Hedda Gabler

“MISS TESMAN. Of course you did. I’m talking about…other prospects.

TESMAN. Prospects?

MISS TESMAN. Oh Jørgen, I am your aunt.

TESMAN. Well, of course I’ve other prospects.

MISS TESMAN. I thought so!

TESMAN. For example, I’m pretty sure that one day I’ll be…a professor.

MISS TESMAN. A professor.”

Juliane attempts to get Tesman to tell her whether or not Hedda is pregnant after their honeymoon. Because she approaches the topic obliquely, Tesman does not understand what she is trying to ask and thinks she is talking about employment prospects.

“TESMAN (going after her). Aunt Rina embroidered them with her own hands. Lying there. That poor invalid. You can imagine the memories in every stitch.

HEDDA (by the table). No memories for me.”

For Tesman, the slippers that Rina embroidered contain significant memories. He tries to share this sentiment with Hedda, but Hedda does not see their significance; she is legally part of Tesman’s family now but has no emotional or sentimental connection to Tesman’s past.

“MRS ELVSTED (dully). There’s a shadow between us. A woman’s shadow.

HEDDA (looking narrowly at her). D’you know whose?

MRS ELVSTED. Some woman…from his past. He’s never forgotten her.”

The woman the Mrs. Elvsted alludes to is in fact Hedda. Hedda knows this and works to ensure that Mrs. Elvsted does not suspect her and instead feels able to confide in her.

“HEDDA (crossing the room). Thank goodness I’ve one thing left. I can still amuse myself.

TESMAN (overjoyed). Wonderful. What is it, Hedda? What is it you have?

From the rear door, HEDDA looks at him with scorn.

HEDDA. My pistols…Jørgen.”

This moment is the play’s “Chekov’s gun”; it reveals Hedda’s pistols and foreshadows the fact that they will be significant to the plot before the end of the play. Tesman tries to warn Hedda that the guns are dangerous, adding to the suspense.

“BRACK. All I ask of life is a circle of close friends…people I can help and advise, places I can come and go as I please, as a trusted friend of—

HEDDA. —the husband.

BRACK (leaning forward). Well, frankly, I’d prefer the wife. But the husband will do. I tell you, this kind of…triangular relationship…can be highly satisfying for all three parties.”

Brack reveals to Hedda the nature of the arrangement that he wants between himself, her, and Tesman. He wants to be able to have access to Hedda as a mistress and a permissive friendship with Tesman.

“HEDDA (looking through the album). I was, once. When we knew each other…then.

LØVBORG. And never again? Must I make a resolution, never to utter those words again? Miss Hedda Gabler.

HEDDA (turning the pages). Make a resolution. Make it now.”

Hedda insists that Ejlert no longer call her by her maiden name, in essence denying him access to the woman she used to be. She is a different woman now that she is married to Tesman. She exists not as herself but as Tesman’s wife, and it is no longer possible for Ejlert to know her so intimately.

“LØVBORG. It offends your love…for Tesman.

HEDDA (with a quizzical smile at him). Love?

LØVBORG. No love!

HEDDA. No…disloyalty. I won’t have that.”

Hedda admits that she does not love Tesman but that she is committed to being loyal to him. Hedda is very concerned with The Constraints of Social Convention and does not want to stray outside of them by being unfaithful to her husband.

“LØVBORG (clenching his fists). Oh, why didn’t you do as you promised? You said you’d shoot me. Why didn’t you?

HEDDA. Simple: the scandal.

LØVBORG. Well, well! Underneath, you’re a coward.

HEDDA. Absolutely…”

Ejlert believes that it would have been better for him if Hedda had shot him when she ended their relationship; they both see her hesitation in that moment as an act of cowardice. This moment also demonstrates Hedda’s fear of scandal: She would rather live with being a coward than defy The Constraints of Social Convention. This aspect of her character adds another layer of nuance to her suicide at the end of the play.

“HEDDA (lightly). Oh dear. I’ve no power over you at all?

LØVBORG. Not where that’s concerned.

HEDDA. I really think you should. For your own sake.”

Hedda tries to manipulate Ejlert into drinking the punch, even though he has told her he does not drink anymore. She relishes the idea of having power over another person and believes that she can still exert power over Ejlert.

“HEDDA. For once in my life, I want to control another human being’s fate.

MRS ELVSTED. But you do.

HEDDA. No I don’t.

MRS ELVSTED. Your husband.

HEDDA. If I did…You don’t know how poor I am. And you, you: promised such riches! (She hugs her affectionately.) I think I’ll burn your hair off after all.”

Hedda believes that Tesman does not have anything worth controlling, which is why she looks to exert her influence over Ejlert instead. She is jealous that Mrs. Elvsted has influence over Ejlert and has decided to make him sober, controlled, and boring, rather than encourage the bacchanalian sensibilities that Hedda so admires.

“BRACK. I have to tell you I’d be most displeased to find him admitted here. To find him making his way, uninvited, unwanted—

HEDDA. Into the triangle?

BRACK. It would be like losing one’s home.”

Brack is threatened by the idea that Ejlert may be getting close to Hedda again. He seeks to exert his own power and influence over Hedda and feels as entitled to her life as though she were a piece of his property.

“MRS ELVSTED (wringing her hands). Oh no. Oh God. His own work, Hedda. His own work, to pieces.

LØVBORG. His life. I’ve torn my life to pieces. So why not my life’s work too?”

Ejlert equates his manuscript to his life, saying that since he has destroyed his life, he may as well destroy his manuscript. This moment is an example of dramatic irony, as both Hedda and the audience know that Ejlert has not in fact torn up his manuscript.

“HEDDA. This was a book, that’s all.

LØVBORG. Thea’s soul was in that book.

HEDDA. Yes.

LØVBORG. You see why there’s no future now? For her and me?”

In losing his manuscript, Ejlert believes that he has lost all hope for a future with Mrs. Elvsted. Earlier, he equates losing their manuscript to losing their child; he does not see how Mrs. Elvsted could ever forgive him for his carelessness.

“HEDDA (nodding slowly). Don’t you recognise it? It was aimed at you, once.

LØVBORG. You should have used it then.

HEDDA. You use it now.

LØVBORG puts the pistol in his breast pocket.

LØVBORG. Thank you.

HEDDA. Ejlert Løvborg, beautiful. Promise me that.

LØVBORG. Goodbye, Hedda Gabler.”

Hedda gives Ejlert the pistol in the hopes that he will finally be able to reclaim his bacchanalian fervor by killing himself. She wants him to do something beautiful with his life, even if that means ending it.

“HEDDA (whispering to herself). Look, Thea. I’m burning your baby, Thea. Little curly-hair!

Stuffing more pages in.

Your baby…yours and his.

Stuffing the whole manuscript in.

The baby. Burning the baby.”

The specter of Hedda’s own pregnancy hangs over her burning Ejlert and Mrs. Elvsted’s manuscript. Hedda does not want to be pregnant; she makes this very clear through her discomfort whenever Juliane tries to bring it up. She also cannot stand the idea that Ejlert and Mrs. Elvsted share something meaningful. She may not be able to terminate her own pregnancy, but she can destroy Ejlert and Mrs. Elvsted’s “child.”

“MISS TESMAN. With sick people, one soon makes friends. I must have someone to live for. And here: God be praised, there may be one or two things here, too, for an old aunt to do.”

Juliane finds meaning in her life by caring for other people. When Rina dies, she resolves to take in another sick person to care for, and alludes to her hope that Hedda will soon have a baby that she can help look after.

“TESMAN. But how could you do it? How could you, Hedda?

HEDDA (hiding a smile). I did it for you, Jørgen.”

Hedda lies to Tesman when she tells him that she burned Ejlert’s manuscript for him. Hedda had her own reasons to burn the book: She could not stand the thought of Mrs. Elvsted having the kind of relationship with Ejlert that she cannot have herself; if she cannot have connection and academic success with Ejlert, no one else can. It is not really about Tesman at all.

“TESMAN. No, well. Not the book. But that you burn for me, Hedda—that’s what Aunt Julia needs to know. Hedda, darling, is this what all young wives are like?”

Tesman interprets Hedda’s burning of the manuscript as an indicator that she does have passion for him after all. He wants to share this revelation with Juliane, who has always doubted Hedda’s love for Tesman. His gullibility in this moment only underscores how little he understands his wife.

“HEDDA. Ejlert Løvborg has closed his account with himself. Had the courage to do…what had to be done.”

Hedda sees Ejlert’s apparent suicide as an act of courage and a personal success for herself. She believes that she has managed to control Ejlert’s life by choosing how it ended.

“HEDDA (murmured). Freedom, Your Honour. That’s what it means, this Løvborg business. Freedom.

BRACK. He’s certainly set free.

HEDDA. Freedom for me, I mean. I’m free, because I know it’s still possible to choose. Free will! Still possible, and beautiful.”

Hedda is constrained in many aspects of her life, but she sees Ejlert’s death as an example of her own free will at work. Though there are few choices that she is able to make in her life, she can wield control over the lives of others.

“HEDDA. […] All I know is that Ejlert Løvborg had the courage to choose the kind of life he wanted to lead. And now this, this triumph, this beautiful deed. He had the strength, the will, to tear himself away from the banquet of life…so early.”

Hedda believes that Ejlert’s decision to end his life is evidence of his previously lost bacchanalian passion. His death is not a tragedy to her, but a triumph, until she learns what really happened.

“BRACK. Luckily there’s no danger, so long as I hold my tongue.

HEDDA (looking up at him). You mean I’m in your power, Judge Brack. You…own me.

BRACK (low whisper). Hedda, darling, trust me. I won’t take advantage.

HEDDA. I’m still in your power. At your disposal. A slave.

She gets up impatiently.

I won’t have it. I won’t.”

Hedda realizes that Brack now has leverage over her and though he assures her that he will not take advantage of this, she finds herself in an unacceptable position. She does not want to be under the control of another person in such a manner; to her, this kind of existence is violating and unacceptable.

“HEDDA. You don’t need me here, either of you?

TESMAN. There’s nothing you can do. Nothing at all. (Turning his head.) Brack, you don’t mind keeping Hedda company?”

Hedda sees what her future will look like vividly in this moment. She sees Mrs. Elvsted and Tesman tied up in their academic writing together, while she is left behind with Brack, just as he always wanted.