Hedda Gabler

Like many playwrights, Henrik Ibsen is very oblique in his writing. Characters often imply things instead of saying them outright. Several characters mention Ejlert’s absence from academia over the past few years, but the reason for his absence is only hinted at. His career fell apart because of his alcohol addiction, and because he spent a lot of his money in brothels. He returned to academia when his relationship with Mrs. Elvsted pushed him to change his ways, as Hedda suggests when she remarks that Mrs. Elvsted “saved” Ejlert—that is, helped him to start writing again. Tesman and Ejlert’s field of study is also a little obscure. Tesman is studying “domestic crafts in fourteenth-century Brabant” (29), so both he and Ejlert are likely historians or anthropologists.

In this act, both Juliane and Tesman imply that Hedda is pregnant. Juliane is excited about this prospect, as she enjoys caring for people and wants her nephew to have a full house. Tesman hopes that his suspicions about Hedda’s pregnancy are correct, but he has not yet asked her about it directly. Hedda, on the other hand, changes the subject whenever pregnancy comes up in conversation. She is profoundly uncomfortable with the prospect of motherhood, as it represents an undeniable and definitive future with Tesman. 

The Constraints of Social Convention are agonizing for Hedda. She knows that, as a woman of a certain social class, she has to settle down and get married, but she feels trapped in the Falk villa with nothing to do. When she meets Mrs. Elvsted, she sees the possibility of another life: Although Mrs. Elvsted is married, she is willing to buck convention and pursue an affair with Ejlert that has the potential to make her genuinely happy. Hedda is immensely jealous of Mrs. Elvsted’s ability to choose her own destiny; it is part of the reason why she is continually cruel to her. Furthermore, as will be revealed in the next act, Hedda is the woman from Ejlert’s past, and they have unfinished business. She insists that Ejlert’s old flame is a singer to prevent Mrs. Elvsted from suspecting her.

Hedda wants to control other people, but Gaining Power and Influence is difficult for her as a married woman in the 19th century. While Mrs. Elvsted achieves a kind of secondhand influence by helping Ejlert with his writing, Hedda is not interested in helping Tesman with his work. She finds it boring, and she would only ever be able to contribute to it as a subordinate helper in any case. Instead of aiming for academic influence, Hedda uses social convention to intimidate and manipulate others. She pretends to mistake Juliane’s hat for the maid’s hat to make Juliane feel inferior. She also pretends to be affectionate toward Mrs. Elvsted to get her to talk, claiming that they were friends at school when Mrs. Elvsted knows otherwise. Beneath the surface of Hedda’s character is a deep anger and frustration that she cannot release. Her only outlet is shooting her father’s pistols.

Playwright Anton Chekhov famously said that each element of a play ought to be necessary for the action. As an example, he said that if there is a loaded gun in the first act of a play, it must go off by the end of the play. This narrative instruction is colloquially referred to as “Chekhov’s gun.” By introducing Hedda’s pistols in this act, Ibsen has created just such a situation. Hedda’s decision to fire the pistols and Tesman’s concern that doing so is dangerous foreshadow the play’s violent ending. Hedda does not have many opportunities to wield power, but, unlike most married women in her position, she does have guns at her disposal.

All the characters in this play struggle with The Challenges of Genuine Connection. Juliane and Berthe want to impress Hedda, but they fail because Hedda feels so antagonistic toward Tesman’s family. Tesman wants to create a life that will make Hedda happy, but he does not actually understand her very well. Mrs. Elvsted, who could not find genuine connection in her marriage, may have found it with Ejlert, but the question of his lost love hangs over their relationship. Hedda does not have genuine connections with anyone in the play so far. Her husband is almost a stranger to her: Although they have been traveling together for six months, she does not care about his work, shares no fond memories of his family, and feels unsettled in the life he has tried to build.