Hedda Gabler Reference to the context

Hedda Gabler Reference to the context

(a) Yes, but have you .......... we went away?
Yes, but have you noticed how strong and healthy she's looking? And how she's filled out since we went away?

REFERENCE

(i) Drama: Hedda Gabler

(ii) Dramatist: Henrik Ibsen

CONTEXT

(i) Occurrence: Act I

(ii) Content:

Hedda marries George but finds life with him to be dull. George spends most of his time in libraries doing research in history for a book. A friend of Hedda comes to visit her and tells her of Lovborg, an old friend of both women. Lovborg has also written a book on history. In the past, he has lived a life of degeneration. Now he has quit drinking and has devoted himself to serious work. Lovborg loses his manuscript at a party. When George returns home with Lovborg's manuscript, Hedda burns it. Lovborg comes to Hedda and confesses how he has failed in his life. Hedda talks him into committing suicide which he does. George begins to reconstruct Lovborg's manuscript with the help of Thea. In the end, Hedda commits suicide with her pistol.

EXPLANATION

In these lines Tesman wants to tell his aunt Juju that Hedda, his wife has become pregnant. Tesman here talks of Hedda as if she were the gun-dog who had been off her food for a whole but is now doing remarkably well and filling out nicely. The gun-dog image is one Ibsen uses in his notes, "His solicitude for her is the same as one gives to a thoroughbred horse or a valuable gun-dong." One can almost feel Hedda squirming as Tesman says this, but he is of course reminding her, in the nicest possible way, of the factual situation. She belongs to him as a piece of property, and, as the owner, he has the right to be proud of her. Fortunately, for him, Tesman is not aware of the wider implication of his remark about Hedda's "filling out". It is difficult enough to imagine Hedda and Tesman lying in bed together, let alone making love. It probably happened the night they spend at Gossensass and met all those 'amusing people'. There is just a hint of this possibility when Hedda and Tesman comment on their honeymoon photographs to Loevborg. In short, the thought of Hedda being pregnant and carrying Tesman's child is just Tesman's speculation.

(b) Quite irreproachably, I .......... may happen to him.
Quite irreproachable, I assure you. In every respect. All the same -- in this big city -- with money in his pockets -- I'm so dreadfully frightened something may happen to him.

REFERENCE

(i) Drama: Hedda Gabler

(ii) Dramatist: Henrik Ibsen

CONTEXT

(i) Occurrence: Act 1

(ii) Content:

Hedda marries George but finds life with him to be dull. George spends most of his time in libraries doing research in history for a book. A friend of Hedda comes to visit her and tells her of Lovborg, an old friend of both women. Lovborg has also written a book on history. In the past, he has lived a life of degeneration. Now he has quit drinking and has devoted himself to serious work. Lovborg loses his manuscript at a party. When George returns home with Lovborg's manuscript, Hedda burns it. Lovborg comes to Hedda and confesses how he has failed in his life. Hedda talks him into committing suicide which he does. George begins to reconstruct Lovborg's manuscript with the help of Thea. In the end, Hedda commits suicide with her pistol.

EXPLANATION

These lines show Mrs. Elvsted love and concern for Eilert Lovborg. After Lovborg comes to tutor the stepchildren of Mrs. Elvsted, she falls in love with him. However, after two years, Lovborg leaves Elvsted's house and goes to the "terrible town, with so many temptations on all sides". Mrs. Elvsted follows him. She shows up at the Tesman's house in distress. She tells Tesman and Hedda that, for the last two years, Lovborg's conduct has be "quite irreproachable"; he has been free of drunkenness. He has been perfect and faultless in every respect. She is perturbed that Lovborg will get into trouble now that he is back in the city with a pile of money to boot. She is worried about his running around with a "dangerous crowd". She fears a relapse of his drinking habit. In short, Mrs. Elvsted wants to save her beloved from bad company, bad habits or any sort of trouble that might ruin his life.

(c) [Nervously crossing .......... how to explain it.

[Nervously crossing the room.] Well, you see -- these impulses come over me all of a sudden; and I cannot resist them. [Throws herself down in the easy-chair by the stove.] Oh, I don't know how to explain it.

REFERENCE
(i) Drama: Hedda Gabler

(ii) Dramatist: Henrik Ibsen

CONTEXT

(i) Occurrence: Act 2

(ii) Content: 
Hedda marries George but finds life with him to be dull. George spends most of his time in libraries doing research in history for a book. A friend of Hedda comes to visit her and tells her of Lovborg, an old friend of both women. Lovborg has also written a book on history. In the past, he has lived a life of degeneration. Now he has quit drinking and has devoted himself to serious work. Lovborg loses his manuscript at a party. When George returns home with Lovborg's manuscript, Hedda burns it. Lovborg comes to Hedda and confesses how he has failed in his life. Hedda talks him into committing suicide which he does. George begins to reconstruct Lovborg's manuscript with the help of Thea. In the end, Hedda commits suicide with her pistol.

EXPLANATION

In these lines Hedda says to Brack that her behaviour suddenly assumes the form of uncontrollable impulses. Hedda has insulted her old, devoted aunt Juju by feigning to believe that the bonnet left on a chair of the drawing room belonged to some careless servant, when she knew that it was her aunt's. The aunt is deeply wounded by Hedda's remark, which was exactly the effect sought by Hedda, yet without justification or apparent realization. Brack expresses surprise at Hedda's behaviour. "Now, my dear Mrs. Hedda", says Brack, "how could you do such a thing? To that excellent old lady, too!" Crossing the room nervously, Hedda replies that her "impulses" are beyond her control. She cannot resist her impulses because she is desperate for a release of her anger. She sits in an easy-chair by the stove and says that she cannot explain to him her pent-up emotions. In short, Hedda is a frustrated woman who does not feel comfortable in any of the suitable roles for women. Rather than defy social convention, she attempts to conform which results in uncontrollable impulses.