Who Is the Villain in Hedda Galber?

Essay on Hedda Gabler

Whom do you regard as the principal villain in Hedda Gabler (in so far as you do not reject the term “villain” as simplistic, if you do, what forces or conditions human beings into making immoral choices or adopting obnoxious attitudes)?

Provide abundant, specific and detailed textual evidence in support of your views.

Approximately 800 words.

Terms such as hero and villain are complex ones and are not easy to describe. To start with, the dictionary defines a villain as “An evil character in a novel, movie, play, or other story, especially one who is the main enemy of the hero.” This being a very basic and simple definition one must explore it in order to figure out who the villain is in Hedda Gabler. The villain in this play cannot be a murderer or anything of the sort. In Hedda Gabler it is subtler. The villain is a character who is manipulative, has bad intentions, and is hypocritical and immoral. There are two such characters in the play: Hedda herself and Judge Brack.

Hedda is the first character that can be considered a villain. Firstly because of her moments of instability, which increase toward the end of the play. In the beginning,