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Hedda Gabler: Dealing With Men And Doing So Beautifully

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Hedda Gabler: Dealing With Men And Doing So Beautifully
“Hedda Gabler:” Dealing with Men and Doing So “Beautifully” Henrik Ibsen’s play, “Hedda Gabler,” is an interesting story of a peculiar woman’s boredom with life. Hedda Gabler’s boredom and need for enjoyment causes her to manipulate the lives of those around her. Men love her; women envy her. This popularity makes Hedda an all-powerful character throughout the play. Undoubtedly, Hedda enjoys her power over others and is reasonably distraught when Judge Brack reveals that he knows Hedda gave Eilert Loevborg the pistol that killed him. At this point, Hedda has a difficult decision to make; either become Brack’s sex slave, or immerse herself in scandal: one of her biggest fears. Regardless of her decision, Brack’s knowledge of the pistol’s true …show more content…
She is actually amused at how much Tesman tries to succeed professionally and dismisses his attempts at frugality. She marries him, not because she loves him, but because she felt it was time for her to be married. Hedda believed that she was past her prime in terms of beauty and thought Tesman would be successful. It is quite appropriate that Ibsen titled the play after Hedda’s name before marriage, “Hedda Gabler.” Despite marrying Tesman, she never relinquishes power and never considers herself subservient to her husband. Not once does she allow Tesman to refer to them as “we” and only calls him by his first name, George, once throughout the play. Tesman and Eilert are competing for a professorship and after Tesman reads Eilert’s manuscript, Tesman admits that he is “jealous” of Eilert because he could never produce such work. When Tesman learns that Hedda has burned Eilert’s manuscript, he was mortified at first, but when Hedda says, “I did it for your sake, George” (1273), Tesman is ecstatic at the prospect that Hedda might have shown some affection for him. In turn, Hedda is disgusted at Tesman altogether because not only is he ignorant, but as soon as Hedda reluctantly tells him about her pregnancy, he completely forgets about Eilert’s manuscript. Tesman’s lack of character and shallowness come to the foreground her, two reasons why Hedda wishes that she never married Tesman to begin

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