Ibsen’s iconic play Hedda Gabler offers a psychological drama surrounding the eponymous female character who is presented as one of the first neurotic female protagonists of the early modernist period. The play was written in 1891 and performed the same year in Munich and again in London where it premiered at the Vaudeville Theatre. Like many of Ibsen’s plays, Hedda Gabler explores a central female figure searching for control and domination, breaking the dramatic mode of the time and kick starting the development of theatre in the twentieth century. Written towards the end of his career, Ibsen developed the female protagonist further from Nora sitting alone in her ‘Doll’s House’ of 1879, creating one of the most striking characters of its time. Hedda’s inner conflict combined with her inherent lust for power acted as a precursor to the psychoanalysis of Freud, highlighting once again the modernity of Ibsen’s writing and its overall effect on the modernist movement in Britain and Europe.
The play is set in the villa of Jorgen Tesman in Kristiania Norway in the 1890s. Having just returned from their honeymoon, Hedda Gabler and her new husband Jorgen Tesman face significant financial problems which threaten the aristocratic lifestyle that Hedda has grown up with and begun to expect. Tesman, an academic in cultural history, expects to fund his wife’s lifestyle through a university professorship which becomes threatened by the return of Ejlert Lovborg, his academic rival. Despite showing signs of recovery from alcoholism, Lovborg announces news that he has completed what he hopes to be a bestseller in the same academic field as Tesman. The success of his previous work worries Tesman and Hedda, who begin to see Lovborg as an obstacle to their future financial and professional success.
Lovborg tells the couple that he has no intention of standing in Tesman’s way, and he explains how through the help and guidance of Mrs. Elvsted he considers the manuscript to his new work to be a sequel to his previous highly acclaimed achievement. Hedda becomes jealous of the bond between Mrs. Elvsted and Lovborg and devotes herself to coming between them. She encourages reckless behaviour, resulting in Lovborg misplacing his manuscript, only to be found by Tesman, who tells Hedda who uses it to her advantage. Rather than telling Lovborg the manuscript has been found, Hedda encourages Lovborg to commit suicide, even giving him the pistol he uses to kill himself. She then destroys the manuscript, justifying her behaviour to her husband through her need to ensure their future plans are not ruined. Tesman and Mrs Elvsted however wish to reconstruct the book from memory to honour Lovborg’s name. Judge Brack, a friend of Tesman’s, announces that Lovborg’s death was “ridiculous and vile”. He alerts Hedda to the fact that he recognises the pistol, exerting power over her with a threat of sexual blackmail. Hedda resents being controlled by a man as she “would sooner die” and rather than allowing herself to be manipulated she takes matters into her own hands: “No longer free? No that’s a thought I’ll never endure!” [Act IV] Taking a pistol, she retires behind a curtain, taking life into her own hands once again as she shoots herself in the head.