Hedda Gabler(Illustrated) E-Book

Henrik Ibsen

• Herausgeber: Micheal Smith
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

• Illustrated Edition: Features 20 stunning illustrations capturing key moments of the play.
• Includes a Comprehensive Summary: A detailed synopsis that brings the essence of Ibsen's classic to life.
• Character List: An insightful guide to the complex characters who inhabit Ibsen's world.
• Author Biography: A compelling look into the life and legacy of Henrik Ibsen, the father of modern drama.

Step into the captivating world of "Hedda Gabler," a timeless masterpiece by Henrik Ibsen, now brought to life in this beautifully illustrated edition. Known as one of the great classics of the theatre, Ibsen's play is as relevant today as when it first took the stage. This edition not only brings you the complete text of Ibsen's groundbreaking play but also enhances your experience with 20 striking illustrations that vividly bring the drama and characters to life.
Set in the late 19th century, "Hedda Gabler" unfolds the story of its eponymous protagonist, a woman of formidable presence and complex psychology. Hedda, trapped in a life that she finds suffocating, navigates the constraints of societal norms with a mix of manipulation and desperation. As she interacts with characters like the ambitious George Tesman, her former lover Eilert Lövborg, and the influential Judge Brack, Hedda's actions set off a chain of events that lead to a dramatic and tragic climax.
This edition is designed to deepen your understanding and appreciation of the play. Alongside the full text, it includes:
A detailed summary that captures the essence and nuances of the play.
An extensive list of characters, providing insights into their roles and relationships.
A biography of Henrik Ibsen, offering a glimpse into the life of the playwright who forever changed the landscape of modern drama.
Whether you're a student, a lover of classic literature, or a newcomer to Ibsen's work, this illustrated edition of "Hedda Gabler" is a must-have for your collection. Immerse yourself in the world of Hedda Gabler, where societal pressures, personal desires, and the quest for identity collide in a story that is both profoundly personal and universally resonant. Experience Ibsen's genius in a whole new way, with each page and illustration drawing you deeper into the captivating world he created.
 

Leseprobe

                     HEDDA GABLER                                                    

                                               BY                                                                                            HENRIK IBSEN

ABOUT IBSEN

Henrik Ibsen, born on March 20, 1828, in Skien, Norway, emerged as a towering figure in the realm of modern drama and is often referred to as the "father of realism." His life and career were marked by a profound dedication to exploring societal issues and human psychology through his plays.

Early Life and Education

Humble Beginnings: Ibsen was born into a once-prosperous merchant family that fell into poverty during his childhood. This experience of early hardship profoundly influenced his outlook and writings.

Education: His formal education was limited, and at the age of 15, he moved to Grimstad to apprentice as a pharmacist. During this period, he began writing plays.

Early Career

First Play: Ibsen's early play, "Catiline" (1850), showed signs of his burgeoning talent but was initially unsuccessful.

Move to Oslo: He moved to Oslo (then Christiania) and worked as a writer and director at the Norwegian Theatre. This period was crucial for his understanding of the theatre world.

Middle Career and Key Works

Pivotal Works: Ibsen's career transformed with plays like "A Doll's House" (1879) and "Ghosts" (1881). These works challenged societal norms, especially regarding the roles and rights of women.

Realism and Themes: He is credited with pioneering modern realistic drama. His plays often dealt with issues of morality, societal pressures, and the complexities of human nature.

Later Life and Legacy

International Recognition: Ibsen's later works, such as "Hedda Gabler" (1890) and "The Master Builder" (1892), gained international fame, securing his place as a leading playwright of his time.

Final Years: He returned to Norway in 1891 after years of self-imposed exile in Italy and Germany. His final plays reflected a more symbolic and introspective style.

Death and Influence: Ibsen died on May 23, 1906, in Oslo. His influence on modern drama is profound, inspiring playwrights like George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Miller, and Eugene O'Neill.

Personal Life

Marriage and Family: Ibsen married Suzannah Thoresen in 1858, and they had one son. His marriage and family life, though private, were thought to influence some themes in his works.

Contributions and Honors

Innovations in Drama: Ibsen's contribution to drama was his transformation of the European stage with his realistic plays, which focused on individual characters grappling with societal pressures.

Legacy: His legacy is celebrated annually on his birthday, known as "Ibsen Day." Numerous awards, festivals, and theatres around the world bear his name, honoring his enduring impact on literature and theatre.

Henrik Ibsen's personal story, which began as a struggling playwright in Norway and ended with him becoming a well-known author worldwide, demonstrates his unwavering dedication to using theater to explore and confront the human condition. The fact that his plays are still frequently read and performed attests to both his genius and their enduring relevance.

SUMMARY

"Hedda Gabler," a masterpiece by Henrik Ibsen, is a captivating and psychologically complex play that delves into the intricacies of human desires and societal expectations. Set in 19th-century Norway, the story revolves around Hedda Gabler, a young woman of aristocratic background, recently married to the academic and unremarkable George Tesman.

The play opens with Hedda and George returning from their honeymoon to face a life of mediocrity and unfulfilled aspirations. Hedda, a character of profound depth and enigmatic charm, is trapped in a life that stifles her spirited nature. Her manipulative and often cruel tendencies reveal her inner turmoil and dissatisfaction with her constrained societal role.

As the story unfolds, the return of Eilert Lövborg, a former lover of Hedda and a professional rival of her husband, introduces a complex web of emotions and power play. Lövborg, a recovering alcoholic with a promising manuscript, becomes the pivot around which Hedda's manipulations and the story's tragic elements revolve.

Hedda starts a series of events that result in misery and devastation because she is driven by a desire to be in charge of her own fate and have an impact on everyone around her. A tense and ominous atmosphere is created by her activities toward Lövborg and his manuscript, intermingled with her encounters with other characters such as the meddling Aunt Julle and the influential Judge Brack.

Ibsen masterfully explores themes of freedom, social conventions, and the pursuit of personal identity in a society rigid with norms. The play's dramatic climax leaves the audience confronting the stark realities of Hedda's choices and the ultimate price of her quest for autonomy.

"Hedda Gabler" remains a timeless work, captivating audiences with its profound character study and its incisive commentary on the human condition. Ibsen's skill in crafting a story that is both deeply personal and universally resonant ensures its place as a classic in the world of literature and drama.

CHARACTERS LIST

Hedda Gabler" by Henrik Ibsen features a compact cast of characters, each playing a crucial role in the unfolding of the drama. Here's a list of the main characters along with brief descriptions:

Hedda Gabler: The protagonist of the play, Hedda is a complex and enigmatic character, recently married to George Tesman. She is of aristocratic descent and is known for her beauty and manipulative nature. Hedda is dissatisfied with her mundane life and yearns for freedom and power.

George Tesman: Hedda's husband, Tesman is an academic and a scholar, but somewhat dull and uninspiring. He is dedicated to his research and oblivious to Hedda's manipulative and discontented nature.

Eilert Lövborg: A former lover of Hedda and an academic rival to Tesman. Lövborg is an intelligent but troubled man who has made a recent comeback in his career with a successful manuscript. His relationship with Hedda adds a layer of tension and intrigue to the story.

Thea Elvsted: A former schoolmate of Hedda and a friend of the Tesmans. She has left her husband for Lövborg, with whom she shares a deep emotional and intellectual connection. Thea is instrumental in helping Lövborg in his career resurgence.

Judge Brack: A friend of the Tesmans and a judge. He is a manipulative and controlling figure, holding significant influence over both Hedda and George. Brack is aware of Hedda’s vulnerabilities and uses them to his advantage.

Aunt Julle: George Tesman's aunt, a kind and caring figure. She has helped raise Tesman and continues to support him and Hedda. Aunt Julle represents the conventional norms and expectations of society.

Berte: The maid at the Tesman household. She is loyal and concerned for the Tesman family, and her character often reflects the underlying tensions within the household.

Contents

Introduction

Characters

Act First

Act Second

Act Third

Act Fourth

Introduction

by William Archer

From Munich, on June 29, 1890, Ibsen wrote to the Swedish poet, Count Carl Soilsky: “Our intention has all along been to spend the summer in the Tyrol again. But circumstances are against our doing so. I am at present engaged upon a new dramatic work, which for several reasons has made very slow progress, and I do not leave Munich until I can take with me the completed first draft. There is little or no prospect of my being able to complete it in July.” Ibsen did not leave Munich at all that season. On October 30 he wrote: “At present I am utterly engrossed in a new play. Not one leisure hour have I had for several months.” Three weeks later (November 20) he wrote to his French translator, Count Prozor: “My new play is finished; the manuscript went off to Copenhagen the day before yesterday.... It produces a curious feeling of emptiness to be thus suddenly separated from a work which has occupied one’s time and thoughts for several months, to the exclusion of all else. But it is a good thing, too, to have done with it. The constant intercourse with the fictitious personages was beginning to make me quite nervous.” To the same correspondent he wrote on December 4: “The title of the play is Hedda Gabler. My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda, as a personality, is to be regarded rather as her father’s daughter than as her husband’s wife. It was not my desire to deal in this play with so-called problems. What I principally wanted to do was to depict human beings, human emotions, and human destinies, upon a groundwork of certain of the social conditions and principles of the present day.”

So far we read the history of the play in the official “Correspondence.”1 Some interesting glimpses into the poet’s moods during the period between the completion of The Lady from the Sea and the publication of Hedda Gabler are to be found in the series of letters to Fraulein Emilie Bardach, of Vienna, published by Dr. George Brandes.2 This young lady Ibsen met at Gossensass in the Tyrol in the autumn of 1889. The record of their brief friendship belongs to the history of The Master Builder rather than to that of Hedda Gabler, but the allusions to his work in his letters to her during the winter of 1889 demand some examination.

So early as October 7, 1889, he writes to her: “A new poem begins to dawn in me. I will execute it this winter, and try to transfer to it the bright atmosphere of the summer. But I feel that it will end in sadness—such is my nature.” Was this “dawning” poem Hedda Gabler? Or was it rather The Master Builder that was germinating in his mind? Who shall say? The latter hypothesis seems the more probable, for it is hard to believe that at any stage in the incubation of Hedda Gabler he can have conceived it as even beginning in gaiety. A week later, however, he appears to have made up his mind that the time had not come for the poetic utilisation of his recent experiences. He writes on October 15: “Here I sit as usual at my writing-table. Now I would fain work, but am unable to. My fancy, indeed, is very active. But it always wanders away ours. I cannot repress my summer memories—nor do I wish to. I live through my experience again and again and yet again. To transmute it all into a poem, I find, in the meantime, impossible.” Clearly, then, he felt that his imagination ought to have been engaged on some theme having no relation to his summer experiences—the theme, no doubt, of Hedda Gabler. In his next letter, dated October 29, he writes: “Do not be troubled because I cannot, in the meantime, create (dichten). In reality I am for ever creating, or, at any rate, dreaming of something which, when in the fulness of time it ripens, will reveal itself as a creation (Dichtung).” On November 19 he says: “I am very busily occupied with preparations for my new poem. I sit almost the whole day at my writing-table. Go out only in the evening for a little while.” The five following letters contain no allusion to the play; but on September 18, 1890, he wrote: “My wife and son are at present at Riva, on the Lake of Garda, and will probably remain there until the middle of October, or even longer. Thus I am quite alone here, and cannot get away. The new play on which I am at present engaged will probably not be ready until November, though I sit at my writing-table daily, and almost the whole day long.”

Here ends the history of Hedda Gabler, so far as the poet’s letters carry us. Its hard clear outlines, and perhaps somewhat bleak atmosphere, seem to have resulted from a sort of reaction against the sentimental “dreamery” begotten of his Gossensass experiences. He sought refuge in the chill materialism of Hedda from the ardent transcendentalism of Hilda, whom he already heard knocking at the door. He was not yet in the mood to deal with her on the plane of poetry.3

Hedda Gabler was published in Copenhagen on December 16, 1890. This was the first of Ibsen’s plays to be translated from proof-sheets and published in England and America almost simultaneously with its first appearance in Scandinavia. The earliest theatrical performance took place at the Residenz Theater, Munich, on the last day of January 1891, in the presence of the poet, Frau Conrad-Ramlo playing the title-part. The Lessing Theater, Berlin, followed suit on February 10. Not till February 25 was the play seen in Copenhagen, with Fru Hennings as Hedda. On the following night it was given for the first time in Christiania, the Norwegian Hedda being Froken Constance Bruun. It was this production which the poet saw when he visited the Christiania Theater for the first time after his return to Norway, August 28, 1891. It would take pages to give even the baldest list of the productions and revivals of Hedda Gabler in Scandinavia and Germany, where it has always ranked among Ibsen’s most popular works. The admirable production of the play by Miss Elizabeth Robins and Miss Marion Lea, at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, April 20, 1891, may rank as the second great step towards the popularisation of Ibsen in England, the first being the Charrington-Achurch production of A Doll’s House in 1889. Miss Robins afterwards repeated her fine performance of Hedda many times, in London, in the English provinces, and in New York. The character has also been acted in London by Eleonora Duse, and as I write (March, 5, 1907) by Mrs. Patrick Campbell, at the Court Theatre. In Australia and America, Hedda has frequently been acted by Miss Nance O’Neill and other actresses—quite recently by a Russian actress, Madame Alla Nazimova, who (playing in English) seems to have made a notable success both in this part and in Nora. The first French Hedda Gabler was Mlle. Marthe Brandes, who played the part at the Vaudeville Theatre, Paris, on December 17, 1891, the performance being introduced by a lecture by M. Jules Lemaitre. In Holland, in Italy, in Russia, the play has been acted times without number. In short (as might easily have been foretold) it has rivalled A Doll’s House in world-wide popularity.

It has been suggested,4 I think without sufficient ground, that Ibsen deliberately conceived Hedda Gabler as an “international” play, and that the scene is really the “west end” of any European city. To me it seems quite clear that Ibsen had Christiania in mind, and the Christiania of a somewhat earlier period than the ‘nineties. The electric cars, telephones, and other conspicuous factors in the life of a modern capital are notably absent from the play. There is no electric light in Secretary Falk’s villa. It is still the habit for ladies to return on foot from evening parties, with gallant swains escorting them. This “suburbanism,” which so distressed the London critics of 1891, was characteristic of the Christiania Ibsen himself had known in the ‘sixties—the Christiania of Love’s Comedy—rather than of the greatly extended and modernised city of the end of the century. Moreover Lovborg’s allusions to the fiord, and the suggested picture of Sheriff Elvsted, his family and his avocations are all distinctively Norwegian. The truth seems to be very simple—the environment and the subsidiary personages are all thoroughly national, but Hedda herself is an “international” type, a product of civilisation by no means peculiar to Norway.

We cannot point to any individual model or models who “sat to” Ibsen for the character of Hedda.5 The late Grant Allen declared that Hedda was “nothing more nor less than the girl we take down to dinner in London nineteen times out of twenty”; in which case Ibsen must have suffered from a superfluidity of models, rather than from any difficulty in finding one. But the fact is that in this, as in all other instances, the word “model” must be taken in a very different sense from that in which it is commonly used in painting. Ibsen undoubtedly used models for this trait and that, but never for a whole figure. If his characters can be called portraits at all, they are composite portraits. Even when it seems pretty clear that the initial impulse towards the creation of a particular character came from some individual, the original figure is entirely transmuted in the process of harmonisation with the dramatic scheme. We need not, therefore, look for a definite prototype of Hedda; but Dr. Brandes shows that two of that lady’s exploits were probably suggested by the anecdotic history of the day.

Ibsen had no doubt heard how the wife of a well-known Norwegian composer, in a fit of raging jealousy excited by her husband’s prolonged absence from home, burnt the manuscript of a symphony which he had just finished. The circumstances under which Hedda burns Lovborg’s manuscript are, of course, entirely different and infinitely more dramatic; but here we have merely another instance of the dramatisation or “poetisation” of the raw material of life. Again, a still more painful incident probably came to his knowledge about the same time. A beautiful and very intellectual woman was married to a well-known man who had been addicted to drink, but had entirely conquered the vice. One day a mad whim seized her to put his self-mastery and her power over him to the test. As it happened to be his birthday, she rolled into his study a small keg of brandy, and then withdrew. She returned some time after wards to find that he had broached the keg, and lay insensible on the floor. In this anecdote we cannot but recognise the germ, not only of Hedda’s temptation of Lovborg, but of a large part of her character.

“Thus,” says Dr. Brandes, “out of small and scattered traits of reality Ibsen fashioned his close-knit and profoundly thought-out works of art.”

For the character of Eilert Lovborg, again, Ibsen seem unquestionably to have borrowed several traits from a definite original. A young Danish man of letters, whom Dr. Brandes calls Holm, was an enthusiastic admirer of Ibsen, and came to be on very friendly terms with him. One day Ibsen was astonished to receive, in Munich, a parcel addressed from Berlin by this young man, containing, without a word of explanation, a packet of his (Ibsen’s) letters, and a photograph which he had presented to Holm. Ibsen brooded and brooded over the incident, and at last came to the conclusion that the young man had intended to return her letters and photograph to a young lady to whom he was known to be attached, and had in a fit of aberration mixed up the two objects of his worship. Some time after, Holm appeared at Ibsen’s rooms. He talked quite rationally, but professed to have no knowledge whatever of the letter-incident, though he admitted the truth of Ibsen’s conjecture that the “belle dame sans merci” had demanded the return of her letters and portrait. Ibsen was determined to get at the root of the mystery; and a little inquiry into his young friend’s habits revealed the fact that he broke his fast on a bottle of port wine, consumed a bottle of Rhine wine at lunch, of Burgundy at dinner, and finished off the evening with one or two more bottles of port. Then he heard, too, how, in the course of a night’s carouse, Holm had lost the manuscript of a book; and in these traits he saw the outline of the figure of Eilert Lovborg.

Some time elapsed, and again Ibsen received a postal packet from Holm. This one contained his will, in which Ibsen figured as his residuary legatee. But many other legatees were mentioned in the instrument—all of them ladies, such as Fraulein Alma Rothbart, of Bremen, and Fraulein Elise Kraushaar, of Berlin. The bequests to these meritorious spinsters were so generous that their sum considerably exceeded the amount of the testator’s property. Ibsen gently but firmly declined the proffered inheritance; but Holm’s will no doubt suggested to him the figure of that red-haired “Mademoiselle Diana,” who is heard of but not seen in Hedda Gabler, and enabled him to add some further traits to the portraiture of Lovborg. When the play appeared, Holm recognised himself with glee in the character of the bibulous man of letters, and thereafter adopted “Eilert Lovborg” as his pseudonym. I do not, therefore, see why Dr. Brandes should suppress his real name; but I willingly imitate him in erring on the side of discretion. The poor fellow died several years ago.

Some critics have been greatly troubled as to the precise meaning of Hedda’s fantastic vision of Lovborg “with vine-leaves in his hair.” Surely this is a very obvious image or symbol of the beautiful, the ideal, aspect of bacchic elation and revelry. Antique art, or I am much mistaken, shows us many figures of Dionysus himself and his followers with vine-leaves entwined their hair. To Ibsen’s mind, at any rate, the image had long been familiar. In Peer Gynt (Act iv. sc. 8), when Peer, having carried off Anitra, finds himself in a particularly festive mood, he cries: “Were there vine-leaves around, I would garland my brow.” Again, in Emperor and Galilean (Pt. ii. Act 1) where Julian, in the procession of Dionysus, impersonates the god himself, it is directed that he shall wear a wreath of vine-leaves. Professor Dietrichson relates that among the young artists whose society Ibsen frequented during his first years in Rome, it was customary, at their little festivals, for the revellers to deck themselves in this fashion. But the image is so obvious that there is no need to trace it to any personal experience. The attempt to place Hedda’s vine-leaves among Ibsen’s obscurities is an example of the firm resolution not to understand which animated the criticism of the ‘nineties.