Draft: WA

Intro:
Henrik Ibsen’s 1890 play ‘Hedda Gabler’ is a tragic tale of a youthful woman’s struggle in finding her place in life. In his play Ibsen uses stage direction and dialogue to express tension with Hedda and Tesman’s marriage. Hedda is trapped in a life of loveless marriage, absolute boredom and a complete absence of friends. Through Ibsen’s dialogue and stage directions the audience is invited to observe the apathetic connection between Hedda and Tasman. 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.

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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. Critic Embler, W. states “Hedda has been imprisoned since girlhood by the bars of Victorian propriety”, and this is shown in Ibsen’s use of stage direction within act 1 as Hedda “goes to meet her in a friendly manner” (Page 181). The decorum behind Hedda’s actions can be counter-acted by the discord mistake