Oppression in Ibsens Hedda Gabler Essay -- Hedda Gabler Essays

Oppression in Ibsens Hedda GablerOne of the social issues dealt with in Ibsens problem plays is the heaviness of women by conventions limiting them to a domestic life. In Hedda Gabler the heroine struggles to satisfy her pushy and independent intellect within the narrow role society allows her. futile to be creative in the way she desires, Heddas passions become destructive twain to others and herself. Raised by a general (Ibsen 1444), Hedda has the character of a attraction and is wholly unsuited to the role of suburban housewife (1461). Since she is unable to move over the authority she craves, she exercises business office by manipulating her husband George. She tells Thea, I want the exponent to shape a mans destiny (1483). Heddas unsuitability for her domestic role is too shown by her impatience and evasiveness at any reference to her pregnancy. She confides to prove Brack, Ive no leanings in that direction (1471). Hedda desires intellectual creativity, not just the pr ocreative power that binds her to a limited social function. But because her only agency of exercising power is with a credulous husband (1490), Hedda envies Theas bass intellectual partnership with Eilert Loevborg (1484), which produces as their creative child a unmixed treatise on the future of society (1473-74, 1494). Heddas rivalry with Thea for power over Eilert is a conflict between Heddas dominating intellect (symbolized by her pistols) and the traditionally distaff power of beauty and love (symbolized by Theas long hair). Because Hedda lacks Theas courage to kick in her husband and risk ostracism, she tries to satisfy her intellect within societys constraints. First she seeks power through wealth and social status, marrying George on the condi... ...da bows to Theas beautiful hair and, later on playing a last dance on the piano, admits defeat not free. Still not free . . . From now on Ill be hushed (1506-07). Heddas tragedy is that she is denied the freedom to real ize her creative potential, and so have the vanity that comes from personal achievement. Her attempt to retain her independence within society prevents her, through fear of scandal, from marrying the man with whom she might have had a relationship both individually satisfying and mutually supportive. In Heddas suicide are seen the curtailment of intellect and the emotional isolation caused by oppression, even within a commonplace bourgeois family where People dont do such things (1507). Work Cited Ibsen, Henrik. Hedda Gabler. The Norton submission to Literature. Trans. Michael Meyer. Third Edition. New York Norton, 1981. 1443-1507.