Hedda Gabler Research Paper

Essay on Hedda Gabler

Whom do you regard as the principal villain in Hedda Gabler (in so far as you do not reject the term “villain” as simplistic, if you do, what forces or conditions human beings into making immoral choices or adopting obnoxious attitudes)?
Provide abundant, specific and detailed textual evidence in support of your views.
Approximately 800 words.

Terms such as hero and villain are complex ones and are not easy to describe. To start with, the dictionary defines a villain as “An evil character in a novel, movie, play, or other story, especially one who is the main enemy of the hero.” This being a very basic and simple definition one must explore it in order to figure out who the villain is in Hedda Gabler. The villain
Firstly because of her moments of instability, which increase toward the end of the play. In the beginning, there are only small clues to this; we discover her fascination for pistols, something quite odd for a woman, especially at the time. “My pistols, George darling!” These rare occasion in which she refers to Tesman as George and more surprisingly as “darling” is when she is with her pistols. It is as if they were a sexual image to her that she has an obsession for. This fascination becomes disturbing when we learn that Hedda had actually tried to kill Eilert Loevborg and how she shoots at Brack. “I’m going to shoot you, Judge Brack!” Her calm and serenity is often disrupted by these inexplicable actions where she loses control “Sometimes a mood like that hits me. And I can0t stop myself.” it is as if she had a sort of split personality, either that or there are moments where her true nature comes out and the calm side of her is only a façade. She is frustrated with her inability do anything important because of her status as a woman in the Victorian times and therefore finds ways to channel her motivations through manipulating people (such as Mrs. Elvsted when Hedda manages to make her talk about Eilert), and always being in control at least when she is in her own home. This is shown well when she is in the company of Eilert and Mrs. Elvsted and wants “to be in the middle.” WE have to notice, though, that
He is the opposite of self-destructive. Brack is hypocritical, and worse of all betrays his duties as Judge. A judge is assumed to be law abiding, set examples and most of all be morally correct. The first sign of Bracks immorality and dishonesty is when he tells Ms. Tesman to stand security for Tesmans furniture. “I’ve stood security for all the furniture and carpets … Judge Brack told me so.” As a Judge, he should no that an old lady with her dying sister needs all the help they can get and setting security for furniture is very risky and could end up killing her if she needs to sacrifice most of her commodities for her nephew. Brack also is always making sexual advances to Hedda. On several occasions he comes earlier than set for Hedda to be alone, “I’d have come a little sooner.” He continuously makes comments alluding to the two of them being alone “à deux”. Then on the other hand he tells her how he has “always had a considerable respect for the institution of marriage.” People usually look up to Judges for setting examples and Judge Brack does just the opposite. We see how he is looked up to when Tesman tells Hedda that burning Loevborgs manuscript is illegal; “It’s against the law! By God! You ask Judge Brack and see if I’m not right.” He incites Eilert Loevborg to drink “Great Heavens, man, cold punch isn’t poison. Take my word for