?Hedda Gabler, the seemingly cruel antagonist of Henrik Ibsen’s "Hedda Gabler," portrays an individual lost in society. Hedda is unwilling to accept her role in society as a woman without a voice, and her actions are the result of her unreserved defiance of the society she lives in. Through destroying the works of others, manipulating and teasing others, specifically, her husband Tesman, and attempting to initiate Loevborg’s suicide-Hedda embodies Ibsen’s proposal that individuals striving for power use cruelty to aid in their attainment of their desires and expectations. As a result, Hedda exemplifies a personality of cruelty. This cruelty that Hedda displays, does not exist as a theme throughout the play, yet, as a reaction a distinct reaction to an oppressive society ruled by men. Hedda’s cruel actions, although disturbing and planned, fail to depict Hedda as evil; they rather represent the frailties of humankind in both her characteristics and those of others, which she exploits in an attempt to overcome societal power.
Hedda, as a whole, depicts a women in search of self-independence. Because of the societal influences of the time, Hedda is expected to take on the typical role of a woman in which self-independence does not come to fruition. Caroline Mayerson furthers this idea when she states, “Women, the natural seminal vesicles of that culture, the mothers of the future, are those most cruelly inhibited by the sterilizing atmosphere of their environment,” illustrating that Hedda’s cruel personality develops due to the cruel environment around her. Throughout the play, Hedda verbally attacks her husband Tesman, calling him variants of unintelligent, slow, and uninteresting. Hedda describes to Tesman how “Mortally bored I’ve been” and “How horribly I shall bore myself here.” While at first glance this display of insults towards her very own husband seems unjustifiably cruel, Tesman’s reactions don’t ap...