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.

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.