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Henrik Ibsen and Hedda Gabler

Henrik Ibsen, creator of the "realistic" school of drama that has dominated the 20th Century theater agenda, has travelled a curious path of critical review. Reviled at first writing of his dramas in the popular press and satirical cartoons as the sour old man of scandal and shame (Beyer 192-195), he was then canonized for the "social significance" of his realistic dramas by the "Ibsenites" - not the least being George Bernard Shaw, whose The Quintessence of Ibsenism has seemingly been the most-often heard First and Last Word on the subject of what Ibsen's plays are supposed to mean (Williams 25-26). "Fools belabored him and fools defended him; he was near to being suffocated and done for in the fog of balderdash," wrote the acerbic critic H. L. Mencken fifty some-odd years ago (vii) - and fifty some-odd years after the majority of Ibsen's realistic plays were written - who went on to dismiss Ibsen's social significance in favor of praising him as "a play-maker of astounding skill ... his direct and adept manner of clothing simple and even self-evident arguments in unusually lucid and brilliant dramatic forms - in brief, his enormously effective technique as a dramatist (ix)." Clearly, when critical review is so extremely at odds with itself, there must be some middle ground that approaches the "objective" truth; that is, an evaluation of Ibsen's plays from a perspective minus a critic's personal social agenda. This paper will not attempt to find that middle ground. Rather, accepting the Ibsen battlefield for what it is - an irregular terrain filled with pitfalls and strategic advantages - this essay will examine Ibsen's realistic social dramas, specifically Hedda Gabler, from a decidedly feminist perspective.

In Hedda Gabler, written in 1890, Ibsen created one of the most intriguing female roles in modern drama. She fits no mold allowing easy definition of character. (Although male critics like Mencken tried, misanthropi...

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Henrik Ibsen and Hedda Gabler. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 22:25, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1681394.html