QUESTION ONE

Is Hedda as a sympathetic character? Why or why not? Support your answer with at least three specific examples from the play.

ANSWER: Hedda Gabler is deceitful and manipulative throughout the play. There is probably not a character that she doesn't somehow maneuver for her own ends—and clearly the results are often drastic, as with Løvborg's suicide. She also mocks Tesman's aunt for her hat and bullies Mrs. Elvsted, trying to destroy her happy relationship with Løvborg. So many students might be hard pressed to see any redeeming qualities in Hedda at all. Others, however, might see as the root of her manipulations a deep frustration with the social and gender limitations that trap her where she is. She marries since there are few other options for young women and she also resists Judge Brack's insinuations that she enter into an affair with him. One could argue that all she wants is a way out at whatever cost, which is why she chooses suicide over accepting Judge Brack's advances.

QUESTION TWO

How does Ibsen use elements of set design to communicate themes in the play?

ANSWER: Perhaps the most obvious element of the set is the Tesmans' house and its furnishings. Hedda is surrounded by furniture that is below her social class, and sometimes she notices furniture that reminds her of her previous social standing (the daughter of an upper middle-class general). She is frustrated also when Tesman refuses to buy the additional furniture and supply additional servants due to the uncertainty over his appointment to the university. Even though large sums have been spent on the home (sums Tesman cannot afford as noted by his aunt's loan against her pension to pay for the home improvements), Hedda is still unsatisfied with the furniture that surrounds her. Students should note the extensive design directions that Ibsen provides, suggesting the importance of physical space and objects as important components in the play.

QUESTION THREE

What does Hedda's reaction to Løvborg's suicide tell us about her character?

ANSWER: News has spread that Løvborg is in the hospital, to which Hedda responds, "No—That's impossible." Of course she assumes that Løvborg has committed suicide (at her insistence of course). It seems, however, that he has just injured himself, but Hedda waxes philosophical that at least a beautiful act of courage is still possible in this world. But Hedda is once again brought up short when Judge Brack explains that Løvborg, who is indeed dead, shot himself, probably by accident, "lower" than what he had told Mrs. Elvsted, which was the chest, so either he had a lower organ injury in his intestinal area or a shot through his genitalia—neither of which would be a glorious end, but rather a painful death. It is hard not to be repulsed by the pleasure that Hedda hoped to take (the liberation she sought) in Løvborg's suicide. But her insistence on what she had hoped would be the beauty of it points to her idealism, and her desire for action and escape. When Hedda discovers the truth, she responds, "Oh absurdity—! It hangs like a curse over everything I so much as touch."

QUESTION FOUR

Løvborg's manuscript is referred to as a "child." Why is this important in the play?

ANSWER: The reference to the manuscript as a child reminds us immediately of Hedda's own literal pregnancy. Hedda is likely frustrated to live in a world where her role, as a woman and wife, is to produce children, while the men around her have the opportunity to produce "children" within the context of a profession (like Løvborg and George Tesman). Hedda expresses reluctance to have a child despite Miss Tesman's suggestions that Hedda should have a child soon since her nephew and his wife have returned from a six-month honeymoon. Hedda is also jealous that Mrs. Elvsted was intimately involved in the creation of Løvborg's manuscript, so she can step outside of her role as a woman while Hedda finds herself maddeningly bored by her husband's studies. As is her habit, Hedda expresses her frustration vindictively, keeping Løvborg's manuscript and letting him think he has just foolishly (drunkenly) lost it. He lies that he has destroyed it, which characters in the play liken to "murdering a child." Hedda takes pleasure in destroying for others what she cannot have for herself.

QUESTION FIVE

What do you think finally drives Hedda to suicide?

ANSWER: It is probably a combination of things: an empty, unfulfilled life; Løvborg's ignoble death; and even the fact that the other characters in the play, who have suffered losses much greater than Hedda's, see new possibilities for their energies. For example, Tesman vows to take up Løvborg's work and see the second novel into publication. Also, in a very practical way, Hedda finds herself at the end of the play in the power of Judge Brack, who knows that the pistol used by Løvborg was actually Hedda's. Hedda is also facing the reality that she will become a mother, which is another stifling influence on her life. Any and all of these represent the end of Hedda's hopes for idealism in an otherwise ugly world, but it is very important that readers not see Hedda's suicide as heroic in any sense. In fact, Ibsen was probably trying to comment on how blind pursuit of ideals inevitably leads to destruction, not that such a pursuit is right and noble.