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Symbolism In Ibsen's Hedda Gabler

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Ibsen is believed to be the “master” of symbolism. (Styan, 1981). In Hedda Gabler, Ibsen uses symbolism to portray the internal chaos and disorder of his protagonist. Ibsen often deals with the conflict with the internal self. (Watson, 1983) Ibsen gives a new, symbolic and deeper meaning to ordinary objects such as a room, fire, the manuscript, Thea’s hair and the pistol. Each of these objects signifies a different element of Hedda’s character. Styan discusses how these symbols are integrated with the most complex character studies Ibsen had yet achieved. Ibsen explores how females are symbolically imprisoned by tradition and the wrongs of society. The Tesman home is used as a metaphor to show Hedda’s entrapment within a middle-class reality. The suffocating and distressing way in which Hedda lives her life with her new husband proves she has lost all notion of herself as free and proud. (Watson, 1983) The atmosphere in the Tesman home is characterized …show more content…

Hedda Gabler has a clear relation to the famous pistols. (Williams, 1993) They symbolize Hedda’s upbringing in an aristocratic and militaristic background and stand for her masculine nature. The pistols represent Hedda’s intense desire to be less feminine as well as the male world that opposes her. These two things at once indirectly lead to her death, and the pistols quite literally kill her. Through Hedda’s attitude toward and uses of the pistols, Ibsen constantly reminds us that Hedda “is to be regarded rather as her father’s daughter than as her husband’s wife.” The pistols serve as a constant reminder that she is Hedda Gabler still and not Hedda Tesman. The pistols represent an important characteristics the father has passed to Hedda—a desire to have absolute control over others. (McFarlane, 1989) Hedda enjoys freedom, the freedom to socialize with different people and have absolute control over them. (Habeeb,

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In Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, Hedda Gabler is a woman in her late twenties who grew up in an aristocratic family during the Victorian period. Hedda was the daughter of General Gabler, and she was raised to be part of the high society social class. Hedda is very much a product of her own high society. Hedda married into a middle-class family, the Tesman’s. When Hedda married George Tesman, she entered a social situation she could not control.

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Among the difficulties nullifying their relationship, social tension arises as Hedda idolises an upper-class, luxurious life style, but working-class Tasman can’t afford the regime is wife desires. Pressure derives from Hedda indoctrinating that she is a trapped woman and thus envies Brack and other males in the play. The inadequacy of Hedda’s love and affection for Tesman is shown through Hedda’s embarrassment behind bearing Tesman’s child, as well as the determination that intimacy between the couple to be scarce. Paragraph 1: Throughout the play, Ibsen constructs social tension using dialogue and stage direction to draw attention to the barrier between prosperous Hedda and middle-class husband Tesmen.

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Topic: Characterization of Judge Brack through Stage Directions and Dialogue in Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler Title: Speech and Stage Direction: Characterization in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler 1. Introduction a) The stage directions in a play can be used to give directions to the actors and illustrate multiple features of characters. b) Henrik Ibsen utilizes this technique, alongside dialogue, to shed light on the characterization in his plays, especially in Hedda Gabler. c) The play tells a tragedy about a newly married young woman, Hedda, who tries to seek joy in her dull and tedious life but is eventually overcome with the burden of responsibility and takes her own life.

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This creates a sense of empathy towards the characters as the story slowly unfolds. 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. “I don’t want to look like sickness and death. I want to be free of everything ugly.”

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In 1880s, women in America were trapped by their family because of the culture that they were living in. They loved their family and husband, but meanwhile, they had hard time suffering in same patterns that women in United States always had. With their limited rights, women hoped liberation from their family because they were entirely complaisant to their husband. Therefore, women were in conflicting directions by two compelling forces, their responsibility and pressure. In A Doll’s House, Ibsen uses metaphors of a doll’s house and irony conversation between Nora and Torvald to emphasize reality versus appearance in order to convey that the Victorian Era women were discriminated because of gender and forced to make irrational decision by inequity society.

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