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Hedda Gabler vs. Miss Julie The plays Miss Julie and Hedda Gabler of August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen have many familiar motifs, which makes one to wonder about whether the main themes of both plays had been originated by the realities of 19 th century, as many critics suggest, or by the specifics of Scandinavian existential mode alone. Both Strindberg and Ibsen are known for their traditionalist social stance. No wonder that by the time when feminism began to gain more and more influence, both authors rightfully considered it to be the threat to the society's well-being. In my opinion, the importance of two plays lies in the fact that the feminist abnormality is shown there not through the lenses of conventional morality, but from the position of psychiatry. This causes the whole concept of feminism to lose its innovative appeal.
One of the biggest similarities between the two plays, which is going to be analyzed more closely in this paper, is the influence, exercised by the plays transcendent characters, such as Count and Aunt Rina. Let us outline the plot of each play briefly, so that we can proceed further with our analysis. Miss Julie is a story of woman, who suffers from her desire to exercise authority over men and her subconscious attraction to them on physical level, even though her feminist views contradict the desires of her body. Miss Julie appears to be the typical feminist, whose psyche is divided on metaphysical level. This eventually leads to her demise. We learn that she just broke off her engagement, because of her continuous attempts to humiliate her future husband by using whip to train him.
She provokes her valet Jean to have a sexual intercourse with her, because she thinks that her humiliation would bring her the ultimate pleasure. Yet, quite unexpectedly to herself, Julie realizes that she is falling in love with Jean. Jean tries to take the advantage of this situation, as he thinks that Julie might be able to help him out financially. He pretends that he had always loved Julie, while in reality he despised her over the fact that her high social status would never allow Jean to even approach her under the normal circumstances. After having learned that Julie does not have any money, Jean tells her the truth. Being emotionally shattered, Julie nevertheless remains resolute to win Jeans love, but it all ends up in tragedy, as it is not just the class difference that divides them but also a completely opposite worldviews.
Jeans depravity is shown as a result of his belonging to the lower social strata, while Julies sickness expresses itself despite her being a patrician. She kills herself, after being hypnotized by Jean, who talked to her as her father, in order no associate himself with her death. The play Hedda Gabler is much more complicated structurally. Jurgen and Hedda Tesman return after their honeymoon to their hometown in Norway. Yet, Hedda grows more and more dissatisfied with her marriage and the prospects in life that it offers. She dreams of being able to influence the lives of other people, but she clearly has no talent for it.
She learns that Jurgen's old friend Eilert comes to the town and that apparently it is just a matter of time before he becomes famous. While partying with Jurgen and Judge Brack, Eilert loses his manuscript, which he refers to as his child. Jurgen finds it and brings it home with a purpose of returning it to Eilert later, yet he forgets about it because of aunt Rina's death. Hedda gets hold of this manuscript and destroys it.
She also offers Eilert one of her revolvers to, so that he can shoot himself. After a while, Hedda's involvement with the death of Eilert becomes apparent. In order to escape the unpleasant consequences of it, she shoots herself. Throughout the plays, both Count and Aunt Rina do not appear on the stage, yet main characters continuously refer to them in their dialogues. In Miss Julie, Count represents the repressive authority, which is omnipresent, although not necessarily visible.
Author clearly makes mockery of Christianity, by making Counts behavior to resemble the Cods way of treating its subjects, which is known to us from the Old Testament. Just as God, Count is very scrupulous, when it comes to dealing with pretty details. Julie tells Jean of how Count became very angry one time over the fact that she wore a shorter skirt than she always used to. Yet, when Counts presence is utterly necessary to deal with his daughters mess and to prevent her from killing herself, he only manages to remind of its existence by the rings of bell. The Christian God is also known to have given people the exact measurements for the length of priests garment, yet the genocide of millions of people do not seem to bother him at all.
When Jean asks Julie if she loved his father, she says: Yes, deeply. But I have probably hated him too, I must have - without being aware of it. And it is due to my father's training that I have learned to scorn my own sex. Between them both they have made me half man, half woman. Whose is the fault for what has happened -- my father's? My mother's?
My own? I haven't anything of my own. I haven't a thought which was not nay fathers -- not a passion that wasn't my mother's. And last of all from my betrothed the idea that all people are equal (Strindberg). When we take into consideration of what is being said earlier, it appears that the Counts absence is necessary to create the illusion of his invisible presence. Had Count showed up, he would loose a considerable portion of its transcendence, which makes the plays events to proceed in its intended course.
In the closing scene Jean says: I thought I heard the bell! -- -- No! To be afraid of the sound of is bell! But it's not the bell -- it's someone behind the bell, the hand that sets the lull in motion (Strindberg). Here author reveals the true significance of the character of Count. It is well known fact that Strindberg was an admirer of Neither, it explains anti-Christian undertones in Miss Julie. Both Jean and Julie appear to be morally deprived individuals, yet they seem to be also deprived of freedom of choice by the hand that sets the lull in motion.
Author is far from judging the views of Count, yet he is accusing him of being unable to enforce his authority, instead of just giving sings of his presence. It appears that Ibsen also wanted his character of Aunt Rina to posses the same spiritual properties. But there is no doubt that this character is much less defined than the Strindberg's Count. We first learn about her from Jurgen's conversation with Aunt Julia, when she tells him that it looks like that Aunt Rina is going to pass away soon: Oh, no -- we can scarcely look for any improvement in her case, poor thing. There she lies, helpless, as she has lain for all these years (Ibsen). Then, for a while, people stop mentioning her, until the final act, when we learn of her death and also about the death of Eilert.
It also wont be long before both will be accompanied by Edda. It seems that this character does not have any particular significance and at times, readers cannot understand the continuous referrals to her, on the part of other plays characters. Quite possibly, this can be explained by Ibsen's lack of writing skills. It is being noticed by many critics that there are simply too many characters involved in Hedda Gabbler, which makes it hard for the readers to simply follow the plot. There are three aunts in this play and the most pleasant of all is Aunt Rina, because we dont hear her talk. Nevertheless, she seems to mean a lot to Jurgen and aunt Julia.
Upon hearing of Rina's death, Jurgen becomes more distressed than anybody else. Hedda cannot help noticing that: I almost believe your Aunt Rina's death affects you more than it does your Aunt Julia (Ibsen). Why would it be? There are might be a few answers to it.
First, there is no particular meaning in the character of Aunt Rina and her invisible presence can only be explained by authors tendency towards graphomania. It has been observed that sometimes his characters talk just for the sake of making conversation. The second and the most probable - Aunt Rina symbolizes the fragility of Tesman's marriage. If there is anything to associate Jurgen with, it would be his love to Aunt Rina. Yet, it is love to pistols alone that signifies the character of Edda. These two affections are just too different in its essence to coexist peacefully.
There is no doubt that Jurgen will become a different man after the death of Hedda. He will learn that it is not just temporary Hedda's moodiness that prompted her to commit crimes, but her entirely different existential mode. Jurgen's love to Aunt Rina was keeping him within the boundaries of traditional morality, as if Aunt Rina was afraid that her death might shock Jurgen to such an extent that he might begin to look for the spiritual refuge in adopting an alternative lifestyle. By doing this, he would lose his spiritual innocence. He would also learn about the real depth of Hedda's depravity and this is something that he was not ready for. It is ironic that the character of Aunt Rina acts as a ghost, while she is still alive, preventing Jurgen from looking into abyss, because abyss might look back.
She symbolizes the bourgeoisie values, which Hedda hated so much. Her death signifies the beginning of new period in life of Jurgen Tesman, when there is going to be no more psychological comfort for him to be found. As a conclusion, we can say that both Miss Julie and Hedda Gabler are much more politicized plays than they are usually thought to be. Yet, if in case with Strindberg his philosophy becomes apparent to us since we begin to read Miss Julie, Ibsen's worldview appears to be more complex. While Miss Julies feminism is only confined to her pathological desire to exercise power over man, Hedda's abnormality comes to light as something of different nature. She defies her womanly essence on metaphysical level.
This is what makes Hedda much more dangerous to society. It is quite explainable why Julies deviation had only resulted in her own death, while Hedda had also managed to provoke Eilert into committing suicide. Although, there is no direct relation between Hedda's death and the death of Aunt Rina, theyre nevertheless connected to each other emblematically. My dearest Hedda -- don't play dance-music, just think of Aunt Rina! And of Eilert too! says Jurgen before Hedda puts an end to her life.
Apparently she had followed his advice. Bibliography: Brains, Paul Realism and Naturalism. 1998. Philosophy. com. October 30, 2005.
web Landing, Hope Bringing Cultural Diversity to Feminist Psychology: Theory, Research, and Practice. Wash. , D. C. : American Psychological Association. 1995. Ibsen, Henrik Hedda Gabler. 2000. Project Guttenberg Etext. October 30, 2005.
web Strindberg, August Miss Julie. 1999. Project Guttenberg Etext. October 30, 2005. web Sugar, Donna Separatism and Women's Community. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 1995.
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Research essay sample on Hedda Gabler Vs Miss Julie
