Hedda Gabler

[suwoo]

I am very new around these parts and feel that I havent quite reached feminist part one yet, but I am so unbelievably elightened (and on a personal level) empowered by my current english degree studies that I might feel confident enough to declare myself publically as a feminist soon.

I have just finished Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and wondered what you thought to the question of Hedda's character? Is she a villain or a heroine with a tragic flaw?

I am currently erring towards villain but am open to persuasion.

It was a long time ago when I studied Hedda Gabler and I don't remember it very well but I do remember A Doll's House more clearly. I remember thinking that Nora was most definitely a sympathetic character and it was a good reminder to me of why feminism was needed (and still is).

Have you read Madame Bovary? I discussed that in a book group years ago and the different opinions on her character were interesting and a little depressing. Many women there regarded her as a villain rather than as a victim of her position and circumstances.

I thought it was interesting that both Flaubert and Ibsen gave strong female characters a voice, and a voice that was probably an uncomfortable one for many people at the time.

I also remember from studying Victorian novels like Elizabeth Gaskell that female characters who had somehow sinned (however much it wasn't their 'fault') couldn't be allowed to live at the end of a novel or play. So (plot spoiler alert) we have Hedda, Madame Bovary, Ruth (in the Elizabeth Gaskell novel), Tess of the d'Urbervilles...all have to die to appease the Victorian sensibilities of the time.

Ibsen was writing at the turn of the century and perhaps was conscious of the 'requirement' (sorry, it's late and I'm tired!) in novels/plays to end up with the heroine dying if she had sinned in some way - it's her redemption almost. She couldn't be allowed to live happily ever after even if she had been more 'sinned against than sinning' in the case of our flawed but tragic heroines.

I was very sympathetic towards Madame Bovary, perhaps because I recognised her plight - at the time I was in a very stifling relationship with a nice but boring man!