Hedda Gabler Tessman Character Analysis

Ibsen portrays Hedda Gabler Tessman as a manipulative individual who is the daughter of a well-respected General. Hedda is devious and self-centered; she thrives for attention; especially attention from men other than her husband. She actually appears too loath being around her husband, George Tessman. Even though she is cold towards George she carries a jealous streak when it comes to his relationship with his Aunt Julia (Miss Tessman) and Ms. Thea Elvsted (apparently an old flame of George’s). The men in the play are attracted to Hedda’s good looks and her social status, the status she inherited from being the daughter of a General. Hedda seems to be mentally unstable, a troubled person. She demands control of everyone and all situations. She uses her beauty to get what she wants, however in the end her beauty does not save her, she commits suicide simply because she would rather die than to be implemented in a scandal; a scandal that surely will come about if the public finds out that one of her father’s pistols killed Eilert Løvborg. Hedda was deathly afraid of scandals. In Act 1 we find that Hedda and George are returning from a very long and expenses honeymoon; a honeymoon that turns out to be more for work than play for George which leaves Hedda …show more content…
When Eilert expresses his suicide thoughts Hedda gives Eilert one of her pistols (her pistols are her prized possessions) and tells him to do it "beautifully". Only a sick individual considers shooting one’s self a beautiful action. After Eilert leaves, Hedda takes his manuscript and burns it in the fireplace, while maniacally ranting: "Now I’m burning your child, Thea!" over and over. It is as if Hedda enjoys seeing others in pain, she twistedly gets satisfaction from killing Eilert’s and Thea’s child, the