Comparison and Contrast of Characters in Hedda Gabler Essay

The play Hedda Gabler written by Henrik Ibsen and the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon directed by Ang Lee have women as central protagonists who manipulate other characters to make the plot of the play and the movie. In the famous literal works, the female characters Gabler and Jen represent the modern generation women, fighters for their position in the society, portraying on the struggle for power and scenarios which women handle power placed at their hands. When we compare and contrast the two female characters from the feminist literal works, we can assert that women have a strong ability to manipulate other individuals to do what they want, which cannot only destruct the destinies of the people but also their happiness in life.

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Both in the play and the movie, the two women Gabler and Jen are greed for power, since they want to control their destiny rather than being subjects of people in social rank over them. To begin with Gabler, she wanted to be the head of the family. She always wanted to be above her husband a reason as to why she was never happy about the marriage institution she got in with Tesman. Even after the six-month honeymoon, she returns to her new home unhappy, and the husband had to scorn her. She lacked the marital loyalty and also tried to hide the pregnancy from her husband which an ever-discouraged vice in marriages. She can be quoted resisting changes in her body form when she claims, "[Curtly, interrupting.] I am exactly as I was when I started" (Ibsen, 2014).

On the other hand, Jen wanted to be a robust military woman by possessing the magical and superstitious Green Destiny sword that was owned by great swordsmen (Lee, 2000). Jen, a daughter of the governor, was obsessed with the respect that comes along for having great martial arts skills and possession of a sword that symbolizes the great history of her community. Thus, she stole and secretly learned how to use an action that leads to the rest of events in the movie. The greed for power of these women results to the destruction of other characters in the literal works where for Gabler, her husband lacks social role of a man in a family whereas for Jen she took away the Green Destiny sword reserved for another strong swordsman.

In another circumstance, both women devalued the essence of marriage a respected social institution from history. Both had independent minds on marriage and duties in which Gabler in Hedda Gable play married but devoted from the relationship by having several other relationships with other men while Jen in the Hidden Dragon move ran away at the eve of their wedding night thus she refuted community designed marriage. For Gabler, it could be witnessed that her marriage was strained from honeymoon and anyone from the audience could wonder how the family could be sustained in the future since it lacked love. She loved the lavish and expensive lifestyle of exploiting the available cash in partying but eventually realized that her husband requires enough money as her father (Ibsen, 2014). Thefinancialconstraintsbecome a turnoff for the marriage and Hedda broke-up her marriage. In the movie, Jen refuted a wedding as she ran away at the eve of the wedding night since she felt lack of readiness for submission since already had a love relationship with bandits, Lo who lived in the desert (Lee, 2000). For lack of commitment to marriage, the two female characters devoted to self-determination of own destinies which led to the destruction of other characters. As seen in the movie, the involvement of Jen in the pursuit for the Green Destiny led to the deaths of Tsai, the undercover police, and Shu Lien, the owner of the sword.

On the other hand, differences in character traits occur between Gabler and Jen in the way which Ibsen and Agg visualized them to the audience. In the play Hedda Gabler, Gabler was more materialistic in the approach of the verbal conversation she made with her husband. Gabler was often money-oriented wanting new household equipment in the house whenever the Tesman received a paycheck (Ibsen, 2014). From the nurturing environment, she was exposed to an expensive and fancy social lifestyle that she lacked in the marriage. Her father was a general Gabler who possessed money, expensive houses and lived costly life aspects that his daughter perceived as a norm to all, and often wondered how her fiance couldn't afford such a life for her. The love for money made her dishonest and unpredictable in the approaches she made to her husband and friends. Compared to Jen, she was brought up from a royal family as a daughter to the governor. Despite the richness, she was abstemious for a relationship with other people. As a daughter of the governor, Jen fell in love relationship with a thief, Lo she pursuits after he stole her comb in robbery duel in the desert. She never considered the lifestyle of Lo, but she went on to give him her heart, to the extent she remarried him later at the end of the movie (Lee, 2000). For Gabler, she would never marry a man with the lifestyle of Lo, a desert bandit. In the end, the money-loving nature of Gabler led her to a multitude of a love relationship with friends which brought self-conviction and despair in her life and later, she committed suicide. Committing suicide was a painful end of her life in the play while for Jen though bitter she married Lo.

Conclusion

In conclusion, when Gabler and Jen sought for equality in rank in the society through the manipulation of people around them they had a far much-reaching effect on their lives and that of people around them. The characters caused the death of other individuals for the case of Jen whereas, in the play, Gabler was the cause of her death through actions that initiated suicidal minds in her. Finally, people should respect the stable social system that runs their lives to prevent affecting their lives and other people when they start fighting against the culturally set systems.

References

Ibsen, H. (2014). Hedda Gabler. A&C Black.

Lee, A. (2000). Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Sword of Destiny -full movie [Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/9x2k4w6lcsM