Role Of Society In Hedda Gabler

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Hedda Gabler

Society and social issues play an important role in the outcome of the novel, “Hedda Gabler.” The author, Ibsen, shows how these issues affect Hedda as the main character of the play and how she ends it all with suicide, the most powerful form of her self-destruction.

Ibsen, in writing the play of Hedda Gabler, showed observations on society at the time period of that setting. The characters show the reader what life was like at that time. The character of Hedda, however, is one with a destructive nature as a result of the society that she lives in. Hedda wants to satisfy her desires for life but cannot because she is detained by society and its demands on the individual. Thus, she attempts to conform instead of criticize her society on morality, and so she is in a continuous life of boredom and it results in her destructive behavior.

Also, In Act 4, when Hedda discovers that Ejlert met a horrible death, she is disgusted. So, she chooses to commit suicide, thinking that it is the solution to her problem of not being able to escape her dull life, because there is no way out of her boring life. There was some foreshadowing of this act at different parts throughout the play. For example, at the end of Act 1 Hedda plays with her pistols because she is bored, showing that she needs them to provide a temporary relief from her boring life.

Hedda’s suicide gives light to many aspects of the play: it is not just her tragedy that she has committed suicide. It is the tragedy that she wanted Ejlert to have a beautiful suicide, hoping that life could be beautiful and be at the same time at a particular standard. Also, the main reason why Hedda committed suicide is not only because of society’s demands on her, but also because of Brack’s use of blackmail against her. He took advantage of her and used what he knew to get him in a position where Hedda feels trapped and is deceived by him. So, both Brack a...