Women are most known for their cunning and manipulative ways especially when they are upset or displeased about a matter. They have been known to adjust any situation to placate their emotional circumstance. Hedda was born and raised as a snooty military brat that was catered to by her father, General Gabler. When she was old enough to marry, she married for convenience instead of love. With these facts in place we can see that she was a woman who was all about self. When she received Mrs. Elvsted’s visit and became aware that the woman was involve with her former suitor, she desires to disrupt their relationship by slyly extracting pertinent information about Eilert Loevborg and his manuscript from Mrs. Elvsted. This cunning disguise of friendship is shown as Hedda states “Well, now we must try to drift together again. Now listen. When we were at school we used to call each other by our Christian names –” (Ibsen 1475). This statement was a bogus recollection of high school friendship that Mrs. Elvsted had no memory of; she only remembers the ugly displays of mischief that were carried out by Hedda. Yet she goes on to share with her illusory friend how she has left her husband and has intentions of finding and living with Eilert Loevborg. Mrs. Elvsted unknowingly reveals her deep feelings for him by exclaiming “I only know that I must live wherever Eilert Loevborg is. If I am to go on living” (Ibsen 1477). With this declaration of passion expressed about Loevborg, Hedda is then conjuring a way to insure that further association between them will not occur.
While Hedda seems to have married for convenience rather than love, I tend to think that she married as an attempt at escape. We see how immediately she insisted on a lengthy and distant honeymoon, which seems to indicate more of a desire to be gone from the society and circumstances that she loathed so much. She was certainly very unhappy and subject to mood swings as we see when she says “Sometimes a mood like that hits me. And I can’t help myself” (Ibsen 1483). Overall Hedda strikes me as being depressed and scared of where her life is leading her, and desperately trying to change her situation by any means at her disposal.
ReplyDeleteHedda is a conniving, selfish and manipulating character. The was that she used Mrs. Elvsted is true even in the way women act today. Women can be so cruel. When men have a feud they throw a few punches and then get over it and are best friends in just a few short moments. Women hold grudges and do sneaky things to humiliate and make others feel inferior and that is just what Hedda was doing… [Hedda] “I can’t remember exactly now, but didn’t you first go to Mr. Elvsted as a housekeeper? [Mrs. Elvsted] Governess, actually. But his wife-at the time, I mean-she was an invalid, and had to spend most of her time in bed. So I had to look after the house too. [Hedda] But in the end, you became the mistress of the house. [Mrs. Elvsted] Yes, I did” (Isben 1475). Hedda put Thea in her place and in turn did it with the most sly demeanor. Women can be cruel to their enemies - even in the 1800’s.
ReplyDeleteI agree Hedda was very manipulative. She had a way with herself that she had prefected. She worked Ms. Elvsted so well. Ms Elvested knew that her and Hedda had not been friends in school. She had been Hedda's scapegoat then seen in this statement: "Whenever you met me on the staircase you pulled my hair" (Isben 1475). Even after making that statement she still let Hedda contorl her and use her to found out information about her relationship with Loveborg. Its wasn't that she care about Ms. Elvsted she want to know where she stood in Loveborg life if she still had control over him. Hedda was all about manipulating to get what she wanted or to benifit herself.
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