Hedda Gabler as a Social Parable

It has been much debated that Hedda Gabler is drama focused on an individual psyche. It is merely a character study and boasts no claim to present social theme. If we have an analysis of the play, we would be able to find out that Ibsen has successfully corresponded with the popular social issues of his times in the texture of the story.

In the very beginning of the play, Hedda is commented on by Miss Tesman saying, "What a life she had in General Gabler's days!". The whole of the Victorian aristocracy is taken into account by Ibsen in exposing the character of Hedda. She makes sarcastic remarks at her first appearance. She objects to the new hat of Aunt Juju and later passes snobbish remarks on hand-made slippers presented to Tesman.  She seems to abhor everything associated with Tesman, including his relations and the class to which he belongs. She demands the finest for her.

Hedda's decision to get married to Tesman is nothing but to secure her age, and to avoid material decline as General Gabler left nothing significant after his death. She confessed to Judge,  " I really had danced myself out, Judge.My time was up". Her confession with the phrase that her time was up offers social values as women must marry as they are not venerated as spinsters.

She only decides to marry Tesman in hope that he would make his mark and earn the luxuries she had been born with, but in spite of having a happy time with true sense of love, she gets 'trapped in the marriage of convenience'. She even reacts at the idea of becoming a mother, as she hates to gain weight and lose her lovely womanly figure. She expresses the fear of becoming a mother saying, "I have no talent for such things, Judge. I won't have responsibilities" Through the persona of Hedda, the hypocrisies of the upper societies are meant to be exposed and Ibsen did his best.

She seeks to push her husband, a scholarly figure, into politics, as she would be able to raise her social status and allow herself to have "Power" over others. Role of power in the nineteenth century was an attribute of men, and women were submissive, static, passive and pure. She plays with her guns, rides and manipulate the live of the people as the men of status used to do in those days. The society of Hedda displays tolerance of her masculine behavior in the age when it seemed most inappropriate.

Her attitude of confining the act of suicide as " Beautiful" is equally significant. She convinces Loevberg to attempt suicide, but it must be done beautifully. He shoots himself in the stomach in a brothel, not as beautiful as she intended. She even puts an end to her life beautifully as she had fantasized.

Her conversation with Thea also shows the social morals values of the time. When she learns that Thea  has left her husband to search Loevberg, she disapproves saying, "but my dearest girl, that you could dare to do such a thing!". Her resentment was about disparaging social values for one's own choice. Even the suicide at the end of the play is an attempt to escape the scandal that might expose her character. Judge Brack warns her after the death of Loevberg that if the counsel were to discover that the pistol was hers, there would be a scandal. "a scandal, yes—the kind you're so deathly afraid of". She comprehends the message of blackmailing by Brack  and realizes that she is no longer free. She fears the scandal and the disobedience with the society gender's role lead her to kill herself, to free herself. She contributes to her own end and the root of her compliance with her decision is her former life and affairs.

The title of the play also refers to the theme of the play symbolically. It refers to the name of Hedda in her formal self, Hedda Gabler, the daughter of General Gabler. The play is about her aristocratic self and her inability to accommodate in bourgeois life in to which she is married. Ibsen tries to show importance of her social class by employing her maiden name. Hedda prefers to be identified as the daughter of General Gabler rather than the wife of George Tesman. She, in the course of the play, detects the life style of her husband and his class and remained clung to her honourable past.

Considering the different aspects of the social parables, it can be argued that the theme of Hedda Gabler centers on social issues.