Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler

Piano by Joey Huang

Introduction

We might consider Moliere’s Tartuffe, which depicts the lives of aristocrats and affirms the sovereignty of the monarch, as traditional European drama. The language is poetic; the structure follows the Greek tradition; the ending is preposterous and would never happen in real life, but it makes great theater. Ibsen revolutionized theater by allowing it to reflect a socio-economic trend in society; he made theater by, for, and about the middle class. The characters in Hedda Gabler are not entirely sympathetic. Like Seinfeld characters, we find them interesting but not necessarily admirable.

Not all of Ibsen’s contemporaries admired his foray into realism. Writers like the Irish playwright William Butler Yeats objected that art should be beautiful. He despised Ibsen’s efforts to change society by addressing moral social issues on the stage. Ibsen’s plays addressed feminism, venereal disease, gender politics, political corruption. Yeats objected that these themes lack beauty, and were therefore unfit subjects for art. But Ibsen countered that art need not be only the realm and privilege of the aristocracy. One contemporary of Ibsen wrote in disgust:

The production of an Ibsen play impels the inquiry, What is the province of art? If it be to elevate and refine, as we have hitherto humbly supposed, most certainly it cannot be said that the works of Ibsen have the faintest claim to be artistic. We see no ground on which his method is defensible. . . . Things rank and gross in nature alone have place in the mean and sordid philosophy of Ibsen. Those of his characters who are not mean morally are mean intellectually–the wretched George Tesman, with his enthusiasm about the old shoes his careful aunt brings him wrapped up in a bit of newspaper, is a case in point. As for refining and elevating, can any human being, it may be asked, feel happier or better in any way from a contemplation of the two harlots at heart who do duty in Hedda Gabler? . . . We do not mean to say that there are not, unhappily, Hedda Gablers and George Tesmans in ‘real life.’ There are; but when we meet them we take the greatest pains to get out of their way, and why should they be endured on the stage?

This quotation is from an unsigned notice in The Saturday Review.

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen

George Tesman, a young man of letters.
Mrs. Hedda Tesman (born Gabler), his wife.
Miss Juliana Tesman, his aunt.
Mrs. Elvsted
Judge Brack.
Ejlert Lovborg
Bertha, servant to the Tesmans.

SCENE: Sitting room in the Tesmans’ villa in the western
part of the city.

ACT I.

A spacious, pretty, and tastefully furnished sitting
room, decorated in dark colors. In the wall at the back
is a broad doorway, with curtains drawn aside. This
doorway leads into a smaller room, which is furnished
in the same style as the sitting-room. On the wall to the
R. in this latter there is a folding-door, which leads out
to the hall. On the opposite wall, to the L., there is a
glass door, also with curtains drawn back. Through the
panes of glass are seen part of a verandah, which
projects outside, and trees covered with autumn foliage.
On the floor in front stands an oval table with a cover
on it and chairs around. In front of the wall on the R.
a broad, dark, porcelain stove, a high-backed armchair,
a foot-stool, with cushions and two ottomans. Up in
the right-hand corner a settee and a small round table.
In front, to L., a little away from the wall, a sofa. Op-
posite the glass door a pianoforte. On both sides of the
doorway in the back stand e-tagéres with pieces of terra
cotta and majolica. Close to the back wall of the inner
room is seen a sofa, a table, and some chairs. Above this
sofa hangs the portrait of a handsome elderly man in a
general’s uniform. Over the table a chandelier with
dim, milk-colored shade. A great many bouquets of
flowers, in vases and glasses, are arranged about the
sitting-room. Others lie on the table. Thick carpets are
spread on the floors of both rooms. It is morning, and
the sun shines in through the glass door.

END OF FIRST ACT

ACT II.

The room at TESMAN’S, as in the first act, only that
the pianoforte is taken away, and an elegant writing
table, with a bookcase, is put in the place of it. A
smaller table is placed close to the sofa, to the L. Most
of the bouquets of flowers have been removed. MRS.
ELvSTED’S bouquet stands on the larger table in the
front of the floor. It is afternoon.
[HEDDA, dressed to receive callers, is alone in the room.
She stands by the open glass door, and loads a re
volver. The fellow to it lies in an open pistol-case on
the writing-table.]

END OF SECOND ACT

ACT III

[MRS. ELVSTED, wrapped in a great beaver cloak, and
with her feet on a footstool, sits close to the stove,
sunken back in the armchair. HEDDA lies, dressed,
asleep on the sofa, with a rug over her.]

END OF THIRD ACT

ACT IV

[HEDDA, in black, goes to and fro over the floor in the
darkened room. Then she passes into the back-room,
and crosses over to the L. side. There are heard some
chords on the piano. Then she comes in again and
enters the drawing-room. BERTHA comes from the L.,
through the back-room, with a lighted lamp, which she
puts on the table in front of the settee in the drawing
room. Her eyes are red with weeping, and she has black
ribbands in her cap. She walks quietly and carefully
out to the L. HEDDA goes to the glass door, moves the
curtain a little to one side, and looks out into the
darkness. Soon after, M. TESMAN arrives, in black,
with hat and veil on, in from the hall. HEDDA goes
toward her with her hands outstretched.]