A study-guide for Henrik Ibsen's, 'Hedda Gabler' for WJEC A-level drama. It covers everything from character analysis, costumes, set, lighting and live-theatre evaluation.
Henrik Ibsen
- Norwegian poet, playwright and author
- A leader of the naturalistic movement in theatre
- His family lost their wealth and the suffering of his mother at the time and his parents’ secretive
marriage created some of the seminal themes of his plays
- Had an illegitimate child at 18
- Drew inspiration from Norwegian folk tales with subliminal moral messages
- Whilst he was in self-imposed exile due to poverty, he developed a ‘drama of ideas’ that included
socially challenging themes e.g. family responsibility, love, social morality
- Later in his career he focused on psychological conflict around strong women who were trapped
by society’s expectations
- ‘ A woman cannot be herself in a contemporary society, it is an exclusively male society with
laws drafted by men’
- Represents emancipated women in his plays
- His dramatic expression of female sexuality goes beyond what writers of the period would
represent
SHPC
- Norwegian Politics
- Characterised by severe rural poverty and mass starvation
- Subject to taxation in the forestry industry
- First political party, the Liberal Party was formed in 1884 to create a democratic society
- Norway was ruled by Swedish monarchs from 1814
- Universal suffrage for men was introduced in 1898
- Naturalistic Movement
- Late nineteenth century European theatres
- Aims to create a picture of ‘real life’ through theatrical techniques and strategies
- Play should be realistic and the result of careful study of human society
- Characters’ motivations should be driven by their heredity and environment
- Presentation of the play should be realistic seen in use of single setting, and
natural acting style
- Late Nineteenth Century Europe
- Huge movements and growth in national populations, including significant impacts of
industrialisation
- Writers’ created novels based around man’s struggle to survive and prosper
- Artists moved from Impressionism to Cubism
- Feminism and Women’s Rights
- 1854, women were allowed to own property
- 1913, women were granted the right to vote
- Working class women provided domestic service
- Aristocratic and bourgeois women acted as homemakers and mothers
- Before 1890, on their wedding day women transferred from ownership of their fathers to
their husbands.
- Women often succumbed to hysteria due to the boredom in their lives
- The wages a woman earnt belonged to her husband
- If her husband died, a woman could not be the guardian to her children
Original Performance
- Residenz Theatre, Munich, January 1891
- Ibsen was displeased by the actress of Hedda
- Not well received by the public or critics
- Audience were less sympathetic to the psychological rationale for Hedda’s behaviour
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