Hedda Gabler (781-800)
Written in 1891
Tale centers around Women and their roles in men’s lives
*Hedda - George Tesman’s wife and the town beauty, the one all the men sought after as a prize. She was the catch by her beauty and breeding. She seems to be very superficial and false in her treatment of everyone. She treats Aunt Julie indifferently and seems to have no cares for her husbands treasured mementos from his childhood (the slippers) (787). Even though she has a sentimental item herself (the piano) she cannot empathize with her husband, or chooses not to (789). Hedda seems to not want to bear children with her refusing the notion that she has gotten any fuller on her honeymoon(788). Hedda also only wants the finer things and to be in society and to entertain(799). She wants to play hostess to an elite circle and have all of the things promised to her before her husband fell into an odd financial situation.
Hedda also may have had a tryst with her husbands old friend turned foe, Eilert Lovborg in her youth.
*Mrs Elvsted (Thea) said that he was still in love with a woman from his past, who had told him she would “shoot him with a pistol.” if he would leave her (796). Hedda did everything she could to point the finger at another woman. But at the end of act 1 she tells George that she will have her pistols to amuser her. (800). Thea is in a loveless marriage to a man twenty years her senior. She wants to be with Eilert Lovborg and leaves her husband and her duties to him and his children. She confides her sadness in Hedda (Who pushes for information and doesn’t even remember Thea’s name). Thea was bullied by Hedda, yet she still falls for the trap and tells her all about her woe.
*Miss Juliane Tesman (Auntie or Aunt Julie) - doats on George and wishes for Hedda to have his child.She loves George and has looked after him after the death of his parents as a child.
There are three female types here.
The Care taker (aunt)
The Taker (Hedda)
And the giver (Thea)
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