Ibsen's characters are clearly products of the society in which they live. The plays of Henrik Ibsen have a strong social content, indicating the views of the playwright on some matters, and more directly showing the way different social issues were developing in the society of his time and the way those issues were in turn shaping that society. He wrote about women's rights, the plight of "whistleblowers," the meaning of social responsibility, the effects of corruption. Ibsen's views and his challenging dramatic methods made him something of a social outcast even as he was becoming one of the world's major playwrights, a voice that would speak to subsequent generations perhaps even more strongly than he did to his own. In Hedda Gabler, several of these themes come together, notably the place of women in society, the meaning of social responsibility, and the effects of corruption on society and on the individual.
In terms of the society of her time, Hedda is somewhat different from other women. She does not fit the mold of the humble wife and does not want to fit that mold. Her father has taught her skills more suitable to a man, such as riding and shooting. She is not thus well prepared for the role of wife, and she has strong romantic notions that derive from her fascination with the military as well as form her lack of training in the usual female role. Hedda Gabler was a girl raised by her military father, and he clearly imposed discipline and order in her young life while perhaps also instilling within her the desire for more than society was willing to grant her. Hedda Gabler was one sort of person, and she has been forced to become another as Hedda Tesman. From her first appearance in the play, it is evident that she is unhappy with her life and sees it as boring and endless. She looks at the leaves, "so yellow--and so withered" (Jacobus 601). When told that the leaves have withered because it is September, she s...