Hedda Gabler

By Henrick Isben

Hedda's married name is Hedda Tesman; Gabler is her maiden name. On the subject of the title, Ibsen wrote: "My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda as a personality is to be regarded rather as her father's daughter than her husband's wife." Hedda Gabler, daughter of an aristocratic general, has just returned to her villa in Kristiania (now Oslo) from her honeymoon. Her husband is Jørgen Tesman, an aspiring, young, reliable (but not brilliant) academic who has combined research with their honeymoon. It becomes clear in the course of the play that she has never loved him but has married him for reasons pertaining to the boring nature of her life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Release date: Dec 28, 2012
• ISBN: 9781625584120

Book preview

Reviews for Hedda Gabler

[jonfaith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can see him. With vineleaves in his hair. Flushed and confident.

I have intended on reading Ibsen my entire adult life. Thinking that perhaps my number may be up, I finally ventured and am glad I did. This play was surprisingly modern and kinetic. Not sure why, but I expected something dour, suffering in the shadows. Violence through understatement. A Scandinavian skewering of morals.

Mismatched couples are such fun--from Middlemarch to The Honeymooners. I'd like to read responses to the character Hedda Gabler herself. There are multitudes in her pauses. This was the first play I read in 2016, surprising as I read 12 the year before.

[terris-7 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a short play that packs a punch! It also has an exciting ending. A Wikipedia quote says "Depending on the interpretation, Hedda may be portrayed as an idealistic heroine fighting society, a victim of circumstance, a prototypical feminist, or a manipulative villain." So you can decide!

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can't decide whether to hate Hedda or feel pity for her… She is one of the most conniving women I have ever read about, yet she doesn't seem to get any enjoyment out of it. I would love to see this on the stage.

[booksfordinner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Read this for a Lit class... Gosh, Hedda Gabler was not very nice.

[brokentune · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Why, oh why, do I get the impression that Ibsen didn't like his female protagonists very much?

Or, in other words, is there a specific reason that both Nora (from A Doll's House) and Hedda are written as two rather silly women, both incapable of a rational thought?

Surely, exploring the theme of individuals trapped in situation which they want to escape from has more to offer than half-baked schemes, lies, deception, and artistic illusions?

Ugh...

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure what Mr. Ibsen intended when he created the character of Hedda Gabler, but she is the perfect example of a person who is admired for her position, but is completely unworthy of that admiration. She is the hateful bully that gets away with it because no one wants to believe it of her. In the end, her death is an indication of how manipulation of others doesn't give you what you want - it just makes you hate yourself and your life. The tragedy is that Hedda wasn't satisfied until she had ruined the lives around her first.

[axya_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hedda is kind of a stuck-up, manipulative, hopelessly romantic to the point of nihilistic woman, with an unsubsidiable pride and exaggerated sense of aestheticism. This is an extremely difficult character to portray that when I read the script, I just love Hedda and in some way see myself in her but when seeing it onstage she was such a bitch I just needed to punch her on the face 8-}. Anyways, the character's ambiguity and openness to interpretation is precisely what to love I guess

[devil_llama · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This classic Ibsen play is about a woman who has ambitions beyond her modest life, and her beauty has captured a number of men who are willing to help her meet those ambitions. She has no scruples, and will do anything to get what she desires. It is a quick and easy read, and keeps you turning the pages until you reach the final, startling ending.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What a bitch and what a great role. I could see her character translated into a corporate-type taking on the glass ceiling -- ruthless and manipulative. A timeless character.

[gingerbreadman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Even though I'm a fan of master composer Ibsen, this one I've strangely neither seen staged, nor read before. I'm really glad I did now! It's an unusual play, both in plot (revolving mostly around trying to stage your mundane life to try and evoke some excitement) and in it's protagonist. Hedda is not very likeable - she's nasty, condecending, full of herself and not as clever as she would like to think, but in all that she makes up for a memorable and rare character. As are all of them, by the way. This play provides a great cast of slighlty heightened but very relateable people, whose lives fall into pieces through Ibsen's usual revelation of their life lies. But it's subtly done here, understated and hinted, making the play sneaky and more surprising than Ibsen's plays normally are. Even the inevitable female suicide in the end is more an act of taking matter in one's own hands than one of desperation. All in all, surely one of Ibsen's finer plays. Can't wait to see it on stage.

[helen.callaghan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'd never read any Ibsen before and was astonished by this - its psychological depth compared to its economy was amazing, even for drama. Hedda Gabler, the ferociously intelligent, dangerously cruel, yet ultimately pitiable protagonist defies easy categorisation.

I can't imagine why I've waited till now to read it - I saw that there was a new production of it on in London and thought, ooh, I should give that a go. It was another of those "to read" books that's been on the pile for years.

It's a pile I really need to mine more often at this rate.

[jpsnow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I recommend it for the compactness of the story, the solid foreshadowing, and the ending. The play is about control, Hedda's mastery at controlling others and her despondency when her greatest attempt fails. The end came back to me often over next few days.