Hedda’s Suicide : A Reasonable Act?

Hedda’s Suicide : A Reasonable Act?

In the late nineteenth century, the forces of capitalism and colonialism that shaped European society were veiled in doubt by the evolution of several new ways of thinking. In France, the beginnings of the impressionist movement reformed art, drama and literature by questioning the long-standing tradition of realism.

In central Europe, Sigmund Freud’s revolutionary science of psychoanalysis gained momentum; changing the way people related to each other and paving the way for surrealist art and progress of alternative thinking. Finally, Karl Marx’s promotion of social systems which were alternative to the dominant capitalism of the time raised peoples’ awareness of the severe injustices their new way of living had created.
It was in this social milieu that Henrik Ibsen turned for a final time to write a play with a particular social agenda. In his effort to comment on events around him and assess the impact of society’s new ideologies on a specific echelon of society, Hedda Gabler was born.

The title of the play is the maiden name of its protagonist. The audience is invited into Hedda’s new home in Norway shortly after she has returned from honeymoon with George Tesman, a scholar of Middle Ages history. In the introductory conversation between George and their maid, Bertha, we are introduced to Hedda’s upbringing which is to play a crucial role in events to come. With the renowned General Gabler as a parent, Hedda was conditioned for a life of independence, entertainment and decadence. After her father dies and her life of horseback riding comes to an end, Hedda slowly realises that her society will not let her live in the way she would like.

As a bourgeoisie woman, taking up a job is both awkward and very difficult for Hedda. Hedda has little choice: she must marry if she wants to have any chance of supporting the extravagant way of living to which she had become accustomed.

In George Tesman, Hedda found both the perfect solution of her situation and the inevitable curse of boredom and discontentment. George, brought up by his Aunts, is as conventional and colourless as his name suggests. His conversation is trite, and he is completely oblivious to the subtlety; failing to notice Aunt Julie’s suggestive questions about Hedda’s pregnancy. He is dedicated to his studies, having spent his honeymoon researching “marvellous old documents that nobody knew existed”.
It would have been very dangerous for Hedda to pass up George’s offer of marriage. With Lövborg and Brack, two men with whom she had relationships in the past, indisposed, doing so would have squandered her opportunity to live comfortably in marriage. Hedda realizes the merit in marrying a man who is to soon become a professor, and feels scared of approaching age and loneliness. Her decision, however, is guided predominantly by the structure of her patriarchal society which dictates that she must depend completely on men and on marriage for her future happiness.

It is with her marriage to George that Hedda’s life of monotony and boredom increasingly strains her personality and livelihood. She declares: “Sometimes I think I only have a talent for one thing… boring myself to death!” and becomes obsessed with the task of finding interest and beauty in her life. The tragedy of Hedda Gabler begins when Hedda is unable to discover these qualities in her own life. She cannot have the fulfilment of a profession - the interest in another world of studies, colleagues and relationships. As an uninfluential member of society, she is not challenged intellectually or socially. Living under a monarch and as a woman in a patriarchal society, she can have no influence on the future of her community. With European countries establishing colonies throughout the world, Hedda realizes the inexorable domination of her society and feels a helpless victim of its hegemony.

To find the interest and beauty she desires, Hedda must turn to others. In her earlier life, she made use of Lövborg to satisfy herself. Often described as Hedda’s alter ego, Lövborg had an intense relationship with Hedda during childhood. Hedda was attracted by the “style and Romantic secrecy” and ended the relationship when it threatened to become physical. In a revealing dialogue with Lövborg, Hedda exposes her profound desire for fascination and intrigue in an otherwise uninteresting life:

The reasons for Hedda's suicide are fairly clear, she realised she could not live in a middle-class environment under the threat of Brack revealing the fact that she gave the pistol to Lovborg whilst her husband is wrapped up in a project which does not involve her and it is clear that he is not going to provide her with the attention or standard of living which she was hoping for. Her first environment, materialistic and prestigious, led her to choose her second environment purely on material values. She soon found that she could not move from one environment to the other, and with the added problem of people within her environment who reminded her of her own failings, she simply found she could not cope. It is clear that in another environment, probably a more wealthy one and one in which she received more attention, she could have been happier. — with Muhammad Hussain and 2 others.