depressing

Besides being boring, Hedda Gabler is also very depressing. Hedda, Lovborg, and the old invalid lady all die within a week of each other. George is stuck in a loveless marriage until his wife's suicide. Thea is so controlled and oppressed by her husband and former employer that she has to leave him. And, the one ray of light and positive thing that happens in the play (hedda possibly having a baby) is destroyed. Wow i mean i guess ibsen demonstrates the need for social change, but did he have to do it by creating such a miserable play? even hamlet had some comic relief...

It's over!

So im really glad that we're moving on from hedda gabler. i started reading lysistrata already and its way more interesting in only the first few pages. and it feels like somethings actually happening in the play. Hedda just seemed so flat and boring, though i know ive said that before. also, i found hedda to be the most interesting character in the story, and if you think about it shes just a bossy woman living in a house in an oppressive society: thats not interesting!

also im ready for people to stop killing themselves in the plays we read unless they do it in a funny way (but they dont, these plays are all too serious).

Shoot 'em up!

Yea so after today's creative responses, especially dorian's group where every single character except Thea gets shot and dies, I realized that almost everyone in this play just over reacts. Hedda and Lovborg had really bad reasons for killing themselves, and George definitely overreactedfor those slippers. Also, Thea overreacted when she found out Lovborg died (except im pretty sure she knew what she was doing and was already planning out her next move). So there was almost too much drama in the play, which is saying something cuz there was basically no drama at all, just people talking about stuff. I guess that's why I found the play extra boring, cuz there wasnt much action, and when there was action it was annoyingly exaggerated.

Hedda's a wuss

OK, so Hedda's supposed to be all powerful or whatever right? and she wants control, but then realizes thats not possible in her society, where the men have all the power. so she shoots herself? thats just the cowards way out. instead of trying to change the circumstances for women she just gives up. just pointing out, the duchess (in the movie subject of the last two blogs) had a wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy worse life, way more controlling husband, and way more oppressive society, and she managed to live through it, with even a little bit of love in her heart. pssh hedda!

Duchess Trailer

The Duchess

Has anyone seen the new movie the Duchess? Well, it has a lot of themes in common with Hedda Gabler and Bernarda Alba. Keira Knightley plays a famous duchess, but the movie portrays her lack of power in a society run by men. Seriously though, it's a really good movie, definitely watch it!

windows

ok so i was doing my motif paper and i came across a really interesting quote. well, interesting to me anyway. im doing my paper on books, and if i hadnt already been halfway done, i would have changed the motif to windows. people are constantly looking out windows, which i didnt really notice the first time through, but in the act 4 setting description hedda gazes longing out the glass window. earlier, when lovborg first enters, she is "at the glass door, drumming on the pane"(260). Lovborg also does something impatient at the window i think, but looking back i cant find the quote. anyway i was thinking this shows desperation, feeling trapped, need for escape.

revelation

Okay i had a revelation, or really just paused to think about my last post from like 3 minutes ago. the book motif is used to comment on the changing roles of society, or how they should change or something. books always stay the same, because you cant unwrite what was written, or rewrite the past. But new ideas can be formed, like Lovborgs manuscript. Now society doesnt really like being changed (Lovborg dies, his book/futuristic ideas destroyed), but the new ideas will always have a way of coming out, it just takes a while, which relates to when Tesman and Mrs Elvsted start to work putting the manuscript back together again.

books

so im doing my motif paper on the book motif in hedda gabler, and i thought id do some brainstorming on here. everybody in the whole story seems obsessed w/ books- George's life goal is to build up his library, Mrs Elvsted wants to write a book even though shes a woman, and lovborg wants to redeem himself to society through his new, revolutionary manuscript.

also, the books that people are associated with tend to describe their characters. George writes about the past (and reads about it), because he's stuck in the past, and the way society used to be. he was always cared for, always had social power, and always had this same goal for a future (house, wife, job). Lovborg writes about the future and represents the future; he seems to cooperate with women instead of just using them and manipulating them.

so why does ibsen develop this motif this way?
i guess thatll be another blog entry

suicide or whatever

so wait did lovborg kill himself, or did the other lady do it, or do they not know and are just making stuff up? i personally think lovborg shot himself, not sure why but thats what im leaning towards. also i know its bogus but i kinda liked that hedda killed herself, it was the only thing i likrd about the play. i guess it was sad or whatever, like she had no options, nothing to live for, but i felt better at the end of the play. i think we learned that in ms thomas' class, that in a tragedy you feel restored order at the end, and think that it was hedda causing all that disorder in the play, or was it lovborg?