Written for AQA Theatre Studies A-Level, but can be used for other exams too.
Notes on the biographical and historical context of when the play was written and the life of Henrik Ibsen and how this is displayed in the play. Points are colour-coded to note links to specific characters.
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Hedda Gabler - Context
Hedda Brack Tesman Loevborg General
The biographical and historical context
His relationship with Emilie Bardach became the emotional starting point for Hedda
Gabler
Emilie represented spontaneous experience which he had renounced in his life
long before
The time he spent with her made him aware of the lack of emotional ful lment
in his own life
Emilie was bored and spoilt which made her potentially dangerous and
destructive as it seemed that she took delight in capturing other people’s
husbands, causing Ibsen to terminate the relationship as he realised her needs
could only be met with considerable emotional havoc and destruction
There is no Jury system and few generals
Suggests that both Brack and General Gabler would carried prestige
Hedda is therefore stuck between high society and bourgeoise - symbolised by
the upstage drawing room (usually a male space but it is clearly her territory at
the outset)
The mood of sadness and sorrow towards which he seemed to be moving in The Lady
from the Sea in 1888 changed when he showed a sense of frustration, disappointment
and bitterness in Hedda Gabler
Indicates that his life or art was never the same after his relationship with Emilie
Hedda Gabler indicated Ibsen’s determination to have the last laugh at life’s
cruel ironies after he concluded that his emotional life would remain stunted to
continue experiencing power and glory in his art
In Hedda Gabler, Ibsen includes many echos from his time with Emilie
The village in which he met Emilie was mentioned when Hedda shows Brack
the photograph album in Act 2
There are moments of conversation in his notes that come straight from his
interaction with Emilie
Hedda, like Emilie, is intelligent but bored and is particularly excited at the
thought of stealing someone else’s lover or husband
Hedda looks similar to Emilie
Loevborg expresses ideas in the play which are similar to those of Ibsen’s such
as wanting to nd a way ‘towards a companionship between man and woman,
whereby the true spiritual individual may emerge’
The character Loevborg was possibly a warning to himself about the consequences of
giving into spontaneous emotions as he ends up coming to a amboyant and violent
end
Ibsen’s notes make it clear that Hedda Gabler was conceived as a social play
however, he initially used the interaction between men and woman within the
limitations imposed by contemporary bourgeois society for a starting point
The play is called Hedda Gabler (not Hedda which he had thought of calling it) as it
highlights that as a personality, she is regarded as her father’s daughter rather than her
husband’s wife
Brack’s standing in his social society would have been substantial as he would have
served and he represents the values of Hedda’s old social circle
There was no jury system in Norway during the 1890s
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