The occasion

On October 5, 2007, Linda and I went to see the play Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen at the University of Memphis Theater.

The story (warning: potential spoiler)

George Tesman, a young history scholar, has married Hedda, the daughter of General Gabler, and they have just returned from their six-month honeymoon, which George mixed with research, leaving his would-be socialite wife feeling isolated and utterly bored. George has just earned his doctorate, and is anticipating soon receiving a full professorship. He has purchased and furnished an expensive house for Hedda, counting on the income from the professorship to pay for it. His parents are dead, but his aunt Julia, who spends most of her time taking care of her invalid sister Rina, also keeps an eye out for George. She has even mortgaged her pension to help pay for his house. George has recently hired Julia's former maid, Berta. Julia comes to visit, and expresses great interest in learning whether Hedda is pregnant, and great delight when she suspects that she is. Hedda, on the other hand, is not happy at this prospect, and, after Julia leaves, beats her abdomen at the thought.

Hedda's former classmate Thea, now Mrs. Elvsted, whom she had tormented while they were in school by threatening to burn her hair off, shows up. She has married a rich commissioner, but has left him to follow her lover and comrade Eilert Løvborg, another young historian and a friend, yet a rival, of George, whom she announces has come to the city. Løvborg has recently published a popular history book that is having great success. George, on the other hand, has written an academic work about an obscure period in medieval history. Thea fears that Løvborg will fall into his former alcoholism and destroy himself. Hedda insists that George immediately write a letter to Løvborg, inviting him over for the evening. While he goes out to do it, she wrenches out of Thea the truth about her desertion of her husband and her relationship with Løvborg. Thea also mentions that Løvborg had a previous girlfriend who once threatened to shoot him. Thea is not certain of this lady's identity, but is sure that it must have been a low-class actress.

George writes the letter, but is torn: partly in concern for his friend, and partly in fear of him as a professional rival. Judge Brack enters, reminding George of the party that the judge is throwing in his honor for obtaining his doctorate. After agreeing with Hedda that she, Thea, and Løvborg will stay there for dinner, George leaves the room changes changes into evening clothes. Alone with Hedda, the judge's talk makes it clear that he is interested in Hedda sexually. She shows pleasure at the attention, but announces her intent to remain faithful to George. George reappears and insists on waiting until Løvborg arrives. When he does, he brings with him a manuscript of a second book, about his predictions for the future. George is troubled that Løvborg may be a competitor for the job that he wants, but Løvborg assures George that he seeks popular appeal, not an academic position, much to George's relief.

When Løvborg and Hedda are alone for a few minutes while George and the judge are having "one for the road," we learn that he and Hedda were once lovers, and that she is the one who threatened him with a pistol. He calls her a coward for not following through with it. He tries to get her to say that she once loved him, but she scornfully replies that she listened to his tales only as a way to gain entry into the world of men, from which she felt otherwise shut out. Løvborg, an alcoholic, is trying mightily to stay on the wagon, but Hedda tempts him with drinks and encouragement to go to Judge Brack's party. He finally succumbs, saying that he will read his manuscript to George at the party, but promising to return at 10 PM to see Thea home.

At times during the play, Hedda gets out her father's pair of dueling pistols and feigns firing them. At one time, she fires one into the air out the back door as the judge is approaching.

Løvborg does not return that night. The next morning, Hedda sends Thea to get some sleep in her own room. George returns, describing how the party became a bacchanal, but was amazed at, and envious of, the quality of Løvborg's new book. He knows that his own research cannot compare with that of Løvborg. Moreover, he has found the manuscript that Løvborg lost after he left the party. Aunt Julia enters, announcing that Rina is dying and wishes to see George once more. George leaves hurriedly, leaving the manuscript with Hedda. Løvborg finally returns, announcing that his life is over. Unable to tell Thea the truth about the manuscript, he says that he tore it up and threw it into the harbor, and that there is no future for them. After she leaves in tears, he tells Hedda the truth. Hedda, though having the manuscript right there, does not give it to him, but takes out one of the pistols and points it at him. He stands waiting for her to shoot, but instead she hands him the pistol and encourages him to bring his life to a "grand and glorious" end. He bids her farewell and leaves. After he leaves, Hedda tears the manuscript up and throws it in the fire, saying as she does so that she is burning a child.

Julia reappears, announcing that Rina has died, then leaves. George comes in and asks for the manuscript. Hedda tells him that she burned it. George is distraught, but Hedda comforts him by telling him that she did it out of love for him and to save his professorship. Thea comes in, terrified at rumors that she has heard that Løvborg is in the hospital, dying. Judge Brack comes in and confirms the rumors. George wants to try to reconstruct Løvborg's manuscript. Thea announces that she has his notes, and the two of them set to work on the task. Hedda offers to help, but they rebuff her. When they go in the other room to work, the judge informs Hedda of the true circumstances of Løvborg's not so glorious death. He was in the brothel of Madam Diana, and it is not clear if he shot himself or was shot in a struggle with the "mighty strong" prostitute. The judge recognized the pistol as belonging to Hedda, and threatens to reveal it if she will not become his mistress. Unable to bear that her actions, which she thought were giving her power over other people's lives, have instead put her in the power of someone else, shoots herself in the head with the remaining pistol. The play ends as the judge exclaims, "People just don't do such things!"

The adaptation

The program says that the play was adapted by Jon Robin Baitz. I always wonder what I am getting when I see an adaptation, and how close to the original it actually is. Since I have not read the original, I cannot say. I know that the play had to be translated into English, of course. The translator's name was not given.

The program says that the play is set in Baltimore, Maryland in 1952. That seems rather odd, given that it was originally set in Norway in the late 1800s. I see no need for such a change or such a statement. The play does not need a time specified. Nor is anything specific to the purported place or time mentioned in the play. Perhaps the intent was to say that the play's message was timeless. Perhaps it was a way of saying that mid-twentieth century America faced the same problems as late nineteenth century Norway. The Norwegian names were mostly preserved, so why not preserve its location as well?

The background music composed and arranged by Justin Cockerham fit the play well.

Thoughts

Hedda

This was a disturbing play. It is, of course, centered around the character of Hedda and her interactions with the other characters. It may be the writer's intent to say that her conduct was brought on by the restrictions placed on women in that culture. Clearly Hedda feels shut out of the society of men, and longs for that society and possibly the freedom that the thinks that it brings. Yet the attentions that she gets from men do not satisfy her. It seems that she is incapable of giving and receiving love, and only deals with men for what she can get out of them, or to see if she can control them.

Each of the men in the story relates to Hedda in a different way. Løvborg once loved her, and hopes still to have that love returned. Hedda seeks to gain power over him by dismissing his love and by using it to destroy the life that he has fought so hard to reestablish. The judge seeks only sexual satisfaction from her. She seeks power over him by stringing him along, rejecting his advances, yet leaving the possibility open that she might change her mind. Her husband George loves her, but cannot express it except by spending on her money that he does not have. She admits to the judge that she does not love George, but is using him for material security. She deceived him by making him think that she wanted the expensive house. She longs for a life of parties and entertaining, but knows that he is not cut out for it. He is so wrapped up in his work that she has no real power over him except through deception.

Hedda also seeks power over Thea. She again grabs Thea's hair and threatens to burn it off as she threatened when they were in school. She demands that Thea stay with her that night, even though Thea is frightened and wishes to leave. She tries to destroy Thea as well by coming between her and Løvborg, and ultimately hurting her by destroying Løvborg.

Some analyses of the play want to view Hedda as a victim. To me, she is a manipulative witch. She wants a sense of power and influence in people's lives. She is ready to use whatever happens to harm others, which she views as gaining power over them. Numerous small mannerisms and side remarks indicate her domineering nature. The garden doors and curtains have to be open when she wants, closed when she wants. She cannot stand the smell of flowers and removes all the flowers that people have given her and throws them away. She plays with loaded guns. She kneels before the portrait of her father. She is so hostile to the idea of bearing a child that she symbolically burns it when she burns Løvborg's manuscript. Perhaps she sees bearing a child as the ultimate loss of control over her life. This is, unfortunately, a sad presage of the abortion industry today.

Twice during the play, the lights go low, and Hedda, with the assistance of her maid, changes clothes on the stage. I'm not sure what that is supposed to represent. The maid is the only person in the play over whom she has real power, and she seems almost uninterested in it.

Other characters

More later.

Message

Plays like this seem to say, this is the way life is, and it is hopeless. Clearly, most of the characters in the play do not give a thought to God nor to trying to follow His ways. Without God, this is where life ends up. Schemes to build oneself up by putting others down lead only to hurt, heartbreak, and hopelessness.