44 pages • 1 hour read
Henrik IbsenHedda Gabler
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1890A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Hedda’s Pistols
Content Warning: This section discusses death by suicide.
Hedda’s two pistols that she inherited from her father represent her power and individuality in the face of The Constraints of Social Convention. When she is bored and frustrated at the Falk villa, Hedda entertains herself by shooting her pistols at the sky—and on one occasion at Brack, though she deliberately misses. She talks to Ejlert about the time she nearly shot him; she says she regrets not following through, and he implies that he regrets it, too. The pistols are Hedda’s only way of only way of Gaining Power and Influence when she feels otherwise trapped. She persuades Ejlert to shoot himself by lying to him about the manuscript. At the end of the play, shooting herself with the remaining pistol is the only way she can see to avoid being under another person’s control.
Henrik Ibsen said that he titled the play Hedda Gabler instead of Hedda Tesman because he felt that Hedda’s identity was more closely aligned with her father, the general, than with her husband. The pistols represent this connection: Hedda is a married woman, but she is unwilling to play the role set out for her. Her only hobby is destructive, and destruction is her only way of maintaining any sense of agency. Brack knows that Hedda likes to fire her pistols, but he does not believe that she would ever actually use them to hurt herself or someone else. Hedda proves him wrong: Her unwillingness to be under his control and to live a life that does not fulfill her turns out to be stronger than her desire to live at all.
Pregnancy
Hedda is pregnant, but nobody in the play ever says so outright. Juliane suspects it, and she makes several comments about there being new people (children) living in the house soon. Brack also suspects it, insisting that as a woman, Hedda is naturally suited to taking care of others; she disagrees. Tesman also suspects it, having noticed that Hedda has gained weight during their honeymoon. When Hedda indirectly affirms Tesman’s suspicions, he is delighted. Hedda, on the other hand, is profoundly uncomfortable with the subject of her pregnancy, redirecting the conversation whenever it comes up. Her pregnancy represents her future with Tesman, which is a future she knows will not make her happy. Her unwillingness to entertain the possibility of motherhood is indicative of her overwhelming unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
Ejlert’s manuscript is described as a baby or a child several times in the play. Ejlert and Mrs. Elvsted see the manuscript as the “child” they have created together. It represents the possibility of future happiness and the bond between them; when he believes it is lost, Ejlert calls the manuscript his “lost child” and breaks things off with Mrs. Elvsted. Hedda makes the same comparison when she is burning the manuscript: She says that she is “burning the baby” that Ejlert and Mrs. Elvsted made (111). By metaphorically killing their child, Hedda is destroying their potential future together.
The Falk Villa
Tesman and Hedda live in the Falk villa, a large house that Tesman cannot really afford. He sees the villa as fundamental to his relationship with Hedda, because she once told him that she wanted to live there. He took on debt to make her desire a reality, indicating his genuine commitment to making their marriage work. However, the villa also represents how poorly Tesman knows his wife. Hedda admits to Brack that she never actually liked the Falk villa very much at all; she only told Tesman she liked it to fill an awkward silence in a conversation, but now she is stuck with it for life. This fundamental disconnect over the villa is indicative of a much bigger rift in Hedda and Tesman’s relationship. Tesman fully believes that Hedda loves him and loves the house. Hedda knows that she has never loved him, and only agreed to marry him because she felt obligated to settle down. The fact that the house is the play’s only setting is significant: It is the whole physical world of the play, and Hedda is trapped there, whereas other characters are free to come and go.
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By Henrik Ibsen
