Use this page when you know the book but need the right person, force, or relationship to carry the argument.
Come here when you need to sort out who matters, what they want, and where they actually help your argument in Hedda Gabler.
Contents
The central character. She's the daughter of a general, now married to a man she finds boring. She's intelligent and restless, with no acceptable way to use either quality. She manipulates the people around her to feel some sense of power, and when that power is taken away, she kills herself.
Hedda's husband. He's a well-meaning academic who genuinely loves Hedda and doesn't understand her at all. He's not cruel — he's oblivious. His cheerful domesticity is exactly what suffocates Hedda.
A former friend and almost-lover of Hedda's. He's brilliant but self-destructive, and he has apparently reformed with Thea's help. Hedda manipulates him back into drinking, then pushes him toward a death she imagines as beautiful. He fails even at that.
A woman who left her husband to follow and support Loevborg. She's everything Hedda isn't: open, giving, willing to act on her feelings. She helped Loevborg write his best work. Hedda resents her for it.
A family friend who has been circling Hedda with barely concealed interest. He's charming and dangerous. When he gets leverage over Hedda through the pistol, he uses it immediately. He represents the male social power that ultimately corners her.
Tesman's aunt. She's kind, devoted to her nephew, and completely alien to Hedda's world. Hedda's cruelty toward her in Act One signals how little Hedda fits into the domestic life she's entered.
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