Hedda Gabler

The conversation between Hedda and Brack in this act sheds light on both characters. Their dialogue implies that they were lovers before Hedda married Tesman, and that Brack wants to start their sexual relationship again. His references to a “triangular relationship” with Hedda and Tesman suggest that he wants to be Tesman’s friend and Hedda’s lover without necessarily taking any responsibility for his actions. Brack’s way of suggesting this arrangement to Hedda sounds a little threatening, as he is a powerful and unscrupulous man who believes that he can get whatever he wants. His desire to have power over Hedda foreshadows his actions in the play’s final act. Their conversation illustrates the gendered double standard within The Constraints of Social Convention: Brack has the freedom to create nonstandard relationships for himself, but Hedda knows there would be more severe consequences for her as a married woman if she were to behave the same way.

Brack and Hedda also discuss Hedda’s pregnancy through the lens of social convention. Brack either suspects that Hedda is pregnant or assumes that, as a young married woman, she will be soon. Furthermore, he believes that she will naturally want to care for children because she is a woman. Hedda vehemently disagrees with his assumption, insisting that she has no inclination toward motherhood, but she cannot persuade him to shake his gender essentialist beliefs. Hedda is profoundly frustrated by the limitations placed on her. She is not allowed to be alone with Ejlert if Tesman goes to the party, so she has to assure her husband that Mrs. Elvsted will be coming over to ensure propriety. When Ejlert addresses her by her maiden name, she scolds him. As a married woman, she cannot maintain her name, her autonomy, or even the clear sense of self that Ejlert says she used to display. He sees her decision to marry Tesman as willfully self-destructive; she sees it as a necessary tragedy given her age and gender.

Ejlert’s writing is a major topic of conversation in this act. He calls his first book a “potboiler,” meaning that it is designed to appeal to popular tastes in an uncontroversial way. However, his second, yet-to-be-published book expresses his true feelings. The audience gets few details about the book, but its part titles hint at its content. The book is split into two sections: “Part One: Cultural Determinants in the Future” and “Part Two: Cultural Directions in the Future” (73). It appears that Ejlert has taken his study of history and applied it to the future. Tesman understands how radical this approach could be for their field, and he is jealous that Ejlert was able to create something so extraordinary.

Hedda’s conversations with Brack and with Ejlert illustrate The Challenges of Genuine Connection in her life. She is able to speak much more frankly with Brack than with Tesman, confessing to Brack that she doesn’t even like the Falk villa, something she feels she can never say to Tesman. However, she understands that Brack is a powerful, manipulative man, and she must be on her guard around him. A genuine connection between the two of them may have existed at one time, but it seems elusive now. Her relationship with Tesman is also inauthentic. When she admits her feelings about the house, she is really admitting that the entire basis for her marriage is false. Of all her relationships, her connection with Ejlert seems the most genuine, as the two of them used to tell each other everything and considered themselves as equals. Now, although their feelings for each other remain intense, their relationship is over. Ejlert speaks of Mrs. Elvsted in the same way he used to talk about her, which makes her profoundly jealous. In Ejlert and Mrs. Elvsted’s relationship, Hedda sees the life she might have had.

Though they once had a fairly egalitarian relationship, Hedda now has hopes of Gaining Power and Influence over Ejlert. She regrets not shooting him when they separated; it was a moment when she could have controlled his destiny but chose not to. Hedda’s feelings about Ejlert are tangled and contradictory. She wants to be the one who has the power to make him stop drinking and change his ways. On the other hand, she is unhappy that he has stopped drinking, because he has lost the wildness that attracted her to him in the first place. When she says that he will return from the party with vine leaves in his hair, she is referencing the ancient Greek Bacchanal, a mystery rite in honor of Dionysus that involved intoxication, sexuality, and violence. This is the destiny she envisions for him, and she pressures him to attend the party because she wants to decide his fate.