Thursday, April 25, 2013

In Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler, what does Helda mean when she tells Eilert to end his life "beautifully"?

Ibsen's Hedda Gabler is something of a romantic.  She
wants to inspire others to greatness--either in life or in death.  When she learns that
she is not the inspiration for Eilert's brilliant masterpiece, she destroys it, and
tries to convince Eilert that the best way to handle such a tragic loss is to kill
himself--beautifully, courageously, heroically. 


 To her,
suicide is a noble act, especially if it is a suicide that she inspired.  Hedda longs to
make a difference; she longs to influence, to control. And if she cannot influence one
to create, she can influence him to destroy.  Of course, the plan backfires.  Eilert,
though understandably upset at not being able to find the manuscript, has no intention
of killing himself.  Not knowing that Hedda has burned it, Eilert goes in search of it
and in a drunkened state shoots himself "in the bowels" accidentally.  Hardly a
beautiful or noble death--not even a tragic one.  Only sad and
unfortunate. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Calculate tan(x-y), if sin x=1/2 and sin y=1/3. 0

We'll write the formula of the tangent of difference of 2 angles. tan (x-y) = (tan x - tan y)/(1 + tan x*tan y) ...