Reading Order
Hedda Gabler Reading Order
Hedda Gabler (1890) by Henrik Ibsen is the most psychologically complex female character in the Western dramatic tradition — Hedda Tesman (née Gabler), recently married to the academic George Tesman, surrounded by the people who want things from her (Tesman's academic advancement, Judge Brack's affair, Eilert Løvborg's salvation, Thea Elvsted's protection), and unable to give any of them what they want because what she wants — freedom, beauty, power — is unavailable to a woman in her society. The play's central image is Hedda burning Eilert's manuscript (the 'child of the spirit' that Thea and Eilert created together) in the fireplace while saying 'I am burning your child, Thea. Burning it, curly-locks!' — an act of destruction that is also the only act of power available to her. Ibsen's own notes for the play describe Hedda as a woman who has been educated to believe in beauty and freedom and then delivered into a world that has no place for either. The final shot — offstage — is one of the most famous stage directions in the drama.
Where to start
Hedda Gabler (1890) — any modern translation; Michael Meyer's (1961), Christopher Hampton's (1989), and Kenneth McLeish's (1995) are all strong. Best Ibsen reading order: A Doll's House → Ghosts → The Wild Duck → Hedda Gabler → The Master Builder → When We Dead Awaken
Complete Hedda Gabler Book List
- 1Buy
Hedda Gabler
Henrik Ibsen·1890·The most psychologically complex female character in the Western dramatic tradition — Hedda Tesman, the pistols, the manuscript burned in the fireplace, and the offstage shot. One of the most frequently performed Ibsen plays; every generation of actresses measures itself against Hedda - 2Buy
A Doll's House
Henrik Ibsen·1879·The companion and the more famous feminist Ibsen play — Nora Helmer's decision to leave her husband. A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler are companion investigations of the position of women in Norwegian bourgeois society: Nora's ending (she leaves) is the active, hopeful version; Hedda's ending (the offstage shot) is the version for the woman who has no equivalent exit available - 3Buy
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert·1857·Flaubert's companion in the literary tradition of the woman destroyed by the gap between her romantic aspirations and the reality of bourgeois provincial life — Emma Bovary in Yonville. Madame Bovary and Hedda Gabler are the two defining works of this tradition: Emma is destroyed by the gap between her romantic fiction and reality; Hedda is destroyed by the gap between her hunger for power and beauty and the complete absence of any legitimate channel for either - 4Buy
The Awakening
Kate Chopin·1899·Chopin's companion in the tradition of the literary investigation of the woman who discovers she cannot live within the constraints her society imposes — Edna Pontellier in New Orleans. The Awakening and Hedda Gabler are companion investigations of the same problem (the woman who wants freedom in a society that will not give it) from the same decade and with the same conclusion - 5Buy
Miss Julie
August Strindberg·1888·Strindberg's companion in the Scandinavian dramatic tradition of the psychologically intense play about a woman destroyed by the gap between her class position and her desires — the count's daughter Julie and the valet Jean on Midsummer's Eve. Strindberg and Ibsen are the two masters of the Scandinavian tradition; Miss Julie and Hedda Gabler are companion explorations of the woman who cannot fit the role her society has assigned her - 6Buy
The Master Builder
Henrik Ibsen·1892·The later companion Ibsen play — Halvard Solness, the master builder, and Hilde Wangel's arrival demanding that he climb the tower he fears. The Master Builder and Hedda Gabler are companion investigations of the Ibsenian theme of the person destroyed by the gap between what they once were (or wanted to be) and what their society has made of them - 7Buy
Portrait of a Lady
Henry James·1881·James's companion in the literary tradition of the woman who chooses her own captivity — Isabel Archer's refusal to leave Osmond. Portrait of a Lady and Hedda Gabler are companion investigations of the woman who is given (or takes) the opportunity to be free and then destroys herself by refusing or sabotaging it: Hedda burns Eilert's manuscript; Isabel returns to Osmond - 8Buy
Mrs Dalloway
Virginia Woolf·1925·Woolf's companion in the literary tradition of the investigation of what is lost when a woman's ambitions are channeled entirely into social performance — Clarissa Dalloway's party, her memories of Peter Walsh and Sally Seton, and Septimus Smith's parallel story. Both Hedda Gabler and Mrs Dalloway are organized around the question of what happens to the intelligence and desire of women who are denied any legitimate channel for them
Hedda Gabler — Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Hedda Gabler burn the manuscript?
Hedda burns Eilert Løvborg's manuscript — the 'child of the spirit' that he and Thea Elvsted created together — because it is the only act of genuine destruction (and therefore the only genuine exercise of power) available to her in a situation in which she is otherwise entirely without power. The specific cruelty of Hedda's position, as Ibsen designed it, is that she has been educated to want things (freedom, beauty, power, the ability to shape events) that her society denies to women of her class: she cannot have a career, cannot have an affair openly, cannot even exercise her intelligence in conversation with the men who surround her without being made to feel that she is transgressing. Burning the manuscript is the one thing she can do that is entirely hers — an act of will, of destruction, of the only kind of creation available to her. That it is also an act of profound cruelty (to Thea, whose spiritual child it is; to Eilert, whose redemption it represents) is part of Ibsen's devastating portrait of what happens to a person whose desire for power is denied any legitimate outlet.
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