Playing the wrong gender role : The character of Hedda in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler

Abstract EN

This paper studies the unconventional woman character presented by Henrik Ibsen in the play of Hedda Gabler among his most distinguished social dramas.

The scrutiny of Hedda Gabler’s character in this paper focuses on gender and gender role.

It seems that Hedda’s attempt to play the male gender role has led to her destruction in the play.

This study utilizes an eclectic approach to do a literary textual analyses based on the concepts of stereotyping, objectification, and oppression as examined through the lenses of the theories of Existentialist Feminism by Simone De Beauvoir, Sexual Politics by Kate Millet and Human Basic Needs by Abraham Maslow successively.

The analysis of the character of Hedda Gabler in this study aims to investigate evidences of the themes of stereotyping, objectification and oppression that are worked by patriarchal politics of gender, sexuality, and oppression respectively in order to lead to the disintegration of the female character as manifestation of gender inequality.

The three theories are used then to explain how these themes of stereotyping, objectification, and oppression create the disintegration which is responsible for the misery of women.

Hedda’s struggle against the disintegration process is highlighted in the play.

Results reached in this study that Hedda lost her battle to live a normal life because she chose to challenge gender roles and tried to live as a man.

Introduction Hedda Gabler is one of Ibsen’s social dramas with the most sophisticated female protagonist.

It was first produced in 1890 to add to Ibsen’s controversial position as social critic with stirring topics.

Hedda Gabler may seem on the surface to be a play about a villain woman who brings about destruction not only to people whose lives she touches but also to non-living items that she touches too.

At the end, she brings about her own destruction.