Daniel Zhavoronkin – Hedda Gabler pt 1

The first thing to note about a comparison between Ibsen’s play in text and its televised adaptation is that they are not word for word. A lot of the changes to the original text appear to be done to make it more conversational allowing it to flow more smoothly, for  example a small change such as “But, they’ll have some fresh morning air”(782) to “But when they do get up, they will certainly need a breath of fresh air”. Had the play been adapted word for word, I assume it would be difficult to introduce the same tones the characters did. The actors do a great job enacting the script and give the characters a realistic depth. I felt Miss Tessman’s disgust when Hedda Gabbler called the hat old; the reaction seemed almost genuine. Hedda in the film is portrayed as domineering, which I think adds to her character. As she married Tesman out of desperation, the film’s tone makes their marriage out to be lackluster. Tesman plays out in a feminine style through the film, which really emphasizes this further and magnifies Hedda’s character. In the book, the magnitude of their relationship isn’t quite as easy to picture and the film adaptation does this some much-needed service. I think the film adaptation, however, does not take into account the nature of setting that Ibsen intended. This play, as well as ‘The Doll House’ are set in Norway, which by nature creates a sense of distance and isolation between people because of unforgiving weather and a geographic location that discourages the tourism we might see in the United States. There’s an adaptation of Doll’s House debuted in 1973 which portrays this seemingly unimportant aspect of the play much better, emphasizing how small towns in Norway are, forcing everybody to know each other’s personal affairs. Ibsen sets almost all of his plays in Norway, and Hedda Gabler is set in Kristiania. It would have been nice to see at least one homage to this in the setting.