In Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler, the character of Hedda Gabler is depicted as a woman who is able to hide her true identity behind a facade of trust that other members of her family unwittingly fall prey to. While the other characters remain oblivious to Hedda’s manipulation, it is emphasized for the reader, through Ibsen’s use of stage actions and metaphors. Hedda finds herself imprisoned within society and the life that she manipulated herself into.
Ibsen’s use of dramatic scenery and stage actions help depict Hedda as manipulative as she constantly tries to distance herself away from the Tesmans, feeling that her new life is not fitting for a woman of her standing. Her attitude towards other characters in the play demonstrates her manipulatic nature as she struggles to maintain her aristocratic class values. The stage actions that Ibsen created for Hedda stresses the fact that she feels trapped in a middle class life, and struggles to accept her lack of control over her own future.
Only away from other’s prying eyes is Hedda able to express her true self, fearing the scandal that would arise if others saw her for what she truly was. Stage actions such as when Hedda enters the room and “flings back the curtains from the glass door and stands there, looking out” (Ibsen 232) emphasize the difference between her public and private personalities. Ibsen metaphorically uses the window to represent her own self-reflection, as she tries to escape from her current reality and yearns for the scandalous life she lived in the past.
The four walls of the inner room that acts as a setting serves as constraints for Hedda’s escalating power, confining not only her actions, but also representing her feelings of being trapped by societal values, her narrowed social circle and her new life as a married woman. Just as the walls of the room represent the life that Hedda is trapped in, the window symbolizes a world for Hedda that is beyond reach. But only she is aware of her own emotions toward her current situation as the other characters, particularly naive Tesman, are unaware and fall prey to her deceit unknowingly.
This is shown in the dialogue between the couple, “Tesman: What are you standing and looking at, Hedda? Hedda: I’m just looking at the leaves—they’re so yellow—and so withered” (Ibsen 232). This dialogue between the pair is one of many illustrations in the play where a character is unable to see past Hedda’s manipulation. The symbol of autumn is associated with tragedy and death, which foreshadows the impending catastrophe in the play’s final stages.
For Hedda, as she counts the total months of her pregnancy, she does not accept the life growing within her and does not want her baby to become another thing trapping her into a life with the Tesmans, and ultimately a new class that she does not accept as her own. Her attitude is made even more dramatic when juxtaposed against Tesman’s who ironically believes that the month of September will bring hope and the possibility of new life and growth, since it is the start of a new year.
Hedda’s tone and agitation in this scene where she appears. once more restless”(Ibsen 232), suggest that it is time, or a lack thereof that ultimately forces her to commit a scandal. When Hedda enters the room that constrains and imprisons her alone, readers are able to see her as her true self, having finally dropped the facade she maintains around the Tesmans. She enters the room alone and “moves about the room, raising her arms and clenching her fists as if in a frenzy” (Ibsen 232). Ibsen’s choice of stage actions demonstrate that despite the calm and self-assured way she interacts with Tesman, she is actually struggling to maintain control of herself.
Hedda is clearly not ready to shoulder the responsibility of being a “husbands wife” rather than a “father’s daughter”, yet she cannot risk letting anyone know of her inner turmoil, as it would cost her the power she has over them. Hedda’s relationship with the Tesmans showcases Hedda’s determination to keep their relationship distant. When Tesman addresses Hedda about Aunt Julie’s peculiar behaviour, she replies angrily, “But really, what kind of manner has she to go throwing her hat about in a drawing room! It’s just not proper” (Ibsen 232). Hedda is not pleased with Aunt Julie being comfortable within the household.
It is evident from her tone, that she wants the other characters to understand their place in society and in the family itself. Hedda considers herself as superior due to her class and Ibsen gives reminders of the class tension within the household. By saying “I’m just looking at my old piano. It doesn’t really fit with all these other things” (Ibsen 232), Hedda creates the impression that just as the piano does not fit in the drawing room, Hedda’s aristocratic life style and values do not fit into the Tesman family, with their bourgeoisie lifestyle and values.
Throughout the play, Hedda Gabler is depicted as a character who is going through an internal struggle, as she attempts to break out of a life that she brought upon herself. The use of literary devices, stages actions and dialogue demonstrate how trapped Hedda feels, both by the setting she finds herself in and the lifestyle she has married into. Ibsen foreshadows throughout the play Hedda’s inability to cope with the changes in her life, suggesting that it is only a matter of time before Hedda is pushed to complete