Hedda Gabler Quiz

Name: Hedda Gabler
Author: Henrik Ibsen

Question 1

Why does Hedda resent the house that she and Tesman have just moved into?

Accepted Answer

She wanted it, but now resents the financial burden it places on Tesman and the life it represents.

Answer

She finds it too small and poorly decorated for someone of her status.

Answer

She believes Tesman's aunt will visit too frequently and interfere with their privacy.

Answer

She is upset that it is located in an unfashionable part of town.

Question 2

What does Hedda do with Loevborg's manuscript, and why?

Accepted Answer

She burns it page by page, partly to help Tesman's career but mainly out of resentment toward Thea and Loevborg.

Answer

She hides it to prevent Tesman from reading it and becoming discouraged about his own work.

Answer

She returns it to Loevborg so he can present it at an academic conference.

Answer

She gives it to Judge Brack to keep safe from scandal.

Question 3

What is Hedda's relationship to Eilert Loevborg before the events of the play?

Accepted Answer

They had a history in which Hedda drew out his confessions and desires but never fully gave him what he wanted.

Answer

They were engaged to be married but broke up when he became an alcoholic.

Answer

They were distant acquaintances who barely knew each other.

Answer

They were close friends who studied together at university.

Question 4

How does Loevborg actually die, and what does this reveal about Hedda's vision?

Accepted Answer

He is shot in the stomach at a brothel in a squalid, accidental manner, not the beautiful death Hedda envisioned.

Answer

He dies in a duel with Judge Brack over Hedda's honor.

Answer

He dies beautifully in a noble suicide, exactly as Hedda imagined.

Answer

He dies of illness brought on by his return to drinking.

Question 5

What does Judge Brack use to gain power over Hedda?

Accepted Answer

He knows the pistol that killed Loevborg belongs to Hedda and offers to keep silent in exchange for her submission to his will.

Answer

He threatens to tell Tesman that Hedda is pregnant.

Answer

He discovers that Hedda burned Loevborg's manuscript and threatens to expose her to society.

Answer

He reveals that Hedda was once engaged to Loevborg and uses this to blackmail her.

Question 6

What does Hedda's treatment of Miss Juliana Tesman's hat reveal about her character?

Accepted Answer

She needs to wound others because she has no other form of power in her constrained life.

Answer

She is genuinely confused about which hat belongs to whom.

Answer

She is naturally kind and makes an innocent mistake that she later regrets.

Answer

She dislikes her husband's family and wants them to stop visiting.

Question 7

Why does Hedda encourage Loevborg to attend the party despite his promise to Thea to stay sober?

Accepted Answer

She is bored and wants to test whether she still has power over Loevborg, partly out of resentment toward Thea.

Answer

She genuinely wants him to have a good time and forget his troubles.

Answer

She wants to prove to Tesman that Loevborg is unreliable and unworthy of academic respect.

Answer

She is trying to protect Thea from Loevborg's destructive behavior.

Question 8

What is the primary source of Hedda's suffering in the play?

Accepted Answer

The confinement of her intelligence and ambition within a society that offers women no acceptable outlets except marriage.

Answer

Her husband's failure to advance in his academic career.

Answer

Her jealousy of Thea Elvsted's beauty and charm.

Answer

Her regret over not marrying Eilert Loevborg when she had the chance.

Question 9

What happens at the end of the play after Hedda shoots herself?

Accepted Answer

Tesman and Thea immediately begin reconstructing Loevborg's manuscript from Thea's notes, and life continues without pause.

Answer

Tesman and Thea grieve deeply and abandon their work.

Answer

Judge Brack confesses to the police that the pistol belonged to Hedda.

Answer

The other characters search for a suicide note to understand Hedda's final thoughts.

Question 10

How does the play suggest that Hedda's suicide relates to her lifelong obsession with courage and beauty?

Accepted Answer

The play leaves it ambiguous whether her suicide is the courageous act she always wanted or simply another form of escape from powerlessness.

Answer

Her suicide proves that she was always the bravest character in the play.

Answer

Her suicide is presented as cowardly and shameful, a betrayal of everything she claimed to believe in.

Answer

The play suggests that her suicide is a beautiful and noble act that finally gives her life meaning.