Guide Note

Hedda Gabler a play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828 – 1906) centers on the protagonist, Hedda, whose misdirected energy is both attractive and destructive. Beautiful, intelligent and refined, Hedda is also unable to find any creative outlet for her energies. Married to the dull, pedantic Jorgen Tesman whom she will not leave for fear of scandal, she envies the fulfillment that her one-time admirer, Lovborg, and Thea, whom she used to bully in school, have found together. Hedda consequently deliberately destroys Thea’s happiness and Lovborg’s precarious mental balance. When a family friend, Judge Brack, attempts to blackmail her into becoming his mistress, Hedda shoots herself.
Ibsen himself had said about Hedda Gabler: "I have not really tried to deal with so-called problems. My main purpose has been to describe human beings, human moods and human fates on the basis of certain conditions and views prevalent in society". Perhaps it is the focus on characters that makes this play feel remarkably modern more than a century after it was written. Hedda Gabler is one of Ibsen's most performed plays, and the title role is one of the most challenging and rewarding for any actress.

Fast Facts

1. Written in Munich in 1890
2. Started as Hedda, later changed to Hedda Gabler
3. First published on December 11, 1890 by William Heinemann in London
4. Heinemann's 1890 publication, in Norwegian, in only 12 copies, served to establish the copyright in England
5. Published on December 16, 1890 in Copenhagen by Gyldendal in an edition of 10,000 copies
6. Heinemann published the Edmund Gosse`s English translation on January 20, 1891
7. First performed in Munich on January 31, 1891, to mostly negative reactions
8. 1902 production was a major sensation on Broadway

Hedda Gabler Quotes

1. "Then what in the heaven's name would you have me do with myself?"
2. "Those impulses come over me all of a sudden, and I can not resist them."