George Tesman to capitalize on the benefits he offered: a fine home, a respectable calling, a substantial income from an expected government appointment, and the promise of certain amenities—her own footman, a saddle horse, and the freedom to host a select circle of local society. During the Tesmans' six-month wedding trip, she becomes bored with George and his research. After they return from the trip, she refuses to talk about the child with which he impregnated her. She has little to occupy her active mind except memories of her days with an accomplished but irresponsible academic rival of George, Eilert Løvborg. Although he catered to her romantic longings, she broke up with him because he lacked the cachet of social respectability. When she learns that Løvborg has struck up a relationship with Thea Elvsted, a woman Hedda despises, she sets herself to the task of destroying them. In his stage directions, Ibsen describes Hedda as a woman whose "face and figure show refinement and distinction. Her complexion is pale and opaque. Her steel-grey eyes express a cold,  unruffled repose. Her hair is of an agreeable brown, but  not particularly abundant." 
Eilert (Ejlert) Løvborg: Thirty-three-year-old researcher and writer who has published a popular book. He once had a relationship with Hedda Gabler. A recovering alcoholic, he had sworn off drink after meeting Mrs. Thea Elvsted, who helped him write his second book. Ibsen's stage directions describe him as a "slim and lean . . . His hair and beard are of a blackish brown, his face long and pale, but with patches of colour on the cheeks." 
Thea Rysing Elvsted: Wife of Sheriff Elvsted and stepmother to his children. After Eilert Løvborg comes to tutor the children, she falls in love with him while helping him prepare the manuscript for his second book. She is ready to abandon her husband to be with Løvborg. Ibsen's stage directions describe her as a "woman of fragile figure, with pretty, soft features. Her eyes are light blue, large, round, and somewhat prominent, with a startled, inquiring expression. Her hair is remarkably light, almost flaxen, and unusually abundant and wavy. She is a couple of years younger than Hedda." Hedda notes that she was an "old flame" of George.
Miss Juliana (Juliane) Tesman: Aunt of George Tesman. Along with her sister, Rina, she reared George in her home. She posted security from an annuity for the carpets and furniture in George's home. The stage directions describe her as "a comely and pleasant- looking lady of about sixty-five."
Miss Rina Tesman: Invalid sister of Juliana. 
Judge Brack: Friend of Hedda and George Tesman. He arranged financing for George's home. He enjoys flirting and toying with Hedda, and she allows him to do so as long as he keeps his distance. After he learns that one of Hedda's pistols caused Løvborg's death, Hedda fears that he will tell the police what he knows unless she allows him to have his way with her. The stage directions describe Brack as a "man of forty-five; thick set, but well-built and elastic in his movements. His face is roundish with an aristocratic profile. His hair is short [and his] eyebrows thick. His moustaches are also thick, with short-cut ends. He wears a well-cut walking-suit, a little too youthful for his age. He uses an eye-glass, which he now and then lets drop."
Berta (Berte): Plain, middle-aged woman who was a servant in the home of Juliana Tesman before becoming a servant to George and Hedda.
The New Caregiver: Girl hired to help Juliana take care of Rina after Juliana transfers Berta to the home of George and Hedda.
Sheriff Elvsted: Husband of Thea Elvsted for five years. Thea is very unhappy with him. She tells Hedda, "Oh those five years—!  Or at all events the last two or three of them!  Oh, if you could only imagine—"
Mademoiselle Diana: Operator of a brothel visited by Løvborg, who believes he lost his manuscript while in her company. He dies in her boudoir when the pistol he is carrying, Hedda's, accidentally discharges and lodges a bullet in his bowels. 
General Gabler: Deceased father of Hedda.
Secretary Falk: Government minister who once owned the Tesman house.
Deceased Brother of Juliana Tesman: Father of George Tesman.

Author's Approach

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
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2008

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. 

Juliana, a pleasant lady of sixty-five, throws open a glass door to admit fresh air. Berta places the bouquet on a piano. She had been in the service of Juliana and her sister, Rina, in their home when George lived with them. Now, Juliana has assigned her to attend George and his new wife in a different home, and Berta worries that her work might not suit the young lady. As the daughter of the late General Gabler, Hedda had been used to elegant living and refinements beyond the ken of Berta. 
Because George has recently become a university doctor—a distinction conferred on him while he was on his wedding trip—Berta is now to call him Dr. Tesman instead of Master George, Juliana tells Berta..

George enters the drawing room with an empty portmanteau and greets his aunt warmly. While on his honeymoon, he had conducted research and filled the suitcase with notes and copies of documents. Berta takes the portmanteau to the attic while George compliments Juliana—whom he calls Aunt Julia—on the new bonnet he helps her remove. She bought it, she says, so that “Hedda needn’t be ashamed of me if we happened to go out together.”

While waiting for Hedda to come in, George and his aunt discuss the health of Rina, who is bedridden and is expected to remain that way but is not in imminent danger of death. They also discuss his marriage to the beautiful Hedda and their wedding vacation, during which George did considerable research and used his “traveling scholarship” to pay expenses. Juliana asks whether he has any “expectations,” meaning a child. 

“I have every expectation of being a professor one of these days,” he says.

When Juliana asks how he likes the house, he expresses delight in it but does not know what to do with two empty rooms near Hedda’s bedroom. Laughing, his aunt says they will come into use in due time, again hinting at the children he and Hedda will have. But George answers, “You mean as my library increases—eh?” 

The villa will be expensive to maintain, but George says Judge Brack told Hedda in a letter that he had obtained favorable terms for her and George. Juliana says she has posted security from an annuity for the carpets and furniture—an arrangement of which George was unaware. When George expresses concern that she and Rina need the annuity to live on, Juliana assures him there is nothing to worry about. Besides, she says, George will soon have a salary to rely on after receiving an expected government appointment. What is more, she says, the people who “wanted to bar the way for you” have all suffered downfalls. “Your most dangerous rival,” she says, has taken the worst fall. She is referring to Eilert Løvborg, a talented researcher and writer who succumbed to alcoholism. He has recently published a book, but Juliana predicts that it will be nothing compared to the one George plans to publish. When she asks him its subject, he tells her that it will focus on “the domestic industries of Brabant during the Middle Ages.” 

After Hedda enters and exchanges pleasantries with Juliana, she complains about the open glass door admitting so much sunlight. When Juliana goes to close it, Hedda tells her simply to draw the curtains to soften the light. 

When she ends her visit, Juliana gives George a gift—the old slippers he used to wear, embroidered by his Aunt Rina. George remarks on what a prize they are, but Hedda is more interested in the bonnet Juliana had earlier placed on a chair. Pretending that it is Berta’s, she says they must get rid of the servant for being so careless as to allow such an ancient bonnet to lie about. 

When Juliana claims the bonnet as her own, Hedda feigns an apology, saying she really had not gotten a good look at it. As Juliana leaves, George tells her to take a good look at Hedda, saying “Have you noticed what splendid condition she is in? How she has filled out on the journey?”
Hedda curtly asserts that she has not changed at all. Juliana kisses her good-bye and promises to visit her every day. While George sees Juliana out, Hedda clenches and shakes her fists “as if in desperation,” the stage directions say.

After George returns to the parlor, Hedda looks at the flowers on the piano. An attached card says they are from Mrs. Thea Elvsted, who will call upon the Tesmans later in the day. Hedda remembers the woman from school as “the girl with the irritating hair, that she was always showing off. An old flame of yours I’ve been told.”
George says, “Oh, that didn’t last long; and it was before I met you, Hedda.”

After Mrs. Elvsted arrives in a state of nervous agitation, she tells Hedda that Eilert Løvborg has returned to town and faces “many temptations on all sides.” Løvborg had been the tutor to her step-children after she married Sheriff Elvsted, she says. Although Løvborg's conduct has been exemplary for two years after swearing off alcohol, she worries that he will succumb to his old habits, especially now that he has a considerable amount of money he made from a published book that became a great sensation. George observes that he must have written it before he descended into alcoholism, but Mrs. Elvsted says he wrote it within the last year, when he was tutoring the children. 

“Isn’t that good news, Hedda,” George says—perhaps not without some envy.

Thea says she has discovered Løvborg’s address and asks the Tesmans to keep an eye on him and treat him kindly if he comes to call. Hedda suggests that George write to him at that moment to invite him to their home. Thea gives him a slip of paper with the address.

While George writes the letter, Hedda and Thea talk about their school days. When Hedda pretends that they had been friends, Mrs. Elvsted reminds Hedda that she once threatened to burn the hair off her head. Hedda makes excuses, then gradually manages to draw information out of Mrs. Elvsted—in particular, that she is not happy with her home and her husband.

Thea had first served as governess to Sheriff Elvsted and his invalid wife. After she died, Thea married him. That was five years ago. Eilert Løvborg, who lived in the neighborhood, visited the house regularly to teach the children when the sheriff was out on his job and struck up a cordial relationship with Thea. Thea confides to Hedda her loathing of her husband: "Everything about him is repellent to me!  We have not a thought in common. We have no
single point of sympathy—he and I."

Then she tells all. She has packed her bags and does not plan to return home. Instead, she plans to live in town near Løvborg. Over time, she says, she helped him get over his bad habits. In turn, he “made a real human being of me—taught me to think, to understand so many things.” Then she began helping him in his work, and they got along beautifully—except “a woman’s shadow stands between Eilert Løvborg and me . . . someone he has never been able wholly to forget.” The someone is of course Hedda. When Løvborg and the woman separated, Thea says, the woman threatened to shoot him. Thea thinks the woman is a Mademoiselle Diana, who also lives in town and is a temptation to Løvborg.

When George brings in the finished letter, Berta announces that Judge Brack has come calling. Hedda gives Berta the letter to mail. After Mrs. Elvsted leaves, Hedda and George exchange pleasantries with Brack. When George mentions that Løvborg is expected at their house that evening, Brack reminds George that he has already agreed to attend a bachelor party the judge is giving. The judge then delivers unsettling news: Løvborg has applied for the same government position that George is seeking. George had thought he was a shoo-in for the job, which he has been counting on as a source of income to maintain his villa and the lifestyle Hedda had been accustomed to as the daughter of General Gabler. After Brack leaves, George frets about the situation, saying, “There is no denying—it was adventurous to go and marry and set up house upon mere expectations.”

Irked, Hedda complains that without the government job he will be unable to fulfill the promises he made to her before their marriage: that she could entertain guests in high style and have a butler and a saddle-horse. 

When Judge Brack returns later to pick up George for the party, he comes in the back way through the garden. Hedda takes one of two pistols from a case—heirlooms from her father—and fires playfully into the air, frightening the judge. When he enters through the glass door, he takes the gun from her, saying, “Now we won’t play at that game any more to-day.”

“Then what in heaven’s name would you have me do with myself?” Hedda says. 

When the judge asks where George is, Hedda tells him that he went off to visit his aunts shortly after lunch. 

“He didn’t expect you so early,” she says.

Brack doesn’t mind waiting, for he will have Hedda all to himself until George arrives. Brack enjoys her conversation and delights in flirting with her even though she is a married. For her turn, Hedda likes to confide in the judge. On this day, she tells him that boredom has dogged her since marrying George. On her wedding trip, she says, “What I found most intolerable of all . . . was being everlastingly in the company of—one and the same person.” When the judge tells her that the person is the one she loves, Hedda says,  “Faugh—don’t use that sickening word [love].”

By and by, George arrives with books—including Eilert’s, which he praises—and informs them that his Aunt Rina has taken a turn for the worse.

Løvborg then arrives and greets everyone cordially. After receiving compliments about his book, he dismisses it as insignificant compared to the one he is now completing. Withdrawing the handwritten manuscript from a coat pocket, he says, “This is the real book—the book I have put my true self into.” The first part focuses on “the civilizing forces of the future,” he says, and the second on “the probable line of development.”

Løvborg offers to read from it, but George says he is about to leave with the judge for the party. Brack then invites Eilert to the party, but he declines the invitation (apparently to shun the temptation of drink). Hedda suggests that he have supper with her and another guest who is coming, Mrs. Elvsted. He accepts the invitation, then tells George heartening news: He has withdrawn as a candidate for the government job George seeks. Tesman is jubilant. He and Hedda will be able to live the life they had planned on. 

Judge Brack and George go to another room to drink punch, smoke, and talk while Hedda shows Løvborg album pictures from her wedding trip. Løvborg calls her Hedda Gabler as he recalls their own days together and asks her how she could have thrown herself away on George. She admits she does not love him but says she “won’t hear of any sort of unfaithfulness.” However, of her past relationship with Løvborg, she says, there was something beautiful and daring in its “secret intimacy.”

When Thea Elvsted arrives, Løvborg compliments her and calls her a comrade. Hedda, obviously jealous, offers her and Løvborg punch, but both refuse it. Hedda then taunts Løvborg, saying he fears alcohol and that it was the reason he did not accept an invitation to Brack’s party. When that ploy fails, she tells Mrs. Elvsted that Løvborg's firm resolve demonstrates there was no need for her to come to Hedda that morning to express her concern that Løvborg might succumb to temptation. This betrayal of a confidence not only upsets Thea but also angers Løvborg, disappointed that his “comrade” lacked faith in him. He takes up a glass of punch, saying, “To your health, Thea.” Then he drinks it and pours himself another. Thea’s only interest in him, he says spitefully, is to get him to help her husband “in his office.”

A moment later, however, he calms down and makes up with Thea, again calling her a comrade. Thea is jubilant, saying, “Oh, heaven be praised.” However, to her dismay, Løvborg decides to go to the judge’s party. 

There, he gets thoroughly drunk. While Løvborg reads portions of his manuscript, George realizes it is a masterpiece certain to receive widespread attention as one of the great books of the age. When the party breaks up, it is early in the morning. George and several others take Løvborg home, for he is in no condition to go alone. On the way, George drops back from the others for a moment. When he hurries to catch up, he finds Løvborg’s manuscript on the ground. Apparently, he dropped it or it fell out of his pocket. George retrieves it but does return it to Eilert because, in his condition, he could lose it again. There are no copies of it. 

When George arrives home, he tells Hedda of his find and says he will return it later to Løvborg. Hedda gives him a letter from his Aunt Juliana that arrived while he was out. It informs him that his Aunt Rina is on her deathbed. Before leaving to see her, he entrusts the manuscript to Hedda. 

After George leaves, Judge Brack arrives. He tells Hedda and Mrs. Elvsted, who stayed the night at the Tesman’s, that Løvborg ended up after the party at the rooms of Mademoiselle Diana, who was giving a soiree for her friends and admirers. Brack says she is a “mighty huntress of men” whose services Løvborg at one time frequently used. During his visit, Løvborg noticed that his manuscript was missing and accused Mademoiselle Diana or one of the other ladies of stealing it. A fight ensued in which both male and female guests took part. When police arrived, Løvborg assaulted an officer and was taken to the station. 

In the future, Brack says, “Every respectable house will be closed against Eilert Løvborg.” Hedda should be among those who anathematize him, Brack says. (Brack envies Løvborg for the attention he had received from Hedda in the past.) After Brack leaves by the garden, Hedda goes to a writing table and takes out the manuscript. The only other person who knows it is in her possession is George. When she is about to begin examining it, she hears a disturbance at the front door. It is Løvborg pushing his way past Berta. Hedda hurriedly locks the manuscript in a drawer.

Løvborg is looking for Mrs. Elvsted. When he inquires whether George told her anything when he arrived home, Hedda says George told her only that Løvborg had a rousing time at the party. Mrs. Elvsted enters. Relieved to see Løvborg, she says, “At last.” Løvborg says, “Yes, at last. And too late! . . . It is all over with me.” He and Thea must part, he says, and she must live her life as if she had never met him. But what about the book she helped him complete—“their child”? He says he has destroyed it—torn it into a thousand pieces, along with his life. Thea says he has killed their child. With nothing more left for her, Thea leaves.

When Løvborg says he plans to end his life, Hedda says he must end it beautifully. She withdraws a pistol from the case and gives it to him, the same pistol with which she had once threatened him. After he leaves, Hedda removes the manuscript and burns it in the fireplace, saying, “Now I am burning your child, Thea—Burning it, curly-locks!”

Later, Aunt Juliana arrives dressed in black. She is in mourning for her sister, who has died. When George comes in shortly thereafter, his aunt tells him that life must go on and now she will now find another occupant for the vacant room—perhaps an invalid who needs care—for “It is an absolute necessity for me to have some one to live for.” After she leaves, George tells Hedda that he is upset not only about the death of Rina but also about the trouble with Løvborg. 
“But of course you told him that we had [the manuscript]?” 

Hedda informs him that she burned it. George, shocked, asks how she could do such a terrible thing. 

“I could not bear the idea that any one should throw you into the shade.”

George is overjoyed at hearing such a surprising statement from Hedda—in effect, an expression of love for him. He has no idea that she is lying. 
Mrs. Elvsted returns to inform the Tesmans that she heard rumors at her boardinghouse that Løvborg was in the hospital. Deeply concerned, she made inquiries at the building where he lodges and discovered that he had not been seen there since the afternoon of the previous day. Brack comes in just then and reports that Løvborg lies dying in the hospital. Apparently, in the afternoon between 3 and 4, he shot himself in the heart, Brack says.

Hedda says, “There is beauty in this . . . . Eilert Løvborg himself has made up his account with life. He has had the courage to do—the one right thing.”
Mrs. Elvsted says he must have been delirious—just as he probably was when he destroyed his manuscript. 
Thea then hits upon an idea: She and George could piece the book together from Løvborg’s notes. She has kept a copy of them with her. Tesman enthusiastically approves of the idea, and he and Thea go into another room to discuss the project. 
Meanwhile, Brack and Hedda discuss Løvborg. She tells the judge, “Eilert Løvborg has had the courage to live his life after his own fashion. And then—the last great act, with its beauty! Ah! that he should have the will and the strength to turn away from the banquet of life—so early."

Brack then discloses a disturbing fact. He had changed the account of Løvborg’s death to spare Mrs. Elvsted its sordid details. In truth, he died by accident in Mademoiselle Diana’s boudoir. He had gone there to demand the return of his “lost child.” While there, the pistol in his pocket discharged and lodged in his bowels. A moment later, Hedda withdraws an object from the desk and covers it with sheet music. Brack, meanwhile, says he recognized Løvborg’s pistol as one of the two Hedda had shot the day before into the air. Løvborg must have stolen it, he says. It is now in the possession of the police. But Judge Brack says they will not discover the owner unless he tells them who it is. 

Hedda says, "And supposing the pistol was not stolen, and the owner is discovered?  What then?"

“Well, Hedda, then comes the scandal.”

She and Mademoiselle Diana would have to appear in court. Hedda's reputation would be in jeopardy.

"Well, fortunately, there is no danger, so long as I say nothing," Brack says, implying that if Hedda yields to him he will keep the incriminating secret.

Hedda then goes to another room and shoots herself in the temple.
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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. 

A portrait of her decorous father hangs in her home to remind her of the traditional values she is expected to uphold. Hedda’s repressed longings embroil her in conflict after she learns that Løvborg has sworn off alcohol and struck up an amiable relationship with a woman Hedda loathes, Thea Elvsted, a childhood acquaintance who is now the wife of a sheriff. Hedda wants Løvborg but refuses to allow herself to have him. Scandal might develop; her reputation could suffer. Hedda decides that if she cannot have Løvborg, neither can anyone else. She then becomes a juggernaut of destruction, destroying Løvborg’s book manuscript, his relationship with Thea, and Løvborg himself. In the end her scheming leads to her own self-destruction. 

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. 

When she enters the drawing room in Act 1, Hedda immediately orders the curtains drawn over the veranda door to soften the light. She also orders the piano moved to another room because "it doesn't go at all well with all the other things." Next, to show the manipulative Brack that she is the boss, she takes one of the pistols she inherited from her father and points it at him as he arrives for a visit at the back entrance through the garden. He cries out, "No, no, no!  Don't stand aiming at me!" She says, "This is what comes of sneaking in by the back way." Then she fires a bullet over his head. Hedda, of course, is only warming up. Later, she schemes to ruin lives and succeeds. But she also ends up destroying her own life after Judge Brack gains the upper hand and after she realizes that she lacks the wherewithal to control her own life. Her suicide, which is an attempt to assert her control over her ultimate destiny, is really little more than a coward's way out.

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. 

On the other hand, Juliana and Rina Tesman as well as Thea Elvsted care about others and make sacrifices for them. Juliana rears George, provides him financial backing, and takes care of her invalid sister, Rina. Rina, though bedridden, embroiders slippers for George. Thea assists Løvborg in the preparation of his manuscript. Even George, though somewhat of a slacker, is attentive to his aunts, sees to the needs of Hedda, and helps piece together Løvborg's book with Thea after Hedda destroys the manuscript. 

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.

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Symbols

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?
HEDDA. [Once more calm and mistress of herself.]  I am only looking at the leaves. They are so yellow—so withered.
TESMAN. [Wraps up the slippers and lays them on the table.]  Well, you see, we are well into September now.
HEDDA. [Again restless.] Yes, to think of it!—already in—in September.

TESMAN. Is there anything the matter with you, Hedda?  Eh?
HEDDA. I'm only looking at my old piano. It doesn't go at all well with all the other things.
TESMAN. The first time I draw my salary, we'll see about exchanging it.
HEDDA. No, no—no exchanging. I don't want to part with it. Suppose we put it there in the inner room, and then get another here in its place. When it's convenient, I mean.
TESMAN. [A little taken aback.] Yes—of course we could do that.

Climax

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. 

Key Allusion

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. 

The Ibsen Stage

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. 
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Study Questions and Essay Topics

1. Who is the most admirable character in the play? Who is the least admirable? Explain your answers.
2. Write a psychological profile of Hedda Gabler that attempts to explain what motivates her. 
3..What is the significance of the following observation made by Juliana Tesman in Act 1: "Well, you can't 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—and with feathers in her hat?"
4. Write an essay explaining the significance of the children in the play: (1) the stepchildren of Sheriff Elvsted; (2) the child developing in Hedda’s womb; and (3) Løvborg’s manuscript, referred to by him and Thea Elvsted as their “child.”
5. Is Hedda an innocent victim of circumstances beyond her control or a hellhound who manipulates circumstances to her benefit? Or is she both? 
6. To what extent did author Ibsen draw upon his own experiences when writing Hedda Gabler?
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