Hedda Gabler

After finishing Hedda Gabler I had so many questions. Most of my questions were about Hedda’s complex character. I wonder what happened in her past to make her the way she was during the play. The thing I noticed most about Hedda was how she seemed to think that by letting herself feel close to someone she was becoming weak by being under teir power. She can’t stand that she has an attachment to Lovborg. Her resistance to her feelings for Lovberg combined with the fact that she cannot be with Lovberg leads her to extreme jealousy over his relationship with Elvsted. When Hedda convinces Lovberg to kill himself she has freed herself from his power, only to find herself under Brack’s power after he connects her to Lovberg’s suicide. Unable to bare being under the power of Brack, combined with what seemed like a possible pregnancy, which would also take the control of her life away she kills herself. I severely disliked Hedda, but was fascinated by her, especially by the motives for her actions. The only truly good characters I saw were Aunt Julia and Berte. I was annoyed by Tesman.  He is supposed to be so brilliant but in his personal life he was so oblivious to the interpersonal things happening around his house and in town. He was constantly going around in amazement that he was able to marry the beautiful and high class Hedda Gabler. I disliked Judge Brack because he was a busy body who was always meddling in people’s business and trying to cause trouble. Brack also seemed shady and ambitious, a terrible combination of traits. Elvsted was a pushover and just so naïve, my reactions to almost all of her lines just “oh honey”. Even though I disliked most of the characters I thought the play overall was really great.  Isben did a great job of making me care about characters that I disliked.