A Literary Analysis of Hedda Gabler

A Literary Analysis of Hedda Gabler Hedda Gabler is a text in which jealousy and envy drive a woman to manipulate and attempt to control everyone in her life. The protagonist, Hedda, shows her jealousy in her interactions with the other characters in the play, particularly with Eilert Loveborg and Thea Elvsted. Because Hedda is unable to get what she wants out of life because of her gender and during the time of the play, her age, she resorts to bringing everyone else down around her. Hedda lets her jealousy get the best of her and because of this she hurts many of the people around her as well as ultimately hurting herself. When the play was written, Hedda, being a woman, did not have many rights and had to do what was expected of a woman during that time period. She was afraid of scandal and envied those who were not. Her envy and jealousy at those who were free to be in control of their own lives was the driving force behind Hedda’s manipulative behavior and attempts to destroy the lives of others. She did the horrible things that she did to make herself feel as though she had some power and some control. It was her way of trying to ease the jealousy she felt towards others. She ruined their lives, so she would have nothing to be jealous of. Hedda Gabler is a complex piece of literature in which Henrik Ibsen is able to portray a woman who, because she has suffered from the injustices of the time, let her emotions get carried away and because of this was driven to attempt to put some equality into her own life by any means possible. Throughout the text of Hedda Gabler there are many instances that show Hedda’s envious nature. By examining these passages, one will find that the appalling things that she does are driven from her desire to have power and be in control. They also show how injustice can sometimes cause people to be driven to do drastic things to gain some equality into their lives. One of the first instances of Hedda’s jealousy in the play is