Hedda Gabler Essay

Hedda Gabler by Henrick Ibsen

My initial impression of Hedda Gabler was the class structure it was set in. All the characters are well spoken and the immediate setting gave a massive hint as to what social class the people are from.

I enjoyed the play, and its length, being fairly short, meant that it was gripping and easy to read in one sitting.

The twist that was Hedda being the mystery woman who held a pistol at Louvborg was foreseeable as Henrick Ibsen set Hedda up as a shady character with more depth to her than a housewife.  

The play would work very well on stage in my opinion, due to the easy set and set changes. The fact that it all happens I'm the Tesman household, enables the story to thicken, without the distraction of scene changes.

Due to the play's short length, character development wasn't too in depth. We didn't learn much about each character but had enough that we could have opinions on them. Hedda, for instance, appeared as an unhappy, unfulfilled housewife with little to occupy her time, and we gained that knowledge with no background information on the character. We were however told that Thea had a bad homelife and were then told the story of her marriage. This enables the audience to build up an image of her based on the given character context.

I really liked the ending to the play. The last line; 

"People... Don't.... Do things like that..."

links it to earlier in the play when Hedda said same thing to Thea. This makes the play an almost tight circle of karma.

I would like to act this play, as it would focus entirely on character development and voice. It would require research into the norms of the time and how that social class would act and appear. 

If I were to give one criticism to the play, it would be that the end was fairly predictable, in my opinion. But perhaps that was intentional.