Assignment #9

One of the first things I noticed that was interpreted differently in the film is when Hedda Gabler first enters the scene. We can see Hedda hesitates entering the room when she first sees Aunt Julie suggesting Hedda is not really fond of seeing Aunt Julie. This small detail wasn’t described in the text. Although a small change, it was not a trivial one in my opinion. This small incident helps set the tone that Hedda does not really like Tesman and his family. In my personal experience, we only dodge interaction with people close to us for two main reasons. Either they intimidate us or we don’t like them and I’m sensing the latter is true here. The next thing I noticed that was different is the whole slippers scene was curtailed from the film. This whole sequence in the book certainly tells me that Hedda doesn’t really care for Tesman all that much. So when the film curtailed it with the part of his aunt embroidering it for him, it seems to me that the film is trying to further ingrain the idea that Tesman’s family does not matter at all to Hedda. The last small detail I noticed that was different in the film is when Hedda herself suggested to call Juliene Tesman auntie whereas in the text it was George Tesman who suggested it. To me, in the film it seems like Hedda might’ve felt bad for the hat situation she fabricated to get on Aunt Julie’s nerves. The moments when Hedda was the only one in the room, her face seemed to be of stress and regret whereas in the book the mood was set to be a little bit more vile.