The malicious and often evil portrayal of Hedda in Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler is merely a facade that covers up the oppression and fear of judgement that Hedda has had to face since she was a child. At first, Hedda may seem like just another spoiled brat, but when her life and actions come under inspection, it’s clear that she’s just a women with plenty of ambition and dreams that she was never allowed to achieve due to her social status and gender. If Hedda were a male, or perhaps a female of a lower status, like Thea, her life would have been an entirely different, and perhaps happier, story. Ibsen uses Hedda to showcase how people have come to live their lives based on society’s rules and perceptions and how people that often seem cruel
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One of the most prominent displays of both Hedda and Thea feelings towards scandal is when Thea admits to Hedda that she’s left her husband, saying “God knows knows they’ll say what they please. I only did what I had to do,” and Hedda is astounded, only managing to say, “But my dearest girl -- that you could dare to do such a thing!” (240). Thea is also much more feminine than Hedda and she appears to be weaker as well, but in reality, Thea is the stronger of the two; Thea does whatever she wants, living her life how she wants, not listening to society, and she never lets her fear stop her, whereas Hedda is truly a “coward at heart” (266). Hedda herself knows that she’s a coward, but that her one act of courage could be to kill herself, for she sees this as “a free and courageous action ... something that shimmers with spontaneous beauty,” (298). However, this act of courage is not truly an act of courage, but one of fear: fear of losing another man to Thea, fear of being in debt to Judge Brack, and above all, a fear of scandal. Through Thea, Ibsen shows us what Hedda’s life could have been like without all of that fear, and without the pressures of being an upper-class women, which is perhaps why Ibsen accentuated the fact that Hedda has never liked Thea -- Thea is Hedda’s reminder of all the things that she can never
One of the most prominent displays of both Hedda and Thea feelings towards scandal is when Thea admits to Hedda that she’s left her husband, saying “God knows knows they’ll say what they please. I only did what I had to do,” and Hedda is astounded, only managing to say, “But my dearest girl -- that you could dare to do such a thing!” (240). Thea is also much more feminine than Hedda and she appears to be weaker as well, but in reality, Thea is the stronger of the two; Thea does whatever she wants, living her life how she wants, not listening to society, and she never lets her fear stop her, whereas Hedda is truly a “coward at heart” (266). Hedda herself knows that she’s a coward, but that her one act of courage could be to kill herself, for she sees this as “a free and courageous action ... something that shimmers with spontaneous beauty,” (298). However, this act of courage is not truly an act of courage, but one of fear: fear of losing another man to Thea, fear of being in debt to Judge Brack, and above all, a fear of scandal. Through Thea, Ibsen shows us what Hedda’s life could have been like without all of that fear, and without the pressures of being an upper-class women, which is perhaps why Ibsen accentuated the fact that Hedda has never liked Thea -- Thea is Hedda’s reminder of all the things that she can never