Comparisons

I thought that it was interesting how different yet similar Lysistrata was to The previous two plays. All center around a very masculine type woman, who manipulates others to accomplish her desires. In The House Of Bernarda Alba, it was Bernarda controlling her daughters to keep up her appearences in the town. In Hedda Gabler it was Hedda, who controlled basically anyone she could in order to feel alive. In Lysistrata, it was Lysistrata who controlled the other women to bring about peace. The main difference between Lysistrata and the other two is that she was able to retain her femininity as well as accquire masculine traits.

Thoughts On Hedda Gabler

The title that is, not the character.

Photo: http://www.ibsen.net/

I thought that it was curious that Ibsen would use Hedda's maiden name for the title. By using her maiden name, Ibsen plants the idea that Hedda isn't really Tesman's girl even before the first page is turned. We don't go into the play expecting some woman that fits into some type of stereotypical model, but a woman that belongs to no one, and ultimately that is what we get. When Brack thinks he has her, she goes and shoots herself to prove him wrong.

As Omar Once Said...

Eh yo, lesson here, Bey, you come at the king, you best not miss.

-Omar, The Wire, Season One

Well, I thought that this quote was a fairly accurate summary of Judge Brack's and Hedda's final relationship. You have Hedda attempting to gain some type of power in her life, and Judge Brack attempting to not only remain in control, but gain more power. In the end, Judge Brack shows Hedda that he has leverage over her, and drives her to commit suicide. This act of suicide however, gives Hedda control of one thing that Judge Brack could never control, her life. Thus, the only way for her to show she had more power than the judge was to kill herself. Personally, I don't think she missed.

Tesman

Well, at first I wasn't sure about Tesman. He didn't seem all that bright to begin with, and then turned into a much worse person than I thought he could be. However, after careful thought I've come to a conclusion.

Photo: http://www.aprilsoroko.com/

I think that ultimately George was basically an average guy. He began to slip up in Act III when he held on to Lovborg's manuscript, but I believe that he honestly had the intention of returning it to Lovborg. He even said, "but as soon as I've had a little rest - and given poor Eilert time to sleep it off, then I've got to take it back to him."(278) Should he have given it back to Lovborg right when he found it, yeah probably, but under the circumstances, its understandable. Lovborg was potentially going to get his job, and if most people (granted, not all) were honest with themselves, they may have held onto it as well until they got the job.

Act II

One important part of Act Two that I would like to explore is Hedda's shooting at Judge Brack.

Hedda shooting at Brack begins to develop a couple of important ideas in Hedda Gabler. First, it starts getting us thinking about Hedda's pistols, and what they represent in the play. Under the assumption that Hedda's pistols represent power, the small scene that plays out on page 248 is extremely important. Hedda shoots at Brack, attempting to gain power for herself. Unfortunately for her, Brack was able to delicately remove some of Hedda's power by "gently taking the pistol out of her hand." (248)

Devious

de.vi.ous (dee-vee-uhs)

-adjective

1. not straightforward; shifty or crooked: a devious scheme to accquire wealth


Probably my favorite character of the play. Brack continually moves in an somewhat underhanded manner to gain more power. He is always trying to be "the one cock of the walk" (303). He starts his bid for power pretty early, when he returns to the Tesman residence, by "gently taking the pistol out of her hand" (248), symbolically taking the power out of Hedda's hands.

Photo: Steven Siewert

His quest for power continues when he attempts to get Lovborg to come to his stag party, but fails when Lovborg declines to attend. Here he gets a bit of good luck through Hedda, because she drives Lovborg back to the sauce, and ultimately to the party that night. Brack completes his power struggle when he finds out through a police man that presumably owes him a favor, that Eilert was shot with one of Hedda's pistols. This gives Brack power over Hedda, whom I believe was who he wanted control of the most.

On a side note, I wonder if we would be pronouncing Brack with a long A sound or a short A sound if it weren't an election year.

Some Thoughts

I suppose I should post something that is actually related to Hedda Gabler, or even vaguely related to English in some capacity. Therefore prepare yo' selves fools. Act 1 started off slow, but I geuss the whole play can't be car chases and explosions. Admittedly I haven't read the whole play, or even half the play, yet, but I think it's safe to say that the funniest part has already occured. Certainly top 5. What part is it? I'll tell you. When Hedda is talking to Thea, and Hedda is all like "We were such good friends in school!" and Thea is all like "Umm, not really..." and then Hedda is all like "oh nonsense, of course we were" and then Thea is all like "You used to threaten to light my hair on fire" and then Hedda is all like "I was just joshin' you silly goose."

word.

Of course as you know this was all just to get some grade A gossip out of Thea. I have no idea how Thea could have possibly felt as though Hedda was being sincere. Either Hedda is extremely good at being manipulative, or Thea is extremely dim-witted.

Also, I really don't know what Hedda is going to do all day. Near as I can tell she just sits around waiting for people she doesn't really appear to like to come over and talk to. And on top of that she obviously has hardly any feeling for Tesman. Sounds like pretty much the most boring life ever.

I'm fairly certain that this is all Hedda does all day.

Photo: Steven Stewert