The END!

I dont know how satisfied I was with this play or the ending. I found Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba to be more interesting in the characters, and action and found this one to have less excitement, but I still found it interesting for a few reasons. One, was in the way Ibsen displayed the unbalanced power between women and men, another was in Hedda's character and lastly, I was really interested in all of the parallels I noticed between this play and the movie about The Dutchess of Demonshire. In the end, the play was alright.. In picking out themes and researching motifs the play seems more interesting and full but just as a read it just isnt my cup of tea.

Did Hedda really need to kill herself?

This is connecting to one of my previous blogs discussing Hedda's actual power and control over her life compared to how much control she thought she had over her life. I dont think she really needed to kill herself in the end because she really seemed to have more control over her life than she felt because George couldn't grasp how much power he actually had as a man and someone of wealth. I think she was just a big drama queen because she just wanted more and more power and power over more people and she couldnt just accept what she was given and realize that she actually had a great deal of power in her marriage and society. So, she was sort of stupid in killing herself.

Scene Descriptions

The scene descriptions played a really strong part in the play especially in Act 4. It just sets up a very dark, hectic, sad and worried mood. With Hedda running around the house, the death of Miss. Tesman's sister, Berta crying, and refrences to the color black and dark imagery. Ibsen really set this one up well for the end of the Act when Hedda kills herself. He seemed to be foreshadowing what was going to happen at the end in this and used the setting to really strengthen and enhance the action at the end of the play.

Hedda's Control

Now that I think about it, I think Hedda may have way more control over her life than she thought. I've concluded that George had power as seen by other members of society, but he didnt really know how to grasp it and use it to its full potential. Hedda seems to have walked all over him and pushed him around continuously.. He was also very worried about how she felt and if she was happy or what she though about something as though she had control over him - which she did in this way of thinking. For example, George could have taken the pistols away from her -something she loved to use - but instead he just sadly pleaded to her to not use them anymore, which she ignored - so she actually had much more power than she thought and others may have concluded.

The Dutchess and Hedda Gabler

I know Claire has already posted about this but I wanted to as well... When Claire and I went to see The Dutchess there were sooo many similarities we saw to the play and this movie. For one, the theme or subject of the opression of women and lack of power in women compared to men correlated. Hedda and The Dutchess where quite similar in that they both were wealthy, and married to men with high social status and power though they both had no control over their own lives. If Hedda Gabler and this movie are quite accurate with what life was really like during these time periods, it seems like one could infer that the role of men, women, and power hadn't changed much for hundreds of years... Just something to ponder.

Brack vs. George

I was just wondering why Hedda might like Brack more than she likes George. When comparing the two it seems like George has less of a grasp on himself and his marriage. He continually asks Hedda questions about what she thinks, and if shes okay as if he doesnt feel secure enough with who he is and doesnt really understand what to do. Brack seems like he has a much stronger grasp on who he is and what he wants.. The fact that he doesnt want to settle down and just wants a "love triangle" makes him look kinda like a player. I noticed this really strong difference between the two in the way they treated Hedda with the pistols... George asked her to not play with the pistols anymore and Brack physically took them out of her hands - showing a very distinct difference in the amount of power and knowledge in how to use that power between the two.

Uh?

It seems like George is a very unsure character. He continually says the words Uh? and asks Hedda and others can you imagine? and imagine that? Also, the fact that he married Hedda not out of love but as a sort of social status in that he thought thats what he needed to do to be accepted in society. He seems like he has some low self esteem issues and doesn't really know what he wants, but feels he must just do what society says he must do.

Miss.Tesman

It seems like Miss. Tesman hasn't gone through much of a drastic character change. In Act 1 she was very concerned with everyone else and placed helping people and caring for people - such as her sick sister - as her main priority. She also seems like she lets people control her such as in Act 1 when she changes her appearance for Hedda's sake when she could just be herself. In Act 4 she seems no different when shes with Hedda after her sister has died and instead of grieving and accepting a life without depending on others well being and living in solitude she decides she needs to find someone else to care for. She's a quite uninteresting character.

Power and Pistols

I found it really interesting in the way that Ibsen used the motif of Pistols to represent power and specifically a man's power. I think he took a really femenist approach on this one because of the way Hedda continually obsesses over pistols and her lack of power and control over her life. It took me a while to connect the motif to the subject of a male's power but after thinking about it, it really makes sense that Ibsen used the object of a pistol - its powerful, and in that time wasnt really seen in the hands of a woman. As a parallel to that, in that time a woman wasnt seen holding very much power either.