Literary Analysis | Week 11
Hedda Gabler
I chose to do my analysis on Hedda Gabler because I really enjoyed reading this play!
Hedda Gabler is one of my favorite characters that we've read about so far.
"Hedda Gabler may be a manipulator but she is a manipulator with a vision. She is driven by her hunger for a more fulfilling, ideal, and beautiful life." (780)
I chose to do my analysis on Hedda Gabler because I really enjoyed reading this play!
Hedda Gabler is one of my favorite characters that we've read about so far.
"Hedda Gabler may be a manipulator but she is a manipulator with a vision. She is driven by her hunger for a more fulfilling, ideal, and beautiful life." (780)
I love this quote because it gives you the idea before you even read the play as to who Hedda is. As I read the play, I saw that Hedda did indeed strive for a more fulfilling life but she did this at any cost. She would manipulate people if she had too, and she was also for very polite or courteous to others. For example, when Georges Aunt, who is sixty-five years old, needed a ride in their carriage back home from the pier they went to he said "We felt so bad that we couldn't take you in the carriage-but you saw how many trunks Hedda had to bring." (784)
This should give you a pretty good idea of the person Hedda truly was. My question is why was she like this?
I assume it is because of the era she was in. Being a woman in the Victorian Era was not easy. Maybe she got tired of being treated poorly for being a woman. Hedda didn't seem like the type to sit back and let people stomp all over her. She reminds me of Medea in this way. Having to take matters into your own hands to get the end result you want.
When Hedda committed suicide my one question was, "Why?"
I thought about it for a little bit and I came up with a few reasons.
No matter what, Hedda will always be stuck in Norway during the late 1800's as a women, nothing she can do will change that. It may have been a way to get out of her own life.
She probably thought she was useless to her husband.
"Hedda: Can't you you two find any use for me here?
Tesman: No, nothing in the world.." (837)
She probably took this as a sign that no one needed or wanted her so it wouldn't matter if she was gone.
Also, it could have been that a scandal could surface involving the 'stolen' pistol or the fact that the judge tried blackmailing her, instead of dealing with these problems and facing them she took her own life to escape it.
Hi Megan!
ReplyDeleteI also chose to do an analysis on Hedda Gabler. She was not a very nice person in my opinion but I don’t think that it was always intentional. You asked a very interesting question, “Why was she like this?” having read another of Ibsens’ plays A Doll’s House, I can see the parallels between the characters, though Hedda is much more manipulative than Nora. I wonder why Ibsen chose to write his characters the way he did.
Hello Megan, Nice job on the analysis. This was one of my favorite readings out of the list of assignments so far because I also thought Hedda was an interesting character who drove the story. You did a good job adressing the parts of the play that you discussed within your analysis. The first quote you included perfectly describes Hedda and it is a good quote to start off with. Nice job and keep up the good work.
ReplyDelete