Thea Eilert Lovborg

no power over you? Ah, poor me. But seriously now, I really think you should, for your own sake” (814). Hedda then steals his unpublished piece, and burns it, which results in Eilert telling his lover, Thea, a woman whom Hedda abhors, that he himself burnt it rather than admit to his failure. Soon after this contrived breakup, Hedda commits a worse crime and convinces Eilert Lovborg to take his own life, handing him one of her own pistols, telling him, “Here you use it now…in beauty Eilert Lovborg. Promise me that” (827). Eventually, her ambitious actions lead to her demise, as she searches for new victims to exploit. The degenerate Judge Brack discloses that he has knowledge of her transgressions, and will use it to his advantage. In

For example, Thea lives vicariously through the male characters in the play; it should be noted that the infamous manuscript that was tragically burnt was just as much Eilert’s as it was Thea’s. Lovborg himself proclaims that it was something precious that they put together as equals in a conversation with Hedda, “Mine and Thea’s, because that’s what it is” (825). Lovborg’s statement proves that, to Lovborg at least, Thea is more than an object. Thea speaks of how (795). However, he is not the only man she manages to enchant, after Lovborg’s untimely death, Thea and Tesman begin to form a bond through the project of deciphering Lovborg’s scattered notes. Tesman forms an attachment when he immediately requests that Thea assists him “Just think. What if we could sort them out. Perhaps if the two of us helped each other.” (834). This gives her confirmation that not only will she have a good position in life but also a life that she wants and has chosen for herself. Society’s rules about how a woman should behave were meant to limit Thea. Instead, it empowered her and made her strong survivor. While at the end of the play Hedda is defeated and has capitulated to the demands other pressed on her (which are either live as requested, meek and submissive, or simply cease to exist), Thea is still alive and still hoping for a better future that she is perfectly capable of creating for