HEDDA GABLER
Week #7

Thou hast no speculation
in those eyes

William Shakespeare
Macbeth


  1. What is conventional and unconventional about Hedda?

  2. What character is best able to see the split (i.e. conventional versus unconventional) in Hedda's character? In other words, what character is able to see that she is trapped between her desire for freedom, and her adherence to social convention? Explain.

  3. What is the significance of Hedda drawing the shade on the bright sunlight?

  4. What are some of the important symbolic details in the opening stage directions?

  5. What is the significance of the portrait?

  6. Both Tessman and Lovborg are writing books. What do the books reveal about the characters?

  7. What is the significance of George's slippers?

  8. What is the spine of Hedda's character?

  9. Considering that Hedda wants "to have power over a human being," what is significance of her situation with the Judge at the end of the play?

  10. With the spine of Hedda in mind, it is perhaps possible to answer one of the most perplexing questions of the play. Why does she marry Tessman?

  11. If she are right in assuming that her objective (whether conscious or not) was to avoid a conventional male-female relationship, then what went wrong?

  12. What is the significance of the pistols, and specfically what is the significance of the pistol sequence at the beginning of Act II?

  13. What is perhaps most fascinating about this play is its firm symbolic foundation. What are the symbolic ramifications of:

    1. cold punch
    2. the stove
    3. flowers
    4. the piano

  14. What is the significance of the hair symbolism?

  15. How do we, then, interpret Hedda's death? What does her death mean?

  16. Why is the play called Hedda Gabler?

  17. What is the significance that Thea's husband was a sheriff?

  18. What is the significance of Hedda's line, "for want of an album?"

  19. What is the significance of the Judge sneaking in the back way?

  20. Ibsen was fascinated with the symbolism of light. What is some evidence of this fascination?

  21. Discuss the significance of the invalid theme.

  22. Discuss the significance of the bonnet.

  23. What is the significance of the following motifs?

    • dying beautifully
    • expectation (or pregnancy)
    • fire

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