Literary Analysis Of Hedda Gabler - 1303 Words

Hedda Gabler The play Hedda Gabler tells a dramatic but realistic story of a woman forced to live in a world that was built for men. The playwright Henrik Ibsen uses this dramatic play that he has written, to make a statement about the terrible treatment of women, and their lack of independence. We can see his statement from the very start of the play, by just looking at the title, which uses Hedda’s maiden name instead of her married name. Ibsen wants her to be portrayed as her own person, and not just as the wife of her husband. Ibsen uses many literary elements to make his point, and to help the audience understand and feel what he wants them to. The time and setting in which the play was written, as well as the realistic characters,†¦show more content†¦The character Hedda contrasts wildly with the â€Å"ideal† woman that someone would expect to meet in the 1890’s. She is very sociable and comfortable talking to men as if she might be â€Å"one of t he guys.† She is also portrayed as manipulative and cruel, and she uses the darker parts of her personality to torment others for her own entertainment. In the first act of the play she humiliates Aunt Julia by â€Å"mistaking† her hat as the maids and saying that she won’t last because of it. She later tells Brack, â€Å"I pretended I thought it was the maids (1505),† while smiling at the cruel joke she had made. She continues with this mischief by manipulating Mrs. Elvsted, and burning Lovborg’s manuscript. Ibsen also uses her husband Tessman, who has more of a â€Å"feminine† personality, to contrast with Hedda’s. We see him showing more emotion and excitement throughout the play, whereas Hedda is more closed off and disinterested. Hedda is constantly annoyed by Tessman and his need to show her off as his beautiful wife. It comes across as though she feels pestered by him, and is only with him for the sake of being married and havin g a home. These are things she is pressured into feeling like she needs to have, and not things that she actually wants. She even makes a point to correct Tessman when he says â€Å"we† when talking about their or his future, because she is not happy to be stuck in aShow MoreRelatedA Literary Analysis of Hedda Gabler1618 Words   |  7 PagesA Literary Analysis of Hedda Gabler Hedda Gabler is a text in which jealousy and envy drive a woman to manipulate and attempt to control everyone in her life. The protagonist, Hedda, shows her jealousy in her interactions with the other characters in the play, particularly with Eilert Loveborg and Thea Elvsted. Because Hedda is unable to get what she wants out of life because of her gender and during the time of the play, her age, she resorts to bringing everyone else down around her. 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