A Sourcebook on Naturalist Theatre

by Christopher Innes (ed)

  ¶ Brack is inclined to live as a bachelor, and then gain admittance to a good home, become a friend of the family, indispensable –

  ¶ They say it is a law of nature. Very well then, raise an opposition to it. Demand its repeal. Why give way. Why surrender unconditionally –

  ¶ In conversations between T. and L. the latter says that he lives for his studies. The former replies that in that case he can compete with him. – (T. lives on his studies) that’s the point.

  ¶ L. (Tesman) says: I couldn’t step on a worm! “But now I can tell you that I too am seeking the professorship. We are rivals.”

  ——

  ¶ NB! Brack had always thought that Hedda’s short engagement to Tesman would come to nothing.

  Hedda speaks of how she felt herself set aside, step by step, when her father was no longer in favor, when he retired and died without leaving anything. Then she realized, bitterly, that it was for his sake she had been made much of. And then she was already between twenty-five and twenty-six. In danger of becoming an old maid.

  She thinks that in reality Tesman only feels a vain pride in having won her. His solicitude for her is the same as is shown for a thoroughbred horse or a valuable sporting dog. This, however, does not offend her. She merely regards it as a fact.

  Hedda says to Brack that she does not think Tesman can be called ridiculous. But in reality she finds him so. Later on she finds him pitiable as well.

  Tesman: Could you not call me by my Christian name?

  Hedda: No, indeed I couldn’t – unless they have given you some other name than the one you have.

  Tesman puts Løvborg’s manuscript in his pocket so that it may not be lost. Afterward it is Hedda who, by a casual remark, with tentative intention, gives him the idea of keeping it.

  Then he reads it. A new line of thought is revealed to him. But the strain of the situation increases. Hedda awakens his jealousy.

  ¶ In the third act one thing after another comes to light about Løvborg’s adventures in the course of the night. At last he comes himself, in quiet despair. “Where is the manuscript?” “Did I not leave it behind me here?” He does not know that he has done so. But after all, of what use is the manuscript to him now! He is writing of the “moral doctrine of the future”! When he has just been released by the police!

  ¶ Hedda’s despair is that there are doubtless so many chances of happiness in the world, but that she cannot discover them. It is the want of an object in life that torments her.

  When Hedda beguiles T. into leading E. L. into ruin, it is done to test T.’s character.

  ¶ It is in Hedda’s presence that the irresistible craving for excess always comes over E. L.

  Tesman cannot understand that E. L. could wish to base his future on injury to another.

  ¶ Hedda: Do I hate T.? No, not at all. I only find him boring.

  ¶ Brack: But nobody else thinks so.

  Hedda: Neither is there any one but myself who is married to him.

  Brack: … not at all boring.

  Hedda: Heavens, you always want me to express myself so correctly. Very well then, T. is not boring, but I am bored by living with him.

  Hedda: … had no prospects. Well, perhaps you would have liked to see me in a convent (home for unmarried ladies).

  Hedda: … then isn’t it an honorable thing to profit by one’s person? Don’t actresses and others turn their advantages into profit. I had no other capital. Marriage – I thought it was like buying an annuity.

  Hedda: Remember that I am the child of an old man – and a worn-out man too – or past his prime at any rate – perhaps that has left its mark.

  Brack: Upon my word, I believe you have begun to brood over problems.

  Hedda: Well, what cannot one take to doing when one has gone and got married.

  ¶ NOTES: One evening as Hedda and Tesman, together with some others, were on their way home from a party, Hedda remarked as they walked by a charming house that was where she would like to live. She meant it, but she said it only to keep the conversation with Tesman going. “He simply cannot carry on a conversation.”

  The house was actually for rent or sale. Tesman had been pointed out as the coming young man. And later when he proposed, and let slip that he too had dreamed of living there, she accepted.

  He too had liked the house very much.

  They get married. And they rent the house.1

  But when Hedda returns as a young wife, with a vague sense of responsibility, the whole thing seems distasteful to her. She conceives a kind of hatred for the house just because it has become her home. She confides this to Brack. She evades the question with Tesman.

  ¶ The play shall deal with “the impossible,” that is, to aspire to and strive for something which is against all the conventions, against that which is acceptable to conscious minds – Hedda’s included.

  […]

  ¶ Very few true parents are to be found in the world. Most people grow up under the influence of aunts or uncles – either neglected and misunderstood or else spoiled.

  ¶ Hedda rejects him because he does not dare expose himself to temptation. He replies that the same is true of her. The wager! … He loses … ! Mrs. Elvsted is present. Hedda says: No danger – He loses.

  ¶ Hedda feels herself demoniacally attracted by the tendencies of the times. But she lacks courage. Her thoughts remain theories, ineffective dreams.2

  ¶ The feminine imagination is not active and independen TLY creative like the masculine. It needs a bit of reality as a help.

  ¶ Løvborg has had inclinations toward “the bohemian life.” Hedda is attracted in the same direction, but she does not dare to take the leap.

  ¶ Buried deep within Hedda there is a level of poetry. But the environment frightens her. Suppose she were to make herself ridiculous!

  ¶ Hedda realizes that she, much more than Thea, has abandoned her husband.

  ¶ The newly wedded couple return home in September – as the summer is dying. In the second act they sit in the garden – but with their coats on.

  ¶ Being frightened by one’s own voice. Something strange, foreign.

  ¶ NEWEST PLAN: The festivities in Tesman’s garden – and Løvborg’s defeat – already prepared for in the 1st act. Second act: the party –

  ¶ Hedda energetically refuses to serve as hostess. She will not celebrate their marriage because (in her opinion, it isn’t a marriage)

  ¶ Holger: Don’t you see? I am the cause of your marriage –

  ¶ Hedda is the type of woman in her position and with her character. She marries Tesman but she devotes her imagination to Eilert Løvborg. She leans back in her chair, closes her eyes, and dreams of his adventures …. This is the enormous difference: Mrs. Elvsted “works for his moral improvement.” But for Hedda he is the object of cowardly, tempting daydreams. In reality she does not have the courage to be a part of anything like that. Then she realizes her condition. Caught! Can’t comprehend it. Ridiculous! Ridiculous!

  ¶ The traditional delusion that one man and one woman are made for each other. Hedda has her roots in the conventional. She marries Tesman but she dreams of Eilert Løvborg …. She is disgusted by the latter’s flight from life. He believes that this has raised him in her estimation …. Thea Elvsted is the conventional, sentimental, hysterical Philistine.

  ¶ Those Philistines, Mrs. E. and Tesman, explain my behavior by saying first I drink myself drunk and that the rest is done in insanity. It’s a flight from reality which is an absolute necessity to me.

  ¶ E. L.: Give me something – a flower – at our parting. Hedda hands him the revolver.

  ¶ Then Tesman arrives: Has he gone? “Yes.” Do you think he will still compete against me? No, I don’t think so. You can set your mind at rest.

  ¶ Tesman relates that when they were in Gratz she did not want to visit her relatives –

  ¶ He misunderstands her real motives.

  ¶ In the last act as Tesman, Mrs. Elvsted, and Miss Rysi
ng are consulting, Hedda plays in the small room at the back. She stops. The conversation continues. She appears in the doorway – Good night – I’m going now. Do you need me for anything? Tesman: No, nothing at all. Good night, my dear! … The shot is fired –

  ¶ CONCLUSION: All rush into the back room. Brack sinks as if paralyzed into a chair near the stove: But God have mercy – people don’t do such things!

  ¶ When Hedda hints at her ideas to Brack, he says: Yes, yes, that’s extraordinarily amusing – Ha ha ha! He does not understand that she is quite serious.

  ¶ Hedda is right in this: there is no love on Tesman’s part. Nor on the aunt’s part. However full of love she may be.

  Eilert Løvborg has a double nature. It is a fiction that one loves only one person. He loves two – or many – alternately (to put it frivolously). But how can he explain his position? Mrs. Elvsted, who forces him to behave correctly, runs away from her husband. Hedda, who drives him beyond all limits, draws back at the thought of a scandal.

  ¶ Neither he nor Mrs. Elvsted understands the point. Tesman reads in the manuscript that was left behind about “the two ideals.” Mrs. Elvsted can’t explain to him what E. L. meant. Then comes the burlesque note: both T. and Mrs. E. are going to devote their future lives to interpreting the mystery.

  ¶ Tesman thinks that Hedda hates E. L.

  Mrs. Elvsted thinks so too.

  Hedda sees their delusion but dares not disabuse them of it. There is something beautiful about having an aim in life. Even if it is a delusion –

  She cannot do it. Take part in someone else’s.

  That is when she shoots herself.

  The destroyed manuscript is entitled “The Ethics of Future Society.”

  ¶ Tesman is on the verge of losing his head. All this work meaningless. New thoughts! New visions! A whole new world! Then the two of them sit there, trying to find the meaning in it. Can’t make any sense of it ….

  ¶ The greatest misery in this world is that so many have nothing to do but pursue happiness without being able to find it.

  ¶ “From Jochum Tesman there developed a Jørgen Tesman – but it will be a long, long time before this Jørgen gives rise to a George.”

  ¶ The simile: The journey of life = the journey on a train.

  H.: One doesn’t usually jump out of the compartment.

  No, not when the train is moving.

  Nor stand still when it is stationary. There’s always someone on the platform, staring in.

  […]

  ¶ NB: The mutual hatred of women. Women have no influence on external matters of government. Therefore they want to have an influence on souls. And then so many of them have no aim in life (the lack thereof is inherited) –

  ¶ Løvborg and Hedda bent over the photographs at the table.

  He: How is it possible? She: Why not? L.: Tesman! You couldn’t find words enough to make fun of him …. Then comes the story about the general’s “disgrace,” dismissal, etc. The worst thing for a lady at a ball is not to be admired for her own sake … L. : And Tesman? He took you for the sake of your person. That’s just as unbearable to think about.

  ¶ Just by marrying Tesman it seems to me I have gotten so unspeakably far away from him.

  ¶ He: Look at her. Just look at her! … Hedda: (stroking her hair) Yes, isn’t she beautiful!

  ¶ Men and women don’t belong to the same century… . What a great prejudice that one should love only one!

  […]

  ¶ The demoniacal element in Hedda is this: She wants to exert her influence on someone – But once she has done so, she despises him …. The manuscript?

  ¶ In the third act Hedda questions Mrs. Elvsted. But if he’s like that, why is he worth holding on to …. Yes, yes, I know –

  ¶ Hedda’s discovery that her relations with the maid cannot possibly be proper.

  ¶ In his conversation with Hedda, Løvborg says: Miss H – Miss – You know, I don’t believe that you are married.

  ¶ Hedda: And now I sit here and talk with these Philistines – And the way we once could talk to each other – No, I won’t say any more … Talk? How do you mean? Obscenely? Ish. Let us say indecently.

  ¶ NB!! The reversal in the play occurs during the big scene between Hedda and E. L. He: What a wretched business it is to conform to the existing morals. It would be ideal if a man of the present could live the life of the future. What a miserable business it is to fight over a professorship!

  Hedda – that lovely girl! H.: No! E. L.: Yes, I’m going to say it. That lovely, cold girl – cold as marble.

  I’m not dissipated fundamentally. But the life of reality isn’t livable –

  ¶ In the fifth act: Hedda: How hugely comic it is that those two harmless people, Tesman and Mrs. E., should try to put the pieces together for a monument to E. L. The man who so deeply despised the whole business –

  ¶ Life becomes for Hedda a ridiculous affair that isn’t “worth seeing through to the end.”

  ¶ The happiest mission in life is to place the people of today in the conditions of the future.

  L.: Never put a child in this world, H.!

  ¶ When Brack speaks of a “triangular affair,” Hedda thinks about what is going to happen and refers ambiguously to it. Brack doesn’t understand.

  ¶ Brack cannot bear to be in a house where there are small children. “Children shouldn’t be allowed to exist until they are fourteen or fifteen. That is, girls. What about boys? Shouldn’t be allowed to exist at all – or else they should be raised outside the house.”

  ¶ H. admits that children have always been a horror to her too.

  ¶ Hedda is strongly but imprecisely opposed to the idea that one should love “the family.” The aunts mean nothing to her.

  ¶ It liberated Hedda’s spirit to serve as a confessor to E. L. Her sympathy has secretly been on his side – But it became ugly when the public found out everything then he backed out.

  ¶ MAIN POINTS:

  1. They are not all made to be mothers.

  2. They are passionate but they are afraid of scandal.

  3. They perceive that the times are full of missions worth devoting one’s life to, but they cannot discover them.

  ¶ And besides Tesman is not exactly a professional, but he is a specialist. The Middle Ages are dead –

  ¶ T: Now there you see also the great advantages to my studies. I can lose manuscripts and rewrite them – no inspiration needed –

  ¶ Hedda is completely taken up by the child that is to come, but when it is born she dreads what is to follow –

  ¶ Hedda must say somewhere in the play that she did not like to get out of her compartment while on the trip. Why not? I don’t like to show my legs …. Ah, Mrs. H., but they do indeed show themselves. Nevertheless, I don’t.

  ¶ Shot herself! Shot herself!

  Brack (collapsing in the easy chair): But great God – people don’t do such things!

  ¶ NB!! Eilert Løvborg believes that a comradeship must be formed between man and woman out of which the truly spiritual human being can arise. Whatever else the two of them do is of no concern. This is what the people around him do not understand. To them he is dissolute. Inwardly he is not.

  ¶ If a man can have several male friends, why can’t he have several lady friends?

  ¶ It is precisely the sensual feelings that are aroused while in the company of his female “friends” or “comrades” that seek release in his excesses.

  ¶ Now I’m going. Don’t you have some little remembrance to give me –? You have flowers – and so many other things – (the story of the pistol from before) – But you won’t use it anyhow –

  ¶ In the fourth act when Hedda finds out that he has shot himself, she is jubilant …. He had courage.

  ¶ Here is the rest of the manuscript.

  ¶ CONCLUSION: Life isn’t tragic …. Life is ridiculous …. And that’s what I can’t bear.

  ¶ Do you know what happens in novels? All those who ki
ll themselves – through the head – not in the stomach …. How ridiculous – how baroque –

  ¶ In her conversation with Thea in the first act, Hedda remarks that she cannot understand how one can fall in love with an unmarried man – or an unengaged man – or an unloved man – on the other hand –3

  ¶ Brack understands well enough that it is Hedda’s repression, her hysteria that motivates everything she does.

  ¶ On her part, Hedda suspects that Brack sees through her without believing that she understands.

  ¶ H.: It must be wonderful to take something from someone.

  ¶ When H. talks to B. in the fifth act about those two sitting there trying to piece together the manuscript without the spirit being present, she breaks out in laughter then she plays the piano – then – d –

  ¶ Men – in the most indescribable situations how ridiculous they are.

  ¶ NB! She really wants to live a man’s life wholly. But then she has misgivings. Her inheritance, what is implanted in her.

  ¶ Loving and being loved by aunts … Most people who are born of old maids, male and female.

  ¶ This deals with the “underground forces and powers.” Woman as a minor. Nihilism. Father and mother belonging to different eras. The female underground revolution in thought. The slave’s fear of the outside world.

  ¶ NB!! Why should I conform to social morals that I know won’t last more than half a generation. When I run wild, as they call it, it’s my escape from the present. Not that I find any joy in my excesses. I’m up to my neck in the established order ….

  ¶ Hedda: Slender figure of average height. Nobly shaped, aristocratic face with fine, wax-colored skin. The eyes have a veiled expression. Hair medium brown. Not especially abundant hair. Dressed in a loose-fitting dressing gown, white with blue trimmings. Composed and relaxed in her manners. The eyes steel-gray, almost lusterless.

  ¶ Mrs. Elvsted: weak build. The eyes round, rather prominent, almost as blue as water. Weak face with soft features. Nervous gestures, frightened expression –

  ¶ See above. E. L.’s idea of comradeship between man and woman… . The idea is a life-saver!