The Character of Hedda Gabler in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler The first aspect of the play that hits us, the readers, is the title. Before we even read a line of this play we notice the strangeness between the name of the title character and her name in the play. In the play Hedda is Tesman's wife, but the title suggests that she is the independent daughter of the late General Gabler. Thus, Ibsen introduces the reader to this difficult character before the curtain is drawn. We instantly ask the question: why is the title "Hedda Gabler" and not "Hedda Tesman"? Perhaps Ibsen is suggesting Hedda's independence from her present situation, the situation in which she is introduced. We are drawn into speculation over Hedda's past life, the life of Hedda Gabler. Ibsen's play is rich in random glimpses into Hedda's past. Hedda is the product of upper-class birth. She is, as I mentioned earlier, the daughter of General Gabler, whose portrait hangs over this play. And in case we have looked over the significance of the portrait in the stage directions or have overlooked it as an audience member, Miss Tesman pins our attention to it and the reality of Hedda's upper-class life: "Well, you cant's wonder at that--General Gabler's daughter! Think of the sort of life she was accustomed to in her father's time. Don't you remember how we used to see her riding down the road along with the General? In that long black habit--with feathers in her hat?" (Ibsen 2). Her upper-class birth and her past is contrasted by her choice of a husband who has neither noble blood nor lots of money. We are told that this motherless child of an upper-class general often gave in to fits of cruelty as a child: "At the finishing school the presence of a girl with a head of abundant, wavy flaxen hair irritated her and provoked her to outbursts of cruelty which had their