Sunday, October 19, 2008
A Baby
Whoa!! Hold Up, I was just going through my stuff and all that jazz and remembered that at the beginning of Act one it was mentioned that Hedda filled out on the trip and than there were all those implications of babies. Since the play happened over a two day time period or something it is never confirmed if she was. I think she was, and now that whole suicide thing is really depressing (I mean it's depressing before, but at least than I could imagine that she felt that she was trapped so she had to kill herself- not that I would ever do something like that, and if I ever talk about doing it I'd expect you all to stop me- get me counseling or something). Its depressing because it means she killed her kid too. For some reason I don't see her as wanting to kill her kid. When I think about it, she always said she waited once in her life to have power over another human being, so couldn't that be her kid. She refuses/gets angry when Tesman and Juliana are discussing her filling out, so maybe she doesn't want the child. But what I can gather regarding her want/need for power a child would be the perfect thing to manipulate and gain power, particularly through Tesman, who I have no doubt is the father... Idk what you all think but was she pregnant? If so, was her suicide justified?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Well if you think about it, if Hedda really doesn't want to have a baby, then her body is just one more thing she doesnt have control over in her life.
I do think she really is pregnant, but it is weird that she would commit suicide, because i agree with what u said-she could gain control with a kid. It's weird, maybe she didn't really want the kid for power and therefore committed suicide. I hate when the author leaves the answers up to the reader-I just wanna know lol
But--since she knows that Tesman is expecting the child, by killing herself and the baby, then she takes him with her in her self-destruction, and in a really perverse way, she takes control over the baby by killing it too.
Yeah I thought so too...and claire's comment makes a point because I don't think even if she was pregnant, it would stop her from killing herself because she lost all her control anyway.
Ok so Hedda is definitely pregnant. I don't think her suicide was justified either way. She punked out and worst, she took away another person's opportunity to experience life. The whole situation is just wack.
Hedda was pregnant but she ignored that fact completely. So whether or not her suicide was justified, hedda didn't want a child and didn't claim it either. The act was based on her feeling and her need to escape a life she didn't want.
Unfortunately her escape came with the cost of her child's life.
i think she probably resented the baby because she did not have any control over having it or getting pregnant. so in committing suicide, it was another rebellion over something she didn't have control over. Or, it was something she did have control over, as her baby's life was in her hands, and she had to power to decide whether it lived or died.
I definitely agree that Hedda is pregnant. You raise an interesting point as to whether or not Hedda's pregnancy justifies her suicide. I personally feel that in no way does it justify her actions. On the contrary, I believe Hedda loathed the idea of a child as she felt it made her weaker; a child was only another way of displaying her feminine nature. For Hedda, the child represented a possible bond between herself and George. She was intimidated by this as well as the possibility of the child evoking some feeling of ''love''. Hedda's repudiation at the idea of a child is best relflected in her actions on page 288: ''(throwing some of the sheets into the fire and whispering to herself). Now I'm burning your child, Thea!...Your child and Eilert Lovborgs...Now I'm burning-I'm burning the child.'' Hedda is repulsed by the idea that Thea and Lovborg's manuscript (completely representative of a child) could elicit such a close bond and does her best to end this uniting element. Overall, Hedda's suicide is partly symbolic of her refusal to submit to a child and what to her represents a possibility of love both maternal and as a binding force..
Post a Comment