Hedda Gabler Research Paper

Hedda Gabler was raised by her father, General Gabler, and that is how people know her. She is not someone’s girlfriend, wife, mother, or friend. She has always been and always will be General Gabler’s daughter. Being raised without a mother, Hedda was left with only her military father to look to as an example, so she learned to shoot, ride horses, be prideful, and coldhearted. She learned to set her sights on something and not stop till she got it. Like her father, Hedda takes an aristocratic view on life. She attended all the social gatherings and had many suitors, but they never interested her. She wanted something different than what they had to offer; she wanted freedom and control over her own life. Hedda’s childhood is a large

She did not want Judge Brack to have power over her and possibly control her for the rest of her life. She knew her future would be worse than her current life which she already despises, so this was just another reason for her to die. She was trapped in a marriage, with a baby she had no desire to have, and now her future was in someone else’s hands and she could not stand the thought of that. Hedda’s response to Judge Bracks’s power over her is as following, “But in your power. Totally subject to your demands— And your will. Not free. Not free at all. No, that’s one thought I just can’t stand. Never!” (708). So, Hedda took her own advice to die “beautifully”. She saw no happiness, no future for herself, so she only had one option to use what her father taught and left her to save herself. In a way, General Gabler killed Hedda. She grew up identifying with a male and having male privileges. Hedda’s privilege lead to her rebellion against the social limitations set for women. Without really knowing, General Gabler set Hedda up for failure because she would never get the respect and privilege she did while he was still alive. Hedda took his gun that he taught her to use to kill herself because she could not conform to the social expectations of