A Feminist Character In Ibsen's Hedda Gabler

The aim of my research is to highlight the controversy in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler being a feminist character. Although Ibsen is a renowned Feminist playwright, yet Hedda Gabler is deprived of the true feminist traits and has a number of negative aspects in her. My purpose of this research is to highlight Hedda Gabler as a dominant character ruling over others having no mother-like traits and feelings which make her a man-like character. I am doing this research to justify that Hedda is in no respect appropriate to play a mother like role in the play Hedda Gabler. In my research, I will reveal the hidden ideologies of the female character Hedda Gabbler and also from text I will prove that she has no feminist and mother-like traits. Hedda Gabler,

This play and topic that I have chosen has been selected in order to highlight the true meaning of a woman. In feminist perspective we find that neither Hedda is being beaten by her husband nor are her rights being snatched. She is living liberally rather. The so-called feminism and the boundless liberty is merely a source of destruction for many women depriving them of motherly love and injecting them with frustration and depression. Hedda is a victim of all the negative qualities that can be imagined. Ibsen has tried to move away from the stereotypical women by sketching feminist dramas but yet when he deprives the woman of her doll-like exquisiteness and angelic beauty, he still remains confined to the stereotypical women rather he makes them monstrous and treacherous. In my research, I will look out to these questions that How can a loving wife neglect and torture her husband? How can she insult her husband and his relatives? How a female can negate her child? How can she develop relations with other men? How can she torment people around her? How can a mother think of burning a child when she herself is going through this beautiful phase of construction? How can a female commit suicide and close all doors of life for her unborn

Some critics called it as immoral and sordid. The play had truly shocked audience who walked out. It bore criticisms of the traditional gender roles of marriage and society. While some critics were impressed by Ibsen 's courage and originality, the ending needed to be rewritten for the German production because Actresses refused to perform the piece, and the play was banned from discussion in polite company. The play was poorly received at the Moscow Art Theatre. The February 1899 production was reviewed badly and served as a total disaster from the view point of both, the public and the theatre. It was impossible to bring Ibsen to the stage because the players did not understand the motivations of his characters as they understood Chekhov’s. The spectators reacted with perplexity towards the play. After watching the rehearsals for the 1899 production Chekhov made the remark that “Ibsen is no playwright!” Nilsson(1899). The Danish critic George Brandes found her “A true type of degeneration (incapable) of yielding herself, body and soul, to the man she loves.” George Brandes (1891). Hedda is Married to George Tesman but still we find that she used her father’s name after marriage instead of her husband name. It shows clearly that she lacks womanly maternal love and respect for her husband. The use of her maiden name clearly shows her independence from her husband and from her marriage. Unlike