The play Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen contains many tormented characters. None is apparently more tormented and cruel than the main character, Hedda Tesman. However, it is important to analyze the factors that led her to behave in such a manner in order to gain a full understanding of the intended meaning of her actions.
Hedda Tesman is a woman in the Victorian era circa 1890. Her freedom to choose her own way in life is extremely limited. Hedda was not permitted to spend time with a man without the presence of chaperone. She wasn't permitted to attend the Judge's party. She cannot even use the word "night" when discussing her husband and the time they spend together because that would imply intercourse. During the Victorian era women were treated like children, they were given no meaningful social responsibilities. Men in this society had the status of a Lord in their role as husband: their word was the rule. Women, on the other hand, were treated like second-class citizens. They were not supposed to do anything besides look pleasing and serve their husbands.
Men were defined by their work; Brack is a judge, Tesman strives be a professor. Hedda has no occupation and is allowed no action by which to define herself. She is bored to death and knows not what to do with her time, and she is not allowed the freedom to spend her time the way she would prefer. Because she is powerless, she desires power. When Mrs. Elvsted questions why Hedda manipulates Eilert, she responds "For once in my life, I want to have power over a human being" (Ibsen 230).
Hedda wants influence, she desires her voice to be heard. Because society refuses her this most basic human dignity, with no other option she steals influence and power by manipulating the lives of the men around her. "Do you find it so very surprising that a young girl [would] like some glimpse of a world that [...] she's forbidden to know anything about?" (Ibsen 247). Hedda does...