Hedda Gabler Symbolism
Henrik Ibsens tragic play, Hedda Gabler, provides readers with an intimate glimpse of the main characters dilemma as she struggles to find meaning and value in the new bourgeois life that she has subjected herself to through her marriage to Jorgen Tesman. ... Tesman, Hedda has regrettably renounced her aristocratic lifestyle, plunging herself in full throttle to a bourgeois life of mediocrity. Consequently, Hedda finds herself in perpetual lament, spending each day and night in her lavishly decorated home as she broods over the affairs of the people that surround her, aspiring to pounce on any given opportunity to improve her position. As a recurring theme throughout the play, Ibsen makes repeated reference to General Gablers pistols, which symbolize the former aristocratic life that Hedda has left behind, serving as a constant reminder of her regretful separation from it. The pistols serve a highly pertinent function throughout the play, both as a reminder to Hedda of her former life as an aristocrat on the symbolic level, and also as a means to ending the lives of Hedda and Ejlert Lovborg. ... Elvsted confides to Hedda about Lovborgs obsession over a past relationship. ... As Act One closes, Hedda storms off into the back room in a fury, consoling herself with General Gablers pistols--much to the alarm of Mr. ... At this point, it is understood by the audience that Hedda is, in fact, Lovborgs former lover who dangerously wielded the pistols.