Hedda Gabler is the wife of George Tesman; she is a wealthy aristocrat, daughter of a General, and her personality is very manipulative. In the story, she had just returned from a wedding tour with Tesman. Hedda's old friend Mrs. Elvested visits her when she gets back from her wedding tour and the two women catch up. Mrs.
Elvested had just walked out on her husband which was a something that women were not allowed to do at the time. Mrs. Elvested had come to also talk to Hedda about Mr. Eilert Lovborg being back in town. Lovborg was an old friend/flame of Hedda and in the play, Lovborg tried to get close with Hedda as they once were.
Hedda fearing the closeness tries to keep him away for Mrs. Elvested to have a chance. Eilert Lovborg is a writer as well as George Tesman. They are both trying to win a spot as a professor.
Eilert and Elvested had worked on a manuscript, but when Eilert drops the manuscript, a jealous Hedda picks it up and decides to burn it. She ends up wanting Eilert to kill himself because it is the "most romantic way to die." Eilert accidentally shoots himself in the brothels; later on, Hedda shoots herself in the heart like how Eilert was supposed to. By doing so, she was finally free forever.
Hedda's character is very manipulative and she values her freedom very much. Hedda did not get married in the play until she was the age of 29. This was because hse valued her freedom so being entitled to marriage meant she was to lose some of her freedom. She also feared the thought of being pregnant because it also meant losing more of her freedom.
She only decided to marry Tesman because of what society said about how well they looked together; so, Hedda is very socially driven. The way Hedda manipulated people is only to learn more. She also manipulates throughout the play to ease her boredom.
She is "the ideal woman" of this time. She is well-meaning and constantly urges George and Hedda to have a child. When George and Hedda return from their wedding tour, Aunt Julia tried to get along with Hedda by buying a new bonnet, but because of the difference in their class background,
In the play, Tesman is hoping for a professorship in history and he believes his literary opponent/rival Eilert Lovborg isn't going to get in his way until he finds out that Eilert is now back in town.
Elvested. Eilert is also an old flame of Hedda.
He always offers to have an affair behind George's back, which is something people don't do.
Elvested had grown close to Lovborg. She became Eilert's "personal secretary" and often helped him with research and writing. When Mrs. Elvested comes to the city, she seeks help from George and Hedda about her fear of Eilert relapsing back to his drinking.
Back in the days, Hedda and Mrs. Elvested went to school together where Hedda would often torment Mrs. Elvested. Mrs. Elvested is also an old flame of George Tesman.
Throughout the whole play, the each family member tries to put out their opinion on what they want to do with the money. Walter the man of the house, wants to use the money to open up a new business which he thinks will benefit his family and save their financial issues. As the play goes on, the family often clashes over their dreams/what they all want to use the money for. Later in the story, Mama ends up putting a down payment on a house in an entirely white neighborhood. When the white residents of the community find this out, they turn to Mr. Linder to go to the Youngers and offer them more money than they paid for the house to try to get them to change their minds about moving into the neighborhood.
When the family declines, Mr. Linder understands and leaves. However, as soon as this happens, the part of the money that Mama gave to Walter for the store, Walter's partner Willy ends up running off with the money leaving the family with nearly nothing left. When Walter tried to call Mr. Linder back to take the offer, they end up declining the offer once again and they decide to fulfill their dream and move into the new house. They believed that as long as they stick together and succeed as a family, there isn't anything they can't succeed.
He can never settle on one solution and tried to find a quick fix to everything.
In the play, Mr. Linder is the person that the white residents sent to the Youngers to try to get them to take his offer of money in exchange that they won't move into the neighborhood.
The Johnsons often take advantage of the Younger's hospitality and also tries to warn them about moving into a predominantly white neighborhood.
The play is between a university professor and one of his female students. In the play, the professor's student, Carol, is upset about not understanding the curriculum that was being taught in his class. John, already busy with his personal life, tried to briefly explain her confusion, but she still doesn't understand so she continues to ask questions. As the first act goes on, Carol keeps getting flustered and upset about how her intelligence compared to others in her class.
John, still dealing with personal matters, tried to come her down by proposing a solution. She will maintain an "A" grade in the class so long as she attends a few scheduled meetings with him to discuss all of the material. He also tried to get rid of the teacher to student relationship and tried to make her confortable by making it like a friend to friend relationship. He opens up about his life and tries to relate to Carol's frustration and situation.
Still, however, she isn't completely calmed down and she repeatedly inturrupts him by saying she's inferior and stupid over and over again. He tries to calm her down and puts his hand on her shoulder, but she shrugs it away. Then John has to leave to meet his wife and the act ends. In the next act, Carol meets with John again and reveals the fact that she accused him about being sexist. In this act, the power shifts from John to Carol. Around the same time, she comes back and reveals that she filed a sexual harrassment report about him.
Her character is now in a lot more control and content and she is much more self-assured. In the third act, John is very concerned because Carol had previously mentioned that she was thinking about reporting him to the Tenure Committee Hearing. In this act, Carl basically tried to dethrone John from his position at the university. John tries to focus on his job that he is very close to losing and Carol tries to make a deal with him that she will remove the reports if he agrees to take down the list of books for his class.
At this point, John is extremely furious. As Carol leaves, John's wife calls and he refers to her as "baby," and Carol objects this and says its degrading. In rage provoked by her remark, John beats and insults Carol, until she cowers.
He is considered to be granted a tenure and wants to buy a new house. He tries to calm down Carol and tried to relate to her so that she would feel more comfortable. In some aspects, this is considered patronizing behavior and shows how he tries to exert power.
She is very frustrated with the fact that she is unable to grasp the curriculum being taught in her class. Later in the play, her character's attitude takes a huge turn and she is no longer in her previous state, but she is more confident. She wavers between being the protagonist and antagonist of this play and readers are often torn over which side to take and her character growth varies between many different opinions of the readers.
In the beginning of the play, John holds the most power out of the two of them. He shows this by being a lot more focused on his personal life rather than to acknowledge his student more. In the next act, the power shifts and the power begins to balance out. It balances out because Carol filed the report of sexism against him. John attempts to defend himself, but Carol's character had begun to shape up and become a lot more self-assured. In the end, the person who held the most power was Carol.
This is because in the end, she is clearly a lot more confident and she answers the phone and interrupts him. John ends up beating her and as soon as he realizes his actions, reality hits him and he realizes that he had already lost everything, his tenure, his job, his house, etc. And she says "that's right," showing that she had caused all of this to happen and she was in control and had the most power.
