Hedda Gabler Assignment- Ali Zandani

When reading any kind of play, I find it more helpful to watch the film version of that play because it gives the reader a good sigh and deeper understanding of the actual play. I believe one of the importance when comparing the original text of ”Hedda Gabler” and the film version of ”Hedda Gabler”, is to show how the protagonist or the main characters are portrayed in the original text compared to the film version. As I was watching the beginning of the film, it seems that there was a consistency with how the protagonist was depicted in the original text. Hedda Gabler is self-obsessed and is displeased with anyone that she feels is not as superior as her. For example, when aunt Julie was offended by Hedda’s statement when she said ” but look she left her old hat”  because  Hedda thought the hat belonged to Berta. In the film, aunt Julie responded and kinda rebuked Hedda not just verbally but also by her facial expressions. The original text only exhibited what said while the film showed what they said and how they behaved. In other words, with all the thoughts and incompleted images I have created in my mind about each event and each character after reading the text, the film version fulfilled those imaginary images by providing the character’s body language and facial expressions through visuals. Another difference I spotted between the film and the text is that in the text we know that the relationship between Hedda and aunt Julie is as good as George wanted and in the film, this scene is drawn even more to the point where we see  George begging Hedda to be nicer to his aunt Julie. Therefore, both the text and film version of ”Hedda Gabler” have a lot in common and subtle differences where the text was filled with descriptions while the film uses visuals to portray the character’s body language and facial expressions.