Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

There are two allusions to Greek and Roman mythology that crop up inHedda Gabler.
The first is that of Dionysus (also called Bacchus), the god of wine, a.k.a. the craziest
party animal ever. Back in the days of Greek mythology, Dionysus was the guy throwing
parties your mother warned you about. Were talking orgies, wild animals, crazed
dancing, fire, and of course, lots and lots of alcohol. Orgiesalcoholdoes this sound
familiar? When the men return from their wild stag party, Tesman and Brack both report
on the nights festivities. Tesman uses the word orgy, and we all remember that Eilert is
a raging alcoholic. Hedda must sense this connection, at least on some level, because
she always imagines Eilert reading poetry with vine leaves in his hair. This is a
romanticized image, but also has its roots in the ancient Greek world, where the god
Dionysus was very often depicted wearing a wreath of vine leaves on his head. Hedda
is attracted to Eilerts Bacchic traits: his free spirit, his drinking, and his rebel courage.
Then youve got Diana Mademoiselle Diana, to be more specific. We might write her
off as a prostitute at first, but when Brack calls her "a mighty huntress of men," we have
an "Aha!" moment. Diana is another Greek divinity, and she was you guessed it a
huntress. Whats odd is that Diana was a virgin, and in fact a goddess of chastity. It
seems a bit weird to name a prostitute after herright?
The truth is, theres a lot of really interesting (if dense) critical work on this topic. If this
really interests you, we say: great. Go read. For the time being, rather than identify
specific characters in Hedda Gabler as corresponding to specific figures in ancient
myth, its more instructive to think about the tension between these two deities and the
way that struggle is manifested in the play. Bacchus is about drunken orgies; Diana is
about chastity. Eilert deals with this very sort of struggle himself, as does Hedda (who is
afraid of scandal yet discontent with a life of propriety). Which force wins out inHedda
Gabler Dionysus or Diana?

To understand why Hedda commits suicide, you have to understand a lot about Heddas
character. So we address the whole question of her untimely death in "Character Analysis."
Here, were going to talk about the very last line of Hedda Gabler, delivered by the lovely Judge
Brack: "But good God! People dont do such things!"

Any chance these words sound familiar to you? Go ahead and backtrack all the way to Act I,
where Hedda sits and converses with Mrs. Elvsted. Thea explains that some woman from
Eilerts past threatened to shoot him with a pistol when they broke up. Heddas response is,
"Thats nonsense! Nobody behaves that way around here!"
Now jump to Act IV again, shortly before the suicide, when the Judge is explaining to Hedda the
threat of impending scandal regarding one of her fathers pistols. He suggests that the matter
will come to court, out in public. "Id rather die!" Hedda explains, to which Brack responds,
"Peoplesay such things. But they dont do them."
WELL. Look who has the last laugh, eh? All of these lines revolve around one big theme
in Hedda Gabler: social boundaries. In the real world, people are concerned with keeping up
appearances, with acting normally, with playing their part in the game of life. By shooting
herself, by doing what people dont do, Hedda embraces her romanticized world of aesthetics
(see "Character Analysis" for more) and breaks free from the social mandates governing her
every action. The Judge is right: people dont do such things. But Hedda, in committing suicide
this way, seems to be saying, "I do."

Exactly how steamy is this story?

PG-13

Rated PG-13 for adult themes and the most hidden bawdy banter weve ever witnessed.
After a quick read through of Hedda Gabler, you might realize that youve never once
seen the words "baby," "pregnant," "sex," "bed," or "affair." Thats hard to believe since
the play is about a pregnant woman, a man she almost had an affair with, and a man
currently trying to sleep with her. Read it a few more times and youll realize theres
excitement to be found beneath the Victorian tact. So here you go:
A Guide To Secret Sex Talk in Hedda Gabler (Or, Judge Brack Talks A Lot About
Sex )

1. Any one of the many references to Hedda "filling out," or having a "new responsibility," or
Berta having another name to call George, or Heddas truncated "Im going to"
confession to George are baby talk. These all refer to Heddas pregnancy.

2. Hedda says that she and Eilerts "closeness [] threatened to grow more serious."
Translation: he wanted to have sex with her, and she refused.
3. Mademoiselle Diana is "a red-headed singer." Translation: prostitute.
4. Brack wants to have a "triangular" "friendship" with Hedda and George. Translation: he
wants to sleep with Hedda.
5. Brack wants to be the "only cock in the walk" = he wants to be the only man that Hedda
is sleeping with outside of her marriage.
6. That whole discussion of the train is a bit odd. Basically, Brack is saying Hedda should
jump off the marriage train into the arms of a waiting stranger him. Hedda is afraid that
people will look at her legs if she jumps, meaning the scandal will be public and thats
not OK. Brack then says hell come aboard the train, which means hell take the initiative
by coming to her, and no one will ever be the wiser.
7. Did you see that weird discussion about Heddas honeymoon, when the Judge keeps
saying "morning, noon and night," and Hedda keeps correcting him by saying
"everlastingly?" Theyre talking about the time that Hedda spends with her husband.
Shes offended by the Judge referring to the night, because it implies that shes having
sex with her husband on their honeymoon. Its not that the sex isnt allowed its that
talking about the sex (or anything six degrees from it) isnt acceptable.
8. Towards the end of the play, Brack gets Hedda in his power and promises not to "abuse
[his] position." Translation: "Im going to have lots of sex with you, Hedda, and youre
going to have to pretend to enjoy it."

Once the subject of public controversy, defended only by theavant-garde theater critics
of the nineteenth century, Ibsen's prose dramas now appear as successful television
plays and are an essential part of the repertory theaters all over the world. No longer

inflaming audience reactions, the dramas are now acceptable fare to the most
conservative theatergoer.
Because Ibsenite drama has become part of the history of the theater, a study of his
work gives us a special insight into contemporary writings. The modern "theater of the
absurd," for instance, expressing a personal alienation from society, is merely another
form of the social criticism which Ibsen first inspired.
Although the plays are interesting for their social message, Ibsen's dramas would not
survive today were it not for his consummate skill as a technician. Each drama is
carefully wrought into a tight logical construction where characters are clearly delineated
and interrelated, and where events have a symbolic as well as actual significance. The
symbolism in Ibsen's plays is rarely overworked. Carefully integrated to unify the setting,
events, and character portrayals, the symbols are incidental and subordinate to the truth
and consistency of his picture of life.
Having been interested in painting as a youth, Ibsen was always conscious of making
accurate observations. As a dramatist, he considered himself a photographer as well,
using his powers of observation as a lens, while his finished plays represented the
proofs of a skilled darkroom technician. The realism of his plays, the credibility of his
characters, the immediacy of his themes attest to these photographic skills at which
Ibsen so consciously worked. Among his countless revisions for each drama, he paid
special heed to the accuracy of his dialogue. Through constant rewriting, he brought out
the maximum meaning in the fewest words, attempting to fit each speech into the
character of the speaker. In addition, Ibsen's ability as a poet contributed a special
beauty to his terse prose.
The problems of Ibsen's social dramas are consistent throughout all his works. Georg
Brandes, a contemporary critic, said of Ibsen, as early as the 1860s, that "his progress
from one work to the other is not due to a rich variety of themes and ideas, but on the
contrary to a perpetual scrutiny of the same general questions, regarded from different
points of view." Hedda Gabler, with its emphasis on individual psychology, is a close
scrutiny of a woman like Nora Helmer or Mrs. Alving, who searches for personal
meaning in a society which denies freedom of expression.

Professor Koht sums up the dramatist's investigations:

"The thing which filled [Ibsen's] mind was the individual man, and he measured the
worth of a community according as it helped or hindered a man in being himself. He had
an ideal standard which he placed upon the community and it was from this measuring
that his social criticism proceeded."
Secondary to, and in connection with, his idea that the individual is of supreme
importance, Ibsen believed that the final personal tragedy comes from a denial of love.
Thus, Hedda Gabler is doomed to a dissatisfied life because she too is unable to love.
In an age where nations were striving for independence, Ibsen's sense of democracy
was politically prophetic. He believed not that "right" was the prerogative of the mass
majority, but that it resided among the educated minority. In the development and
enrichment of the individual, he saw the only hope of a really cultured and enlightened
society.
Until the latter part of the nineteenth century, theater remained a vehicle of
entertainment. Insights into the human condition were merely incidental factors in the
dramatist's art. Ibsen, however, contributed a new significance to drama which changed
the development of modern theater. Discovering dramatic material in everyday situations
was the beginning of a realism that novelists as different as Zola and Flaubert were
already exploiting. With Ibsen, the stage became a pulpit, and the dramatist exhorting
his audience to reassess the values of society became the minister of a new social
responsibility.

Critical Essays Characterization of Secondary Characters

As usual in Ibsen's tightly constructed dramas, each character provides, by comparison,

insight into every other character. The characterizations of Thea Elvsted and Miss

Juliana Tesman, unlike Hedda, depict women who submit to their socially imposed
feminine roles and derive satisfaction from their lives: they devote themselves to the
unselfish tasks of raising children and serving to inspire masculine creativity. Julia, for
instance, has raised George Tesman, who became a promising academician, and now
that the nephew has grown up, she takes care of her invalid sister. Thea, after having
married an unloving elderly man in order to care for his household, has found a
satisfying life assisting and inspiring the work of a creative and brilliant writer. Through
her devotion, Lvborg has been able to channel his undisciplined energies to produce
according to his potential. His masterpiece, the product of their mutual inspiration, is the
natural child, which, through love, Thea and Eilert have conceived.
Compared to Aunt Julia and Mrs. Elvsted, Hedda seems an unnatural woman. Refusing
to relinquish her freedom, she regards childbearing as loathsome and destroys the
manuscript conceived by Thea and Lvborg as if she were murdering her own child.
Degrading Aunt Julia by insulting her new bonnet, Hedda expresses hostility toward her
husband as well as his relatives.
Hedda's emotional sterility is countered by Judge Brack's lack of compassion. Unlike
Hedda, Brack has a profession and is free to amuse himself without overstepping the
masculine social conventions. This parallel between them illustrates the double
standards of society, which denies rights of self-expression to women.
The emptiness of Brack's emotional life is underscored by his attributes of vulgarity and
lechery. Willing to first compromise Hedda's respectability as a married woman, he has
no compunctions about using blackmail as a weapon guaranteeing his selfish ends. Like
Hedda, Brack wishes to substitute power over someone for love which he is unable to
give.
George's bumbling ordinariness contrasts vividly and humorously with Lvborg's
flamboyant and creative brilliance. Where George writes about the "domestic industries
of Brabant in the middle ages," Eilert works on a book dealing with the "civilizing forces"
of humanity in the future. George delights in researching among old manuscripts;
Lvborg considers the problems of the future.

Seeing only an inexperienced bride, the husband admires Hedda for her qualities of
beauty and poise and expects that she will learn to love him at some future time.
Hedda's former lover, on the other hand, is fascinated by her "craving for life" and has
insight into her cowardly retreat to convention. George is eager for his professional
appointment, which will guarantee his ability to support his household, while Lvborg
looks forward to the "moral victory" he will achieve from delivering his scheduled
lectures. Solicitous to his aunts, George cherishes sentimental reminders of the love
and care he received as a child (as shown by his delight at receiving an old pair of
slippers Rina embroidered for him); Lvborg, recognizing that the past is irreclaimable,
breaks with Thea when he loses the manuscript they have written together.
Ibsen sets the brilliant writer as an exact counterpart to the medieval scholar in many
ways. Where one is erratic, the other is steady; one deals with abstract and
philosophical problems, the other concerns himself with concrete and detailed minutiae.
Because of these qualities, however, Lvborg, a representation of the discontinuity in
living a free life, cannot carry on his work. George, on the other hand, representing the
continuity of living a structured life, is able to take up Lvborg's work and eventually fulfill
the writer's promise of greatness. With this situation, Ibsen seems to imply a balance of
human forces: the erratic genius is necessary to provide the impelling idea, but the
character who is gifted with less imagination and an ability to work hard at concrete
details is the one able to realize the idea.