"Hedda Gabler" and Social Messages

Paper Summary:

This essay discusses how the plays of Henrik Ibsen have strong social content, indicating the views of the playwright on some matters, and more directly showing the way different social issues were developing in the society of his time and the way those issues were in turn shaping that society. It focuses on the messages in "Hedda Gabler" which are the place of women in society, the meaning of social responsibility and the effects of corruption on society and on the individual.

From the Paper:

"In terms of the society of her time, Hedda is somewhat different from other women. She does not fit the mold of the humble wife and does not want to fit that mold. Her father has taught her skills more suitable to a man, such as riding and shooting. She is not thus well prepared for the role of wife, and she has strong romantic notions that derive from her fascination with the military as well as form her lack of training in the usual female role. Hedda Gabler was a girl raised by her military father, and he clearly imposed discipline and order in her young life while perhaps also instilling within her the desire for more than society was willing to grant her. Hedda Gabler was one sort of person, and she has been forced to become another as Hedda Tesman. From her first appearance in the play, it is evident that she is unhappy with her life and sees it as boring and endless. She looks at the leaves, "so yellow--and so withered" (Jacobus 601). When told that the leaves have withered because it is September, she states: "Yes, to think--that we're already in--in September" (Jacobus 601). She also admits to Lovborg that she is a coward (Jacobus 617), and she clearly understands the sins she has committed. She has done these things as Hedda Tesman, and always there is a sense that Hedda Gabler would have been more adventurous, less cowardly, and better able to cope."

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