Research Paper On Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler is a play written by Henrik Ibsen. The play is about a newly married couple, Hedda and George Tesman. Hedda came from a rich background and wanted the finer things in life, while Tesman’s background is mainly that of the middle class. She only married him because he seemed a decent enough choice. Hedda’s resentment is obvious by the way she treats Tesman and the members of his family such as his aunt. Hedda’s cruelty and demand of others becomes more prominent throughout the play. She constantly demands things from her husband and claims she is bored of him. Since he is a professor, most of his time and passion involves researching. Things get interesting when Thea, an old school friend comes to visit them. She brings news that

He had fallen into hard times before and had become an alcoholic, but now he was back, recovered, and working on a new manuscript. He was also up for an appointment for the position Tesman was vying for. One of the final main characters is Judge Brack, who is the definition of a pervert. He constantly tries to convince Hedda to have a sexual relationship with him despite her blatant rejections. Throughout the rest of the play, Hedda quickly begins to lose control. She admits that she does not love Tesman and is enamored at what Lovburg could offer vicariously for her. Yet, she still rejects his advances as well. Finally nearing the end of the play, Hedda burns Lovburg’s supposed lost manuscript out of jealousy and gives him one of her father’s pistols convincing him to end it all. Then she tells her husband that she burnt the manuscript because of her love for him. In the end, Lovburg ends up shot but not of his own accord. Judge Brack discovers the pistol and convinces Hedda that he would not tell a soul. Hedda, knowing she would be under his thumb forever and facing imminent scandal, kills herself. Her actions leave behind horror and

She is continually demanding things from him that he really does not have the money to obtain for her. The question arises why she would even marry him in the first place since she obviously was not sexually attracted to him. According to Theoharis in his entry on Hedda Gabler, Tesman was most likely the perfect match saying, “George’s indifference to sex, a major reason for Hedda’s marrying him, is the single most important accomplice in Hedda’s criminal sublimation of passion and the havoc it wreaks” (Theoharis, 797). This theory has its evidence to back it up being that Tesman was a staunch academic whose passions mainly play out in the pages of a book. Even on their honeymoon Tesman admits that, “Well, for me it has been a sort of tour of research as well. I have had to do so much grubbing among old records--and to read no end of books too, Auntie” (Ibsen, 7). While Tesman was off in his world of research, Hedda was left alone to do as she wished and that is obviously how she preferred it. She goes as far as to admit to both Brack and Lovburg that she does not even love her husband. When Brack labels what she feels for Tesman as love her response borders on disgusted saying, “Faugh--don't use that sickening word!” (Ibsen, 47) Also when Lovburg tries to insinuate the same idea that she is in love with her husband her response is