Symbolism and Feminism in Hedda Gabler
Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House painted the picture of a strong and independent woman standing up to an oppressive and dominating society; the lead character, Nora, abandons not only her husband, but her entire family, in an effort to discover herself and become a liberated woman. The play is known for its universal appeal, and the strong blow it dealt to a male-dominated society, by showing not only that a woman could break free from the restraints which society placed upon her, but that men were actually quite powerless in the face of a strong woman; Nora's husband, Torvald, is left weeping as she leaves him at the close of the play.
The strong feminist themes which were the defining elements of A Doll's House are equally evident in the play Hedda Gabler, though the latter seems to be lacking the directness, clarity, and strength of the former, in regards to its feminist ideals. Hedda and Thea, the two female leads, posses within them both admirable and detestable female traits, and only in combination with each other can the characters reveal the true feminist message of the play. In order to assist the reader in understanding these concepts, and to illustrate the distinct differences between the two characters, Ibsen uses symbolism. The symbolic nature of hair, Lovborg's manuscript, and General Gabler's pistols, often seem to strip Hedda of her feminine characteristics, and emphasize the femininity of Thea.
During the time in which this play was written, and as is very true in modern times, a mark of feminine beauty was long, abundant, flowing hair. Even today, short hair is often considered to be a mark of a more liberated female, and it has been used to charact...
... middle of paper ...
...ety." Thesis. Brigham Young U, 1990.
Dyhouse, Carol. "Mothers and Daughters in the Middle-Class Home: c. 1870-1914." Labor and Love: Women's Experience of Home and Family 1850-1940. Ed. Jane Lewis. New York: Blackwell, 1986. 27-45.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979.
Ibsen, Henrik. Hedda Gabler. New York: Dover, 1990.
Lewis, Jane. "Introduction: Reconstructing Women's Experience of Home and Family." Labor and Love: Women's Experience of Home and Family 1850-1940. Ed. Jane Lewis. New York: Blackwell, 1986. 1-26.
Lyons, Charles R. Hedda Gabler, Role and World. 1990. Twayne's Masterwork Studies 62. Boston: Twayne, 1991.
Salomé, Lou. Ibsen's Heroines. Ed. and trans. Siegfried Mandel. Redding Ridge: Black Swan, 1985.
May begins by exploring the origins of this "domestic containment" in the 30's and 40's. During the Depression, she argues, two different views of the family competed -- one with two breadwinners who shared tasks and the other with spouses whose roles were sharply differentiated. Yet, despite the many single women glamorized in popular culture of the 1930's, families ultimately came to choose the latter option. Why? For one, according to May, for all its affirmation of the emancipation of women, Hollywood fell short of pointing the way toward a restructured family that would incorporate independent women. (May p.42) Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, for example, are both forced to choose between independence and a happy domestic life - the two cannot be squared. For another, New Deal programs aimed to raise the male employment level, which often meant doing nothing for female employment. And, finally, as historian Ruth Milkman has also noted, the g...
In this essay, we will examine three documents to prove that they do indeed support the assertion that women’s social status in the United States during the antebellum period and beyond was as “domestic household slaves” to their husband and children. The documents we will be examining are: “From Antislavery to Women 's Rights” by Angelina Grimke in 1838, “A Fourierist Newspaper Criticizes the Nuclear Family” in 1844, and “Woman in the Nineteenth Century” by Margaret Fuller in 1845.
As many women took on a domestic role during this era, by the turn of the century women were certainly not strangers to the work force. As the developing American nation altered the lives of its citizens, both men and women found themselves struggling economically and migrated into cities to find work in the emerging industrialized labor movement . Ho...
“The Pastoralization of Housework” by Jeanne Boydston is a publication that demonstrates women’s roles during the antebellum period. Women during this period began to embrace housework and believed their responsibilities were to maintain the home, and produce contented and healthy families. As things progressed, housework no longer held monetary value, and as a result, womanhood slowly shifted from worker to nurturer. The roles that women once held in the household were slowly diminishing as the economy became more industrialized. Despite the discomfort of men, when women realized they could find decent employment, still maintain their household and have extra income, women began exploring their option.
Hartmann, Susan M. The Home Front and Beyond: American women in the 1940s. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982
McBride, Kari Boyd. “A Boarding House is not a Home: Women’s Work and Woman’s Worth on the Margins of Domesticity.” The University Book second edition. 472-487.
A major funding agency that home buyers should take advantage of is the Federal Housing Administration, also known as the FHA. FHA provides mortgage insurance on housing loans that are funded by FHA approved lenders. The FHA will insure loans on single and multifamily homes located within the U.S. and its territories. The Federal Housing Administration is known worldwide for being the largest insurer for residential loans.
The feminist Lois Wyse once stated, “Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths.” Women should express remorse for their strengths, when men should feel guilt when exposing their weaknesses. Wyse believed that women should have been able to show their strengths in their oppressive societies instead of covering them up. The 19th century setting in the two plays, A Doll House and Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, caused much grief in both Nora and Hedda. They both lived in Europe during the 1800’s where males dominated the way society ran. Ibsen created an environment for women to question the society they lived in. Nora and Hedda, two feminists living in a masculine household bereft of happiness, desired to evade their unhappy life at home under the guidance of a man. Eventually, both women escaped from their husband’s grasps, but Hedda resorted to suicide in order to leave. Nora agreed with Lois Wyse by showing her strengths with pride to everybody, while Hedda hid her strengths like a coward by killing herself. Ibsen used numerous literary elements and techniques to enhance his writing and to help characterize the two protagonists. Nora, characterized as a benevolent and strong person, left her husband to explore the beliefs in society and to interpret ideas herself. Unlike Nora, the belligerent, selfish Hedda destroyed the lives of people around her just to take her own life in the end. Even though it appeared that Nora abandoned all responsibility for her children and hid an insidious secret from her husband, Nora showed greater fortitude than Hedda in the way she faced the obstacles of her life.
Although in the 19th century many slave owners had strict rules and control over slaves, enslaved individuals established their own way to go against the hardships they were placed in. Most people would have thought it was dangerous to defy a slave owner due to the consequences that were placed against those who resisted. Those who took part in the resistance, weighed their freedom higher than the risk of punishment. The various ways of effectively resisting the slave owner’s control are demonstrated in Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
African Americans have overcome many obstacles throughout their journey to freedom. Slavery began in the United States in 1619, in Jamestown, Virginia. Although the Union’s victory in the Civil War ended slavery, it continues to be a huge part of history to the United States. The culture of African Americans has been greatly shaped by the tribulations their ancestors suffered throughout their journey to freedom. African American slaves lived lives in which they were consistently treated inhumanely on a number of different levels, yet they found methods to endure and overcome these cruel times (Facts).
Slavery in America brought about a successful south but also proved to be one of the most terrible things done by humans to humans. Slavery became a way of life in early America. Eight out of the first twelve presidents owned slaves. People in the south benefited from slaves the most. Harvesting those huge cotton fields took many hands. That’s were the slaves became key to the success of the south. Slaves were predominately black Africans. Africans made up the majority but they were not the only ones. Native Americans and even English indentured servants made up the rest of the people put into slavery.
For most American’s especially African Americans, the abolition of slavery in 1865 was a significant point in history, but for African Americans, although slavery was abolished it gave root for a new form of slavery that showed to be equally as terrorizing for blacks. In the novel Slavery by Another Name, by Douglas Blackmon he examines the reconstruction era, which provided a form of coerced labor in a convict leasing system, where many African Americans were convicted on triumphed up charges for decades.
As slavery continued and grew, complicated systems of social status developed on plantations. The lowest ranking slaves, the backbone of the plantation economy, were the field slaves. The field slaves were divided into ‘gangs’ according to their physical strength and ability, with the strongest and fittest males and females in the first gang. The highest ranking slaves were the domestic servants who worked in the owner’s house. The difference in status between field and domestic slaves caused a division between the slaves on most plantations.