Light and Dark

There is another contrast between the beginning and end of the play, and this is of the setting. In the beginning, the setting was very lively and optimistic. The rooms were awash in natural light and a lot of detail was seen. It was also very colorful, the room being covered in flowers and the autumn colors seen through the door and windows. In the beginning, the setting was also during the morning. As the play continues, time does too. In the ending, the setting takes place in the evening. And though the physical setting is the same, its described completely differently. At the ending of the play, the setting is covered in darkness, with only one source of light available. There is almost no detail, and the tone is very depressing and suspenseful.
The beginning started off with such promise, there was hope and light. But it ended with such sadness and depression. This change could be caused by hedda. The hopeful beginning existed with the absence of Hedda, and the end existed centered around her.

Thea's Growth

Thea is a very dynamic character, completely changing from the start of the play to the end. In the beginning, Thea was very meek and timid, and had no self-esteem or power. However as the play continues, this changes. First, we find that Thea does have power - over Lovborg. Also, as she develops a relationship with lovborg, she becomes more confident in herself. Finally we see a complete change in Thea by the end, especially in consideration of her research and work. When she and lovborg fight over the book and his alleged actions, she becomes a strong powerful woman, someone in complete contrast of herself in the beginning. Also, when she and Tesman join together to try to sort out the notes to re-write the manuscript, she once again transforms into a strong confident driven woman, someone who finally takes control of her own life.

Brack vs. Hedda

Hedda and Brack are the two main characters that are looking for control in Hedda Gabler, however they both have very different ways of gaining that power and control. Hedda is very brash and takes a very forward approach. She is used to getting what she wants, and does not try to hide her distain of others. She immediately expects to be able to gain the control and power over others with no thought or consequence. Brack on the other hand, has a completely different approach. He fools his victims, gets friendly and invades their life before stealing control and power out from under them. Most of the people he holds control over don't even realize it because they hold trust in him and consider him one of their friends. This causes the contrast between Hedda and Brack, because while they both want control and power, only Brack is successful in gaining it.

Hedda's Control Part 2

Aunt Rina is one of the characters that is more of a part of the background then part of the play. But one thing i noticed is that we can connect her illness to the level of control that hedda has. In the beginning of the play Berta comments on how aunt rina is helpless and relys on others, meaning that other have control of her. This can connect to how hedda is helpless and has always been controlled by someone, from her father to tesman to brack. Also, throughout the play, aunt rina gets sicker and sicker, just like hedda loses more and more control. Finally illness takes over and aunt rina dies. And just as aunt rina lost all her health to illness, hedda lost all control to brack, causing her to kill herself.

Hedda's Control Part 1

Earlier for my artistic response, i portrayed Hedda as a puppet, with different characters controlling different parts of her. I put Judge Brack in control of her head. This is because he, by the end of the story, had complete control over her; he was able to control her every move and notion (except of course, her own death as seen). Then Tesman and Lovborg each had control over one of her arms and hands. This is because they both have direct affects and control over her actions through their relationship with her. Lovborg has control because Hedda is obsessed with gaining control over someone, namely him. Through this desire for control, Lovborg controls hedda bcause he has the power to decide whether she gets that control or not. Tesman on the other hand, has control because he is her husband, and gains power and control over her simply from that. Finally, Thea and the general have control over her feet. This is because though they do not have direct control over Hedda, instead, they prevent the amount of power and control she can have. Thea holds control over some of the characters that hedda wants control over, like Lovborg, and the general still holds control over her even though he is dead. Both of these characters prevent Hedda from gaining more control and power, and prevent her from moving forward.

Suicide

This kinda connects with my last blog on the general. Basically, Hedda wants to control other's lives, and she tries to do this throughout the play. However, she realizes she can't (as Brack, namely, and Thea have control over those she wants to control), so she turns to suicide. Once again, because she is still obsessed with the concept of controlling others, she does not go for her own suicide. Instead she convinces Lovborg to commit his own. This way she still felt responsible for controlling his action, and not being involved in scandel (as it was earlier; in their younger days, Hedda was going to shoot Lovborg but didn't because she was afraid of scandel). When she first heard that Lovborg was dead, she was thrilled, because she had finally succeeded in controlling another's life. So, when she found that someone else had killed him, someone else had done what she was afraid of doing, someone else had took control of his life, she was devistated. This disappointment was futher made worse when Brack discovered what happened, and gained full control over her. So with this, she lost all the power and control she had, making her turn to suicide, as her death was the last thing that she had control over.

The General

I think that there is one character in this play that is looked over completely, and that is the General, Hedda's father. Though he obviously does not have a speaking role and does not physically take place in the play, he does have a very important role. I think that the General is the main reason why Hedda is how she is, he's the reason behind her quest for control. Because of the family's standing and simply because the General was used to being in command, i imagine that Hedda's life when growing up lacked a lot of freedom. She was probably constantly pushed around and controlled by her father, and i think that it was because of this that she developed her need for control. Also i think that he still held control over her even after his death. This is shown in the beginning and end of the play. At the beginning, in the description of the setting a picture of the general was shown to be in the the drawing room, right above the sofa, in the middle of the place where most action takes place; somewhere that he can still constantly look after Hedda from. Though not directly mentioned again, whenever characters are sitting down or in the drawing room, he is still part of the situation. The end though, is probably the most important part that i'm trying to show. The general's picture was right above the sofa, the same sofa that Hedda commited suicide on. This shows Hedda's last act of rebellion against her father, her last attempt to gain control. She finally gained control of herself by going against the power her father still had over her, and killing herself right in front of him.

Tesman vs. Lovborg

One thing that has been seen throughout the play is the concept of time and how each character is associated with different time periods. This is probably one of the bigger characteristics of each character as well and you can definitely see it with Lovborg and Tesman. If you look at the two, they are actually very similar; they are both scholars, publish books, have relationships with Hedda, are controlled by Hedda, have very low self-esteem, base their actions off others, and most importantly, have writing their next book as the main focus in their life. This is where the concept of time splits them - Tesman's book is all about the past, while Lovborg's book is all about the future. Tesman is fully concerned about past events, as fully demonstrated in his speech. He loves talking about the past and tries to relate it to his present (as most seen with Aunt Julie). Also, he rarely uses and form of speech with the future, always using past tense, even referring to present actions in the past (like when Hedda killed herself, "Shot herself! Shot herself in the templ! Can you imagine!") This even furthur demonstrates how he doesn't seem to see present situations as present situtations, instead he sees them as past situations that he can look at, research, and comment on. This completely differs from Lovborg. First off, Lovborg is writing a book about the future, something that cannot really be done. Also, Lovborg does not focus on his past, and tries to separate himself from it (as seen with his refusal to drink). Lovborg also often talks in the future tense, talking about things he will do or would like to do.
This difference in time fully separates and differentiates Lovborg and Tesman. Though the two are very similar, this outlook in time shows their different personalities and outlook on life. Lovborg, with his futuristic views, has much more hope and faith, and is more easily broken and let down, as nothing is set in stone. Tesman on the other hand, is less phased by things, and is more oblivious to what is going on around him, as his mind is set in the past and therefore sees his life as he wishes it to be, taking event from the past and viewing them how he wants to.

Love is out of the question

while we were going through act one during class, i noticed a line that caught my eye and, in my opinion, really shows how hedda feels about her marriage to tesman. already in act one, you can kinda feel that hedda is pretty cold and obviously does not share the same enthusiasm about tesman as he does about hedda. the quote on page 246-247 "it was part of our bargain that we'd live in society-that we'd keep a great house-" further shows that hedda does not love tesman. First off, hedda says "bargain" when she is actually speaking about her marriage to tesman. she treats her marriage like it was a deal, a trade-off; tesman gets her as a wife as long as hedda gets to keep her lifestyle as before; a good house and staying high in society. later on page 147, when hedda finds that she cannot have many things that she wanted to have, such as a butler or a riding horse, she becomes very cold towards tesman "her eyes cold" because she does not need to pretend to like him anymore, because he can't give her what she wants. She also speaks and looks at him with scorn, further showing how not only does she not like him, but she doesn't respect him either, and believes herself to be above him.