Feminist criticism: Power Dynamics, Portrayal of Women
Effects of a patriarchal society on the woman:
Aunt Julle, Thea, Hedda, Diana
Brief overview: Aunt Julle & Thea harbour simplistic ideals of the acceptable
role of a woman - to be relative to men (for Aunt Julle, Tesman is her source of
pride & for Thea her meaning in life is enlarged and made noble by Lovborg).
This is, however, a socially acceptable notion that Hedda despises. It is ironic
though that Thea actually defies these social expectations and walks out on her
husband not once but twice; Hedda, despite her skewed idealistic obsession with
beauty, is too much of a coward to do so and that she is fundamentally a
conventional woman. This illustrates that ultimately their destinies are determined
by the strength of their character rather than by the repressive force of the
patriarchal society, or the differences in social class.
1. Repression: just Hedda
Actual or perceived repression?
Hedda (self perceived repression) The Tesmans go out of their way to make
Hedda feel like she belongs to their family but backfire as Hedda feels more
repressed. Tesman - ‘no one in our way’’ Hedda - ‘leave me out of the equation’’
& walks away towards the drawing room. Aunt Tesman harps on Hedda’s
pregnancy.
No opportunities for women of larger aspirations? VS 3 men: brack is judge,
lovborg writes books, tesman waiting for professorship
Women as self-sacrificial figures: Everyone but Diana & Hedda
2. Power struggle/Imbalance (Male/Female roles)
Hedda-Tesman
- trophy wife; ornamental, relative to men
- tesman, the husband, is the breadwinner of the family. hedda not expected to
help, though this is because of class. thea has to work as governess to support
her family.
Hedda-Brack
- ‘people don’t do such things’ - any woman is free game
- hedda uses her sexual attractiveness as a means to an end - keep herself
occupied by keeping brack interested
Hedda-Lovborg/Lovborg-thea
- lovborg, like brack, disrespects hedda’s status as a married person
- also thinks of hedda as another conventional woman - assumes about her
motivations
- hedda uses her sexual attractiveness as a means to an end - keep herself
occupied by keeping lovborg interested
- . Mrs. Elfsted, who forces him into respectability, runs away from her husband.
Hedda, who eggs him on beyond the limits, flinches from the thought of scandal.
- hedda has to live vicariously through lovborg because society forbids her to do
w/e she desires
Lovborg/Tesman - Thea
- ornamental, relative to men;
Hedda-Aunt Julle (voice of society)
- even aunt julle agrees with and voices the patriarchal & societal expectations of
a woman even though shes a woman herself
3.
Psychoanalytic criticism: character analysis
Effect of society on individual
Courage vs cowardice
Desires behavior conflict defenses
Desire to create beauty vs limitations of life
 Harbours a dangerous idealism about how life should be lived and how
beauty is to be created
o “I must be free of everything that’s ugly.” (235): Unattainable
aesthetic standard borne of the decorative, ornamental military
background Hedda hails from. Her high standards for her material
surroundings as well as the people and way of life she’s associated
with are a product of her background.
Potential questions/things to consider
How does cowardice and courage influence characters’ actions in Hedda
Gabler? (I feel like we’re going to be asked questions on courage
somehow...but what’s a question that also incorporates the effect of society
on the individual? How can we reconcile the influence of society on the
individual, and Hedda’s innate cowardice?
you mean a question that focuses on both the society’s effect on hedda
and her internal conflicts? I thought we were going to be given two to
choose from? One about psychoanalytic theory and the other about
gender?
Yes but I think that in order to have a cohesive understanding of the play
we need to figure out how to understand Hedda as a character, which
means we have to consider both the impact of society on the individual (not
just patriarchy either, but also the expectations of propriety due to her
aristocratic status) and her innate cowardice. Personally the conflict lies in
how even though Lovborg as a fellow aristocrat has the courage to defy
society and live life wildly, he’s also cushioned by the relative freedom that
is awarded to men? Whereas women are more strictly confined to an ideal
of the well behaved, domesticated wife and mother. And there’s Thea, who
has the courage to defy society despite being a woman, but isn’t from an
aristocratic background, which suggests that she has courage by sheer
strength of character, disproving the hypothesis that the characters in the
play are all shaped by society’s influence (through class and gender).
“Life just isn’t good enough for Hedda Gabler.” Why?
stifled by her circumstance which does not match the great need for
fulfilment she has
“Hedda’s desires are base but the manifestation of those desires is
complex.” Explore the truth of this statement.
‘base desires are those which are ignoble, lacking moral principles’
control over others’ lives? but that is due to her inability to control her own
(which is a result of patriarchy, marriage)
Hedda’s fascination with death
the death and destruction seems to run parallel to everything else though
she can control people in many ways that need not involve death
but why that fascination with what is immoral, what is reprehensible
because that’s exactly the crux of her unfulfilled desires in an aristocratic
world
fulfilled desires = freedom = beautiful this does not make sense to me
please explain
Death and destruction, that are inimical to the strict morality of society
which Hedda is bound by, represent the externalisation of Hedda’s
unfulfilled desire to be free of the constraints of society. This desire to be
free of societal constraints is evidenced by Hedda’s hate of her own
‘cowardice’, her fear of ‘scandal’ and the resulting social backlash. Hedda
speaks ‘in a different tone’ a regretful, intimate tone of confession when
speaking about her fear of scandal. She desires to be free of those societal
constraints….
Death and destruction is also the opposite of what Thea stands for; Hedda
is jealous of Thea, so strives to disrupt Thea’s nurturing, life-giving actions
with a dark intent on destruction.
Mademoiselle Diana also acts a foil to Hedda. (not as major as thea-hedda
tho) They both sell themselves out as women but in different ways. i.e they
both own guns and are rather violent; do not conform to societal
expectations of a woman - theres a quote smwhere by thea. Hedda attempts
to live vicariously through lovborg’s narration of his wild parties - diana
partakes directly in lovborg’s wild parties. hedda fears scandals and does
whatever she can to avoid them even tho she’s morally corrupt like Diana
who is a prostitute. she displays a skill to hide socially unacceptable things
under the guise of socially acceptable things. ie newspapers and in room
with lovborg. also their respective roles in lovborg’s suicide.
I would say that she is jealous of Thea precisely because she herself is
incapable of nurture (‘Everything I touch seems destined to turn into
something mean and farcical), not that her destructiveness is due to a
spiteful need to undo what Thea has done
 hmm that’s true
manifestation is made complex because she needs to avoid social backlash
and must do it all covertly, by manipulating peoples’ weaknesses - her
ability to identify fracture points in another person’s character eg
Lovborg’s hubris, Brack’s ego, aunt julle’s need to please
complexity lies in how the sequence of events arises not from hedda’s
desires on their own, but the weaknesses of others, the complex webs she
weaves to create her own version of a beautiful myth
Hedda’s desire for material comfort is also base. This desire can be seen in
how she forsakes love and fulfilment for economic security in marrying
Jorgen Tesman. She wants to lead a social life, to entertain.
this base desire leads to her
Explore how Hedda’s father General Gabler influences the play.
ironic that hedda is ultimately still defined by a masculine figure - her
father? so much for The New Woman
It is said that ‘Life just isn’t good enough for Hedda Gabler’, and to
understand why one need look no further than the title of the play.
Unequivocally, Hedda is her father’s daughter rather than her husband’s
wife, and with this assertion of independence comes the characteristics of
masculinity, violence, aesthetic idealism and desire for control peculiar to
the military aristocracy. From the moment the play opens, the imposing
stage presence of General Gabler’s portrait implies that he will have great
influence over his daughter, Hedda, whose subsequent actions orchestrate
much of the play’s conflict and tragedy. His undoubtedly transformative
shapes Hedda’s personality and her expectations of life which clash with
what reality has to offer, and are arguably the root of her ultimate downfall.
 Visual evidence of his influence sets the tone
o Stage presence in the form of portrait
o Decorative (rather than homely) appearance of the sitting
room
 Hedda as her father’s daughter: masculine, violent
o Masculine: aloof (early scene with Aunt Julle: cruel and
dispassionate, dismissing her hat as Berte’s)
o Violent due to military influence: guns
o Desires the control afforded by military, aristocratic status
and available to men in power such as her father.
 ‘I am heartily glad you have no control over me’
o Expectation of aesthetic beauty
 Clashes with her new status: she marries down and never really
acclimatizes to the standard of living Tesman has, looks down on
Tesman’s unsubtle pursuit of material things
o Dissonance between her expectations and her circumstances
manifested:
 ‘Tesman’s for ever worrying about what people are
going to find to live on’(194)
 do you think it would be valid to say Gabler was the one who taught
hedda to desire masculine things? his guns, he went horseriding
with her(168) not ‘taught’, but yes, I do think he shows her what
agency can grant you, that power and opulence and control and she
grew to desire it as well as to hate her womanhood + her further
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crippling living circumstances after marriage because of how it
denied her that agency
and this desire for masculine things causes hedda’s penis envy and
leaves her choking in the stifling circumstance of a woman for a
large part of the play
Rejection of institution of marriage in favour of control and power
over self, which, when coupled with the effects of an oppressive
patriarchy, have devastating consequences for the married Hedda
Aristocratic ideal of aesthetic beauty → Expectations of living
standards (far beyond what Tesman’s meager salary can offer,
evidence: ‘Hedda’s been lovely all her life.’(178)) (but which she is
used to because of the aristocratic living her father’s salary could
support)
o Grandiose opulence: Lady Falk’s villa, new piano, extensive
honeymoon, footman, horses, carriage
o Married down, unsatisfied by her pitiful circumstances
also as a result of his influence on hedda, she inherited the societal
expectations that had to be imposed on the daughter of general gabler and
on a member of the aristocrat
-‘Hedda’s drama is to have started life with recklessness, flamboyance, and to
have ended up with a dud; when we first meet her she has endured a
honeymoon with a dazed, educated simpleton.’
LOL