Psychoanalysis of the Play Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler is a play about frustration and despair in an individual by a conventionalized society. However, we cannot be sure that Ibsen deliberately propagates the freudain theory. The play was written by Ibsen at the same time when Freud was just beginning to publish his theories. The question remains , " who influenced whom?"

Freud propagates the same idea as Ibsen's realization of certain ideas including repression, paranoia, Oedipus' complex, phallic symbols and so on. The question remains, whether Ibsen had caught the wind of Freud's work and utilized in his works or it was Ibsen who provoked Freud to develop his theories.

Hedda Gabler is the psychological study of a well-groomed, cultured and ambitious woman. Two factors affect Hedda's behavoiur in the course of the play. One is her environment, the middle class atmosphere where she breaths difficult. The other is her pregnant condition, which she finds unbearable and reacts at the idea. She is spiritually poor that generates boredom that compels her to destroy others beautifully and finally, her own self.

Hedda is a child of her particular past, brought up in the military fashion. She is unable to accommodate with the changing trends of the middle class society. She yearns for freedom and at the same time, she is afraid of her scandal with Loevberg.  She displays repulsive behavior at Brack's illusion to her pregnancy. She reacts saying, " Be quite! Nothing of that sort will ever happen..No responsibility for me".

Reasons for frustration in Hedda's life is not sexuality. Her compliance with the idea that she has to confirm submission and dependence in physical and social terms drive her mad. She wants to remain in the limelight. Ibsen puts in , " She really wants to live the whole life of a man". She had been imparted manners more befitting to a boy than a girl. It also reminds of Freud's concept of woman.

Hedda's craze for pistols and her association with them links to Freudian phallic symbol. She shares her sorrows with them, playing at the time when the time is nothing soothing. As a symbol, pistols ensures her defence against the male dominated society. She keeps "Power" over others with pistols in her hands.

Despite her every effort to supersede the male sex, she remains a woman after all. A repression against her sex and the society reside in her inner self. She dwells a hatred for the things she doesn’t need to be in the surrounding. She remains jealous of the revival of relation between Thea and Loevberg. His remarks that the new book is the child of his union with Thea, nourishes her hatred to extreme and fabricates the situation and burns the manuscript. She says, " I am burnig you child Thea!... I am  burning your child". She not only burns Thea's child, but in the wider context, her own prospect of being a mother. She fails to drive Loeverg according to her own wishes and burns at the sight of Tesman coordinating with the inferior woman with curly hair.

Hedda , in the end of the play, is left with no option to exercise power. Loevberg dies, Tesman is gravitating towards Thea and the fear of becoming a mother appalls her. She has nothing left for her except the role of a mother and a mistress. Brack wants to develop sexual intimacy with her by blackmailing. The only way left to end all fuss "Beautifully" was to embrace the blow of the much loved pistols, she does so.

Ibsen has artistically created psychologically developed characters. We find pre-defined behaviors of the characters if we analyze them by applying Freudian's theories. Psychoanalysis provides critical view of a character for the analysis to the reader and the audience. The thought patterns can be investigated and predicted in attempt to compare Ibsen's ideas with Freud's theories.