Hedda Gabler: The Past Recaptured

Abstract

MOST SCHOLARLY CRITICISM of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler inevitably focuses on an analysis of Hedda's character and motives. But a dramatic consideration prior to the why of character and motive is: what is Hedda doing? Plot, the most important element of tragedy according to Aristotle, is an imitation of an action. Yet the character of Hedda is so compelling that the action of Hedda Gabler has been denied even by Henry James: his drama is essentially that supposedly undramatic thing, the picture not of an action but of a condition and has been severely de-emphasized by a critic of such stature as M. C. Bradbrook. As, however, the centre of the play is not a problem but a personality there is less emphasis on the story-on the links of cause and effect.Obviously it is not readily apparent what Hedda is doing. However, an analysis of the structure of the play, and in particular the structure of the four dominant image patterns, reveals the nature of Hedda's actions and that, together with an analysis of the secondary characters' actions, establishes the unity of the play's action.