House of Notes

MOST EXPECTED QUESTIONS Q:    TRACE THE INFLUENCES OF GENERAL GABLER ON THE LIFE AND PSYCHOLOGY OF HEDDA. Q:    WHAT IS SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE OF THE PLAY "HEDDA GABLER"? Q:    THE PLAY "HEDDA GABLER" IS ALSO CALLED "GENERAL GABLER'S DAUGHTER", FOR WHAT IT STANDS FOR? Q:    WHY HEDDA LIKES TO BE CALLED HEDDA GABLER, WHILE SHE IS HEDDA TESMAN ON THE STAGE? Q:    'HEDDA PERISHES IN THE CLASH BETWEEN REPRESSIVE MASCULINE SOCIETY OF THE ERA AND FREEWILL'. GIVE A SATISFYING ANSWER. Q:    HEDDA IS THE COLD, EMOTIONLESS PRODUCT OF A DISAPPROVING AND DOMINEERING SOCIETY AND FATHER, COMMENT. Ans: Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler is not truly indicative of his vast body of work: the protagonist is female and the play is a character study. Oddly enough, though, Hedda does not evolve or progress throughout the entirety of the work. Rather, she remains a cold and manipulative woman. When this fact is realised, the only task

ACT-WISE SUMMERY OF HEDDA GABLER WITH CRITICAL ANALYSIS ACT 1, PART 1 SUMMARY Aunt Julie and Berte enter the drawing room of the Tesmans' residence. The Tesmans have just returned from their six-month honeymoon. Berte says that she is worried about whether she can please her new mistress, Hedda. Jorgen Tesman enters the room and joyously greets his aunt. He compliments her on her new hat, and they discuss the research he did on his honeymoon and 'Aunt Rina's failing health. They hint at the extravagance of the honeymoon and the expense of appeasing a lady of aristocratic background like Hedda. In fact, Aunt Julle announces that she has mortgaged her annuity to provide security on the expensive new house. She also mentions that Ejlert Lovborg has published a new book; this is a surprise to Tesman. Hedda enters and complains that the maid has opened the windows. Hedda is very particular about the lighting, and Tesman is eager to please her. Aunt Julle produce

A CRITIQUE OF "HEDDA GABLER" When Hedda Gabler was first published in 1890, it greatly puzzled both critics and theatrical producers. Its fragmented, staccato language, its rambling conversations in which much of the story is communicated subtextually, its tone of tragicomic nihilism and above all, its enigmatic, brooding heroine all marked such advances in dramatic technique as to render it nearly incomprehensible to many of its early readers. Although Ibsen had become, by 1890, sufficiently notorious a playwright as to guarantee that the play would be produced, much of the early production history reflects this essential puzzlement. Hedda Gabler has always been among the most popular of Ibsen's plays, perhaps only exceeded by A Doll's House and Peer Gynt in the total number of performances. Nor is it difficult to see the reason for the play's continuing popularity. The character of Hedda herself, with her wiles and stratagems, her cruelty and her char