Hedda Gabler

by Henrik Ibsen and Enrico Ibsen

Book Overview

A masterpiece of modern theater, Hedda Gabler is a dark psychological drama whose powerful and reckless heroine has tested the mettle of leading actresses of every generation since its first production in Norway in 1890.
Ibsen's Hedda is an aristocratic and spiritually hollow woman, nearly devoid of redeeming virtues. George Bernard Shaw described her as having "no conscience, no conviction ... she remains mean, envious, insolent, cruel,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486264696
• ISBN13: 9780486264691
• Release Date: July 1990
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 4.8" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

A masterpiece and it is obscure

Is Hedda Gabler selfish, bored, and tired of her marriage, and does she need to relieve her frustrations by interfering in other people's lives and hurting them, as many readers contend? Or, is this an over-simplification of her character and motive? Is the play obscure? Jorge Borges once wrote that two people write a novel, the writer and the reader. The reader, he is saying, frequently reads something that the writer never intended. Saul Bellow wrote something similar in a letter in 1942: a novel "sets up the hypotheses and tests them in various ways, and it gives answers, but these are not definitive." Thus, all good literature is filled with obscurities and ambiguities. Even biblical narratives have these qualities, as it must. People read good literature and, because of their cognitive dissonances, they see what they need to see and are convinced that this is what the author intended. Thus the answer to the questions is that the portrait of Hedda Gabler is obscure, as it should be, and whatever we read into the narrative is objectively wrong, although personally right. Simply stated, 33 year old beautiful and vivacious Hedda Gabler has just returned from her long honeymoon to a large beautiful house that she talked her husband into purchasing. In fact, as she states in the play, it was this purchase, not love, for she does not love her husband, that prompted her to marry him. Two men are infatuated with her besides her husband, perhaps even love her: Brack and Lovborg. She has no amorous feelings for them, but she clearly, and this is significant, enjoys their adoration. Her relationship with Brack is perfect. She and the bachelor Brack agree that they will live their lives as a triangle, the third being her husband. She speaks openly with Brack, but not with her husband. She hears that Mrs. Elvsted loves Lovborg, and while it is clear to Hedda that Lovborg prefers her, the disclosure that Lovborg led Elvsted to think he loved her, this desertion, this infidelity, although small, not boredom, sets Hedda off. She destroys the relationship between Elvsted and Lovborg, gets hold of Lovborg's manuscript, destroys it, and ruins his life, and she gives him a gun to kill himself. True, Hedda says in the play that she is bored and admits that this boredom is causing her to interfere in people's lives, but is this true? Does she really know her motive? Is it her only motive? Is this somewhat simple idea all that the great playwright wants to convey? If so, why does he write so much about the two men who adore her? Hedda Gabler is the heroine's maiden name, not her current married name, and by naming the play in this way, Ibsen seems to suggest that readers need to seek the solution to her character in her pre-marriage state, not in her boredom with her recent marriage. It is possible, and this is the obscurity in the play, that Hedda's motivation is based on her need to be adored by men, completely. She must control her men and not be dominate

Amazing Unintentional Feminist Drama

Henrik Ibsen was known for crossing societal boundaries with his plays. Hedda Gabler depicts a woman who has socially lowered herself solely for the purpose of marriage. Ibsen's use of phallic imagery throughout the play to signify Hedda's oppression is amazing. The play takes dark twists and turns. Although, I, personally, find Ibsen's The Doll's House to be better; Hedda Gabler pushes societal boundaries and expectations of women.

Bravo! Bravo!

A great audio play which pulls the listener in and never lets go. As the story progresses the tension mounts and mounts until you can't take the suspense no longer. Juliet Stevenson does a superb job in portraying the manipulative but reckless Hedda and the rest of the cast are top notch. This is a brilliant presentation of ibsen's play showing the foibles of life and the dangers of desire. A wonderful audio experience to be listened to over and over again. Highly recommended. This audio book contains two CDs and is a full cast presentation of Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler.

Hedda, the prisioner

Hedda Gabler lives in an absolute prison. Her idylic residence is a prison, her marriage to a hopeful "ilustrious intellectual" is a prison, but above all, she lives imprisoned by herself, trapped by the social parameters that demand her to live the way she does. Hedda just can't figure out how to get out of that tedious state. She's intelligent, cold, severe; Gabler has an almost prodigious capacity to obtain all the information she inquires about the people around her; she manipulates them, she seems to get involved, but she simply tries to take advantage of the situation. Apparently, she doesn't feel much, but in reality, Hedda is in constant turmoil - her involvement has to do, almost exclusively, with what she just cannot allow herself to do.For this woman, being able to have some sort of "power" over someone becomes the most exciting of all experiences, however - there's a point when she no longer will be able to manipulate the situation on her favor, she will realize how many forces have power over her; therefore, she will simply do the most congruent and coherent of things, as unexpected and shocking as the outcome of this play could possibly be.

Hedda Gabler was a remarkable play ahead of its time!

Henrik Ibsen was truly the Father of Modern Drama! His plays are much more "in-tune" with today's life than many scholars want to believe or will admit. Hedda was a powerful woman, who on the surface appeared to be confined by a dress, imprisoned in man's house, and smothered by a male-dominated society. It would appear that Thea Elvstead was the woman with more control, but this is not true. Hedda was a calculating "bitch" who dared (quite shrewdly) to cross over her set in stone "boundaries," manipulate others, and stand back and watch others lives be destroyed as a result. But when she is backed into a corner by the "new" creative couple (George & Thea) and Judge Brack, she takes the final power into her own hand. How ironic that the power is her late father's pistol. How tragic is her death when it was the ultimate control of a destiny that she so strongly desired? Henrik, you were a true visonary!!!