UNIVERSITY OF

EDUCATION
COURSE: COMEDY OF MANNERS
LEVEL: BS ENGLISH/MA ENGLISH
INSTRUCTOR: MS MAIMOONA GILLANI
MRS. ELVSTED, wrapped in a large shawl, and with her feet upon a foot-rest, sits close to the stove, sunk back in the arm-chair. HEDDA, fully dressed, lies sleeping upon the sofa,

ACT 3
Settings: The room at the TESMANS'. The curtains are
drawn over the middle doorway, and also over the glass door.
The lamp, half turned down, and with a shade over it, is
HEDDA GABLER burning on the table. In the stove, the door of which stands
open, there has been a fire, which is now nearly burnt out.
MRS. ELVSTED, wrapped in a large shawl, and with her feet
upon a foot-rest, sits close to the stove, sunk back in the arm-
chair. HEDDA, fully dressed, lies sleeping upon the sofa, with
a sofa-blanket over her.
Significance of Settings:
Act III opens with the room completely enclosed; the
curtains are drawn both over the door to the middle room
and over the glass door leading outside. The contrast
between Hedda and Thea continues: Hedda sleeps
peacefully, Thea has been awake all night and is upset; Thea
refuses the maid's offer of a fire, Hedda calls the servant to
light a fire.
 CHARACTERS ON STAGE

• Hedda As Central Character Absent Character: Aunt Julia

• Hedda remains on stage throughout the act.
• Thea, Mr. Tesman, Lovborg, and Brack Another skillful piece of stagecraft: Aunt
makes appearances, whereas Hedda occupies Julia and Lovborg are never on stage at
the central place of Action
the same time. Why? Are they and/or the
• Berta, the maid, has minor role in continuing
the action. She identifies with the Tesman’s values they represent incompatible?
interests, she is hostile to Lovborg, whom
she knows as Tesman's former rival. She calls
him "a certain person" and continues "we've
heard enough about that gentleman before
now" (Hedda, Act III).
 Contrast of Settings: Act I versus Act III

Hedda awakens energized and happy and throws open the windows to
let in the broad sunlight. Contrast her behavior in Act I: she claimed
she had slept badly, and she wanted the curtain drawn so that the
broad sunlight would not stream into the room. Now she feels a
sense of power and aliveness because she inspired Lovborg to
return to his dissipated life, which she has idealized into a courageous,
free life. She expects him to return crowned with vine-leaves,
symbolizing his victory over society's restraints and an assertion of the
heroism lacking in her society and in herself. Furthermore, she has
defeated Thea in the struggle to influence Lovborg. With total self-
confidence, she brushes aside Thea's anxieties and expresses contempt
for her, "You really are a little blockhead, Thea" (p. 48).
 MR. TESMAN
Tesman admits that he had "a horrid feeling"  He tells Hedda, about having the manuscript, "I am almost ashamed--on Eilert's
while listening to Eilert read his book, that account--to tell you." Is he really ashamed of his own "horrid" feelings and/or
he "felt jealous" of Eilert's genius (p. 49). unacknowledged destructive desires?
Immediately he exclaims, "how pitiful to
think that he--with all his gifts--should be  Does Tesman find satisfaction in Lovborg's being irreclaimable because Lovborg
irreclaimable, after all" (p. 49). Tesman's cannot control himself ? Tesman, of course, has no wild impulses or
statements and actions about the manuscript uncontrollable urges and can feel superior morally to Lovborg.
are important in evaluating Tesman. Do we
take his statements and action at face value,  Does he subconsciously want to harm Lovborg? to destroy the manuscript? When
or do they reveal a darker, less admirable he finds the manuscript, why doesn't he immediately return the manuscript to
side to Tesman? Herman J. Weigand Lovborg? Even Hedda asks him this. Why does he tell no one he has the
believes, "...the insincerity lurking under his
naive and comical guise eludes all but the
manuscript? Why doesn't he leave a note about the manuscript at Lovborg's
keenest scrutiny." Weigand goes on to say, residence? Is it significant that he doesn't tell a distraught Thea about the
however, that "Tesman is every bit as manuscript when he encounters her in the street (Act IV)?
honorable as the average run of
commonplace people." Is Tesman an
 Why does he leave the manuscript with Hedda rather than drop it off on his way
honorable man? a dishonorable man? merely to see his Aunt Rina?
an ordinary man? You might want to  Do his words and action prepare for his later complicity in Hedda's burning the
consider these questions in assessing
Tesman:
manuscript?
 Underneath his decent, ordinary exterior, are there darker feelings and motives operating? Is there a
discrepancy between Tesman's social self and his essential self? If so, is that discrepancy "commonplace," i.e.,
is that the way most of us are? Is suppressing darker motives and impulses (often called the shadow)
characteristic of most of us?The exchange between Tesman and Hedda raises another question. Is Hedda
thinking about the possibility of destroying the manuscript? She asks whether Lovborg could rewrite it.
Tesman's reply about Thea's inspiration would be particularly offensive to Hedda. It is Hedda, not Tesman,
who thinks of and hides the manuscript when Brack appears.
Hedda's vision of Lovborg's dissipation as heroic and noble prompts her reference to vine-leaves and her
question, "I suppose you mean that he has more courage than the rest?" (p. 49). Hedda idealizes Lovborg's
weaknesses but is unmoved by his genius. Hedda never reads any of Lovborg's book; when Tesman praises its
brilliance, she curtly replies, "Yes, yes; I don't care about that--" (p. 49). What do these facts reveal about
Hedda morally, spiritually, or intellectually? Ibsen often used the individual to make revelations about society;
do Hedda's behavior and values reveal anything about her class or her society?
 BRACK’S ROLE

Brack visits at the earliest acceptable time; aware of the threat Lovborg poses to his triangle, he is
eager to disparage Lovborg to Hedda. He presents the concrete reality, the sordidness of Lovborg's
behavior. Why does his portrayal of reality affect Hedda so profoundly? Why does it cause her to lose
faith in her idealization of Lovborg's wild lifestyle? What fear does his description of Lovborg's
scandalous behavior stir in Hedda?
Hedda also becomes aware that Brack, with his desire for control, can be dangerous, "I am
exceedingly glad to think--that you have no sort of hold over me" (p. 55). Does her statement prepare
for the ending?
Hedda, who is quick at picking up sexual implications and fears scandal, makes Lovborg aware ("suddenly
understanding," p. 56) that he is ruining Thea's reputation.
When Lovborg announces he and Thea must part, why does Hedda involuntarily say, "I knew it!" (p. 56)?
Is she feeling triumphant? Does she see herself as controlling or having power over Lovborg's life?
What does this scene reveal about Thea and her relationship to Lovborg? Why does she cry, despairingly,
"Then what am I to do with my life?" (p. 56). She leaves saying, "I see nothing but darkness before me" (p.
58). Is Thea concerned with Lovborg, the book, herself, or some combination of them? Think about her
statements after you finish the play; do they relate to the ending?
Creativity/sterility/destructiveness is a major theme. Hedda is pregnant or physically creative, and Thea is
physically barren. However, Ibsen implies visually that Thea is a creative force with her abundant hair and
that Hedda is not with her skimpy hair. In what way(s) is Thea creative? In what way(s) is Hedda not
creative?
 The
Manuscript
The manuscript is symbolically the child that Thea and Lovborg created. What is Thea's contribution to
the book, which is the product of Lovborg's genius? With Lovborg, the theme of creativity is extended to
include the artist or writer. Lovborg, the artist, needs Thea to create. Why? Why doesn't he rewrite the
book without her or go on to write other books? Does he need the order and discipline she provides to
use his genius productively? On his own, he wastes his life in riotous living. Lovborg is a typical Ibsen
artist--a man who has unlimited energy and genius but lacks self-control; he needs a woman for inspiration
and control. However, in civilizing the artist, she ultimately inhibits his lust for life and so his ability to
create. This is what we would call a catch-22 situation.
The theme of creativity extends to Lovborg and Tesman. Contrast the kinds of topics which they write
about and the fact that Lovborg produces books and Tesman collects notes which he has yet to arrange.
There is a minor parallel between them; Tesman has a suitcase full of notes from his honeymoon, and
Thea has the notes Lovborg used in writing the lost manuscript.
In Act II, Hedda realizes she will not be able to live out her ambitions through George; Brack squelches
the possibility of a political career, and she has no interest in academic matters. So she turns her energies to
Lovborg. In trying to control Lovborg, Hedda wants to give meaning and beauty to life; she wants to rise
above the narrow conventionality of her own class and the smothering domesticity of the Tesmans and to
experience freedom-- vicariously. A coward herself, she wants to experience courage through Lovborg.
Lovborg too associates wild living with courage when he considers returning to his Dionysian lifestyle,
"And the thing is that now I have no taste for that sort of life either. I won't begin it anew. She has broken
my courage and my power of braving life out" (p. 58).
Hedda wants to have the kind of power over Lovborg that Thea had, "So that pretty little fool has had her
fingers in a man's destiny" (p. 58). Hedda looks for power and freedom through another, rather than in
herself. But can the individual achieve a sense of power or freedom in this way? James W. McFarlane calls
her efforts "interference in other people's lives"; ironically, such interference poses a threat to the essential
self by making the individual dependent on others and places the individual in an "essentially humiliating
reliance" on others to provide what the essential self should supply but can't. Does his analysis apply to
Hedda? Why is she unable to achieve power? Why is she unable to actualize her ideal? These two questions
may be easier to answer after you have read Act IV.
 IRONY

Though Hedda no longer believes in vine-leaves, she still

believes in the possibility of beauty, heroism, and freedom.
What irony is there in her giving Lovborg a gun to commit
suicide "beautifully" (p. 59)? How "beautiful" is a shot
through the temple in reality? Is Hedda interested in
Lovborg as a person, or is she merely using him?
The guns are symbolically complex and
can be interpreted in a number of ways:
• They are her defense.
• They represent freedom and release.
• They are cold and hard outside, violent and deadly in action, like Hedda.
• They are modern and contrast with the classical symbol of the vine-leaves. One is a symbol of war and aggression, the
other of peace and pleasure.
• They suggest the fulility and purposelessness of her life. Guns have a deadly function, and presumably a general would be
able to use them effectively. But for Hedda the guns are a toy, a diversion in her boredom.
• General Gabler's guns represent a military and an aristocratic tradition. How much relevance does military tradition have
for women in general or for Hedda in particular? What does her inheriting this gun and this tradition suggest about the
values of her class? Raised by her father, the general, what values might she have learned from him? Might any of them
be inappropriate for a woman of her class and time? If so, what would be the effect on her? The nineteenth century
Danish critic George Brandes suggests that General Gabler's guns are ironic; he claims "that a Norwegian general is a
cavalry officer, who as a rule, has never smelt powder,and whose pistols are innocent of bloodshed." If he is correct, the
aristocratic class represented by the general appears even more futile and useless.
Is Hedda a woman who lacks purpose in life? Is she distorted by the demands of a society that offers limited
roles to women? All the other women in the play either serve others (Thea, Miss Tesman, Diana, and Berta) or
are taken care of (the invalid Aunt Rina). And even the incapacitated Rina embroiders slippers and willingly
risks her income for George. Except for Diana and Hedda, the women are self-sacrificing. Hedda, who wants
to live her life for herself, refuses the conventional woman's lot of service and/or sacrifice.
What opportunities are there for a woman with larger aspirations, like Hedda? Ibsen noted of Hedda: "Hedda's
desperation is a conviction that life must offer so many possibilities of happiness, but that she can't catch sight
of them. It is the want of a goal in life that torments her." Do you think this is true of Hedda? As a woman, is
Hedda denied the identity and purpose the men have in their professions? They express themselves through
their work and receive recognition through their professions. Brack is referred to and addressed as "judge."
Lovborg has achieved acclaim and success with his book, and Tesman is waiting for the reward of a
professorship. In contrast, Thea loses her sense of purpose and identity when she believes Lovborg destroyed
their book. Aunt Julia has purpose and identity as long as she has someone to care for.
Despite her refusal to accept a traditional role assigned women, Hedda does accept society's values of
proper and improper behavior. Propriety (rigid rules of what is proper) is a potent force in her life; it is
also a destructive force, as John Northam explains:
The propriety cuts her off, but it breeds the depraved interest. Hedda is not a woman disinterested in life;
her interest in life is vivid but depraved by the constraints that forbade her to engage directly in it.
Depraved is not too strong a word for Hedda's behaviour; it is justified not merely by reference to her
love of the unsavoury, but even more by the strangely vicarious way in which she has chosen to indulge
it. She has used Lovborg to do her living for her while she sheltered behind a curtain, peered at the
world outside.Hedda is fully aware of how much the manuscript means to Lovborg and Thea, that it is
brilliant, and that it is irreplaceable. Then why does Hedda burn the manuscript? Why does she call it
their child while she does this? Why does she call Thea "curly-locks" at this time (p. 50)? Is it
only their child that she wants to destroy? Does Hedda experience triumph and a sense of power as she
burns the manuscript?
For the first time in this play, Hedda takes direct action; she burns the manuscript and gives Lovborg a
gun to commit suicide beautifully. Hitherto she has been an observer, has acted indirectly through
manipulation and innuendo, or has lived vicariously through the lives of others. What kind of action
does she finally take--e.g., positive, negative, mixed, creative, heroic, destructive, compassionate, self-
centered, self-sacrificing, violent?
 References
• Ibsen, Henrik. “Hedda Gabler.” Academic Brooklyn, 23 April 2009,
academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/hedda3.html. Accessed 20
April, 2020.