Hedda Gabler

1890

• Norwegian
• Translated: Edmund Gosse (1890s)

Hedda

• bored: needs something to do
• "ennui": intense boredom; life is not providing excitement
• snobby, hard to please
• selfish
• avoids responsibility
• burns Lovberg's book..."their curly haired child"
• jealousy
• anti-maternal
• detached
• manipulative
• threatened by anything/anyone who would take away her freedom
• feels trapped

Tesman

• eh?
• historian: domestic industries in middle ages
• travels to conduct archival research in libraries, even on honeymoon
• not yet a professor
• nice guy: easy to pity, invites our sympathy
• naive, simple-minded

Lovberg

• passionate
• genius
• 2 books
• distraught over the loss of his manuscript...suicide
• loves Hedda but close friendship with Mrs. Elvsted

Mrs. Elvsted

• softer, feminine
• curly hair that was pulled by Hedda when they were younger
• closer to Lovberg
• emotional
• sadistic

Love triangles:

• Lovberg---Hedda & Mrs. Elsted
• Hedda---Brack & Lovberg

Hedda Gabler

• not plot-driven
• plot = romance, marriage plot
• dialogue
• character-driven
• realism
• - focus on real people
• - home
• - authorical detachment
• naturalism

Train allegory with Judge Brack--suggests adultery