Hedda Gabler - P1-Intro

416 Words2 Pages
Hedda was part of the bourgeois society in Norway, during the Victorian era. During this time women were seen as subservient and were expected to get married and have children, two things Hedda did not want as she felt that they would reduce her limited freedoms even further, which would not suit her as she has an strong independent personality. Hedda was brought up in a society where etiquette and how you were perceived by others was of the upmost importance. She also grew up with lots of attention as she was the daughter of general Gabler. Her father was very important to her, and she held a great deal of respect for him. The combination of these aspects of her environment would have affected her beliefs as well as her mental and behavioural traits. Hedda seems to have had quite a close relationship with her father, she looked up to him and is very proud of her association to him. This pride in her father would have been reinforced throughout her life as he was a very respectable member of society. This positive reinforcement of her father could have caused the development of the strong and masculine elements of her personality. As she would have learnt from a young age that the traits, actions and beliefs her father held were positive as society agreed with them. Her strength and masculinity are evident in her interest with the pistols, not a typically feminine preoccupation, as well as the stage directions. As she would have grown up being part of the upper bourgeois society she would have grown up having more freedoms and attention than other children living in the same area as her. She would subsequently be used to having her own way, therefore when her father died and she no longer could rely on his position to get what she wanted. Instead she would have learnt how to make people think that they wanted to do something, when really it was her that wanted them
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