–What motivates Hedda to encourage Lovborg to resume drinking?
–Discuss the role of Thea in the play? What function does she serve?
–What role does class play in Hedda Gabler?
–What does Lovborg’s death mean to Hedda?
–Do you feel sympathetic to Hedda? Why or why not?
Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler
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What motivates Hedda to encourage Lovborg to resume drinking?
Hedda needs and craves control. During the play, Hedda is trying to manipulate everyone. Lovborg and Hedda used to be an item. Hedda did not like the fact that he was different from the Lovborg she once knew so, she tried to revert him to his old self. The fact that Thea was able to stop Lovborg from drinking didn’t sit well with Hedda – this was one less person that Hedda had control over.
–Do you feel sympathetic to Hedda? Why or why not?
Assuming this is about her suicide, I don’t feel sympathetic for Hedda since she has been a jerk throughout the play. From bullying Thea to burning Lovborg’s manuscript ultimately causing his suicide, she wasn’t being sympathetic for others so others shouldn’t feel sympathetic for her. An eye for an eye.
Hedda encourages Lovborg to resume drinking because she wants to control Lovborg. It seems that when Lovborg used to drink frequently, he would loose his filter and confess to Hedda about everything in his life. He was vulnerable to her and that allowed Hedda to keep her tight control over him and his secrets. He was an easy puppet for her to use when he was drunk. But now that he has stopped drinking, he isn’t as vulnerable anymore to Hedda and he’s able to think more clearly. I think that Hedda doesn’t like the fact that he isn’t as easy to control anymore because he’s no longer drunk, so she tries to revert him back to his old ways in hopes that she can once again, control him. I also think that Hedda is upset that Thea had enough power over Lovborg to make him stop drinking. Hedda and Thea are essentially rivals, so Hedda probably disliked the idea that Thea was able to have such an influence over Lovborg. Hedda wanted to reclaim that influence for herself, making it so that only she has the ability to influence Lovborg.
The role Thea plays in the article is she is a kind and innocent person who was getting picked on by Hedda when they were in school together. Hedda takes advantage of Thea by controlling her so that she gets as much power over her. For example, they were talking and Thea explained how Hedda forces her to burn her hair. The role Thea played was to show the relationship between Hedda and Thea back then to show how Hedda was trying to control Thea. This ties back to when Hedda hung up her picture of her father wearing his uniform when he died. Hedda was trying to live in her father’s shoes by acting tough like him to show how she missed her father. I think the reason Hedda was picking on Thea in the past was because she was jealous of her.
–What motivates Hedda to encourage Lovborg to resume drinking?
The main motivation for Hedda’s encouragement for Lovborg to resume drinking is to gain control over him. After learning from Thea that Lovborg no longer drinks, this sparked her desire to show her powerful and controlling ways in order to influence him to go back into his bad habits. Hedda is aware that when Lovborg drinks he becomes belligerent and shares his thoughts and ideas that he may conceal in a sober state of mind, Thus, by having access to his vulnerabilities and insecurities, Hedda is able to use those as a type of blackmail, thus asserting her dominace and control over Lovborg.
I don’t feel sympathetic towards Hedda because she put herself in that position. At the beginning of the play, she already seems like a mean person because she used to bully Thea, and she describes her marriage as something of a convenience. Towards the end of the play, she hid and burned the manuscript and even gave Lovborg the pistol. Lovborg’s death would’ve been avoided if she had just given him back his manuscript or had not given him the pistol. Hedda wasn’t even sad when she learned of Lovborg’s death. She was only upset when she heard it wasn’t the “beautiful death” she thought he had. Maybe if she had a nicer personality and cared more for others generally than about her wellbeing, I would feel more sympathetic towards her. I think she only shot herself because she didn’t want to deal with being a suspect of Lovborg’s death. She just wanted to avoid everything ugly in her life. She brought everything upon herself.
What does Lovborg’s death mean to Hedda?
Lovborg’s death was a disappointment for Hedda. In Act 2, Hedda told Thea that she wants to “shape someone’s destiny” and I believed the someone is Lovborg. That is one reason why she would encourage Lovborg to suicide. Hedda views Lovborg’s death as beauty and courage to live free because she is living a life that she doesn’t want. Once she learned from Brack that it was not a suicide but it was indeed an accident fire, her beliefs all broke down. In addition, the death of Lovborg got Hedda trapped in the case because the police will soon find out that she is the owner of the pistol that Lovborg was carrying with him. I think that Hedda doesn’t like to be under the control of someone’s hands, in this case, she was under Brack in order to get away from the police, and she ends up killing herself.
–Do you feel sympathetic to Hedda? Why or why not?
I do not feel sympathetic to Hedda because she has no sympathetic values to begin with. Hedda starts off in the play as someone who is arrogant and looks down on people. We see this play out in the beginning of the first act when she notices Aunt Julia’s hat is on one of the chair and Hedda says “people don’t do such things”. This shows how she little she thinks of Aunt Julia and starts to show her arrogance towards people. She is unsympathetic to Mrs. Elvsted when she was bullied by Hedda. Mrs. Elvsted mentions that Hedda pulled her hair and wanted to burn it when they were in school. Hedda states that she never said or did these acts that Mrs. Elvsted claims. Hedda also states that they were good friends and this was not true stated by Mrs. Elvsted. Hedda says that this is true and moves on to another topic, this shows how she will not take accountability for her actions. Hedda even admits she wants to control people and this ends up with Lovborg’s death because Hedda told him to commit suicide and to die beautifully. This ends with Lovborg dying by the gun going off on his stomach and Hedda finds this to be disgusting to her because he did not die the way she wanted to. Even when she commits suicide she does not take accountability for her actions and takes her own life because her reputation would be ruined if people knew what happened.
Do you feel sympathetic to Hedda? Why or why not?
I don’t feel sympathetic towards Hedda since she sort of create this mess for herself. In the play, she seems to come off as a self center person. For example, when she wanted to buy another piano just because she didn’t think the one, they have fit the aesthetic of the room. She only cares about herself in this sense George doesn’t have a lot of money, yet she expects him to spend it at her leisure. She is very manipulative. She could easily control Loveborg and George. She was only mad that Loveborg didn’t die a “beautiful death” like she would have wanted. I don’t think she deserve any sympathy since she did it to herself. If she didn’t marry George in the first place, then she can still live her single life and not have been unhappy with her life. She doesn’t care about anyone else but herself. She is only looking out for her best interest. Throughout the play, she was messing with people and a lot of the issue that arose could have been solve easily for example like giving back the manuscript to Loveborg. Her actions are what caused her to ultimately commit suicide, so it was her own fault. She wasn’t a very nice person to begin with, since she bullied Thea in the past.
Do you feel sympathetic for Hedda? Why or why not?
I do not feel sympathetic for Hedda because I think throughout the play she is a selfish and controlling person. Even though she has Tessman and he does whatever she wants him to do because he loves and cares for her, this is insufficient for her because she feels he does not to do enough. She has always felt superior than everyone because of her class and I think it was an enough thing for her to encourage Lovborg to kill himself when she could have avoided it by giving his manuscript back.
–What motivates Hedda to encourage Lovborg to resume drinking?
I think the fact that Hedda has such a controlling character leads her to encourage lovborg to continue drinking. if she pushes Lovborg to drink again he will fall back into his habits and thus allow Hedda to easily manipulate him when he is under the influence. before, when Lovborg would heavily drink, he would become vulnerable to Hedda and reveal secrets to her allowing her to feel control over him. thus when he stopped drinking this was lost and by encouraging him to drink again she expects her control to reemerge.
Hedda tends to manipulate men into doing what she wants and derive enjoyment out of it. This tendency of manipulation stems from the fact that she is not able to gain power through normal means like careers or scholarships. By having Lovborg start drinking again, she would be able to easily control him. She also wanted Lovborg to revert back to his old way and become the man that she once knew.