Hedda Gabler Essay

Sydney Huggins
ENG 2130
Dr. Hanley
The Trials and Tribulations of a Marriage In our world, marriage has always been something that many have planned in their future. The thought of growing up and finding someone to spend their life with, and start a family with makes people always consider if the person is a perfect match for marriage. But sometimes, when you think you’ve found “The One,” the realization of the actual marriage can be the opposite of what you’ve imagined. This can be found in two works, “Hedda Gabler” by Henrik Isben and “Death of Ivan Iliych” by Leo Tolstoy. In the story “Hedda Gabler” by Henrik Isben, it tells the story of a woman named Hedda Gabler. She was married to George Tessman, a college professor. George Tessman has aspirations to work for the government, which will essentially help provide money for the lifestyle he wants for his new bride, Hedda. When an ex alcoholic Eilert Lovborg comes back to town, made both Mr. Tesman and Hedda uneasy. Lovborg was a known published
author and a very smart man. He had also applied to same government job as Mr. Tesman. Because of Lovborgs smarts and popularity, Hedda assumed that he would automatically take her husband out as a possible candidate for the job. So Hedda came up with a plan. Later on Mr. Lovborg announced that he was withdrawing from the position he applied for, which made Hedda and Mr. Tessman happy. But Hedda somehow forces Mr. Tessman to drink, which only went downhill from there. At a party, Lovborg dropped the manuscript to his new book that was in his pocket. Mr. George finds the book and brings it home, so that Lovborg could retrieve it in the morning. When a drunken Lovborg realizes his transcript was missing he went ballistic and ended up starting a fight. When Lovborg goes to Hedda’s home, he says that he wants to end his life. Hedda then gave Lovborg a gun and told him that he must end his life beautifully. Later on Lovborg ended up dead, because the gun in his back pocket discharged and hit him in the bowels. When Hedda finds out that she can get into major trouble for this, she takes a gun and kills herself.
A major theme in this story was control. ...When she arrives at the Tesman home after her wedding trip, Hedda begins exercising control over others. First, she orders Berta to remove chintz covers from the furniture in the drawing room. Berta then learns from Juliana Tesman that Hedda had earlier directed that the drawing become the newlyweds' "everyday sitting room." The audience and readers next discover that it was Hedda who arranged for the six-month wedding trip. George tells his aunt, "Hedda had to have this trip, Auntie! She really had to. Nothing else would have done." Also, she had obtained financing for the Tesman home through Judge Brack.
.......When she enters the drawing room in Act 1, Hedda immediately orders the curtains drawn over the veranda door to soften the light. She also orders the piano moved to another room because "it doesn't go at all well with all the other things." Later, she schemes to ruin lives and succeeds. But she also ends up destroying her own life after Judge Brack gains the upper hand and after she realizes that she lacks the wherewithal to control her own life. Her suicide, which is an attempt to assert her control over her ultimate destiny, is really little more than a coward's way out.
The marriage between Hedda and Mr.
Tillman is more of a love-hate relationship. Mr. Tillman loves and worships Hedda, while she does not particularly like her husband too much. As the daughter of the late and esteemed General Gabler, Hedda requires a husband with social standing, an elegant home, money, servants, and other amenities stamping her as a refined and respectable aristocrat. Mr. Tillman does everything for Hedda. He took her on an expensive six month vacation, has her own room and also has plans to live in a very pricey villa called “Secretary Falks Villa” despite needing his aunt to help pay for some of this. I feel that Mr. Tillman does all of this stuff for Hedda to keep her around, since he knows it won’t be hard for her to find someone else. Mr. Tillman states “… But Auntie, take a good look at Hedda before you go! See how handsome she is! ” Tillman knows that many men would love to be in his shoes, and will do whatever it takes to keep
Hedda.
Hedda on the other hand, admits that she is not in love with her husband. But, her husband was being considered for a very good job, which makes it easier to stick around. She had a secret intimacy with Lovborg, which she did find exciting. Hedda is spoiled and demands a lot, and she knows her husband will give it all to her. In the story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy, tells the story of a high court judge with a wife and family. Ivan lives a carefree life that is "most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible." Like everyone he is aware of, he lives a life spent almost entirely in climbing the social ladder, and his life begins to gather more falseness as it goes on. While hanging curtains for his new home one day, Ivan Ilyich falls and hurts his side. Though he does not think much of it at first, he begins to suffer from a pain in his side. He is told that he is going to die, and is brought face to face with the idea of death, and realizes that although he knows of it, he does not truly grasp it.
During the long and painful process of death, Ivan dwells on the idea that he does not deserve his suffering because he has lived rightly. In the final days of his life, Ivan makes a clear split between an artificial life, such as his own, which masks the true meaning of life .He no longer hates his daughter or wife, but rather feels sorry for them, because he has found at last a joy in authentic life and they will continue their artificial lives, fearing death. Ivan soon dies.
A quote to explain the story’s theme would be “All that glitters isn’t gold.” Ivan Ilyich has lived his whole life with the aim of enjoying himself and deliberately avoids whatever is unpleasant. All of his friends are basically the same way. Yet once Ivan falls ill and is faced with the thought of dying, almost all of his old joys lose their charm. His suffering brings him to recognize that his whole life has actually been a very unhappy one, though he didn't know it. Ivan Illyich was married to Praskovya Fedorovna. They both seemed unhappy with their marriage. At first, Ivan thought she would be a perfect match, since came from money, and his friends approved of her. Praskoyva did fall in love with Ivan. It seems when she got pregnant is when the problems started. She began to get moody, jealous and demanding. Ivan blamed all of their marital problems on her. Even when the baby was born, Ivan was not any help. The marriages between Hedda and Tillman, and Ivan and Praskovya, are alike and also different. Praskovya Fedorovna and Hedda both do not have feelings for either of their husbands at all. It is also shown that social status and how people view you are very important to both of these couples. Lastly in both couples, one of the spouses ends us dying. The couples are different because in Heddas relationship, Mr. Tillman was very caring and giving, which is the opposite of Ivan, who was selfish. Also, Praskovya started to find feelings for her husband as his death comes closer. Hedda, was cold hearted throughout the whole story. Marriages can be difficult. Finding that “Perfect One”, should be based on your feelings for them, and not what others think. Selfishness is a major downfall in a relationship, and if both people in the relationship are not on the same level, it’s not going to work.