Hedda & Chandra

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Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen and Punishment by Rabindranath Tagore are both stories that have women that are conflicted and bounded in a man’s world. In Hedda the play focused on a Victorian high class living society on a woman named Hedda Gabler who only cared about herself and had no qualms with manipulating her friends and family. On the other hand, Punishment focused on an agrarian and poor society about two brothers, one who killed his wife and blamed it on Chandara, Chidam’s wife and she cared about her family especially her husband. Hedda and Chandra are two people who have different personalities and were brought up in two different worlds. Despite these differences, both stories surrounding these two women are realistic and of real women who are conflicted in their role as women in a man’s world and this ultimately led them to take control of their life even if it meant killing themselves. Hedda is someone who does not have a regard for people that are close to her unlike Chandara who cared for her husband tremendously. It is clear that both of these women are different emotionally and intellectually. From the beginning of Hedda Gabler, the protagonist, Hedda Gabler has always been aloof and condescending; it is shown in page 1470 where she commented that they could not keep Bertha the maid because she accused Bertha of leaving her old hat in the living room when in fact it was Miss Tesman’s hat. She is not afraid to manipulate her friends and family and does not seem to have a regard for people close to her. One of the biggest manipulative and probably most uncaring thing she did was when she gave her old lover Ejlert Lovberg a gun to kill himself when he found out his manuscript was gone, and told him to kill himself beautifully. However unlike Hedda who was complex, condescending and not satisfied with life, Chandara was a simple, easily amused and
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