a great reread.

I'd only remembered what happens at the end, and not at all why. I didn't recall the theme of Hedda's pregnancy at all. Everyone scrutinizes her body and her expected future, but no one other than the audience acknowledges her unhappiness, and the oncoming child, and her opportunity to destroy the "child" of her only comrade. I read a review of NYC's recent production that calls Hedda "evil" and I was shocked, because, what else is a proportionate response to the pain of her mistake.

The other new idea to me was the description of her youth with her militant father, as his compatriot and sidekick. The General Gabler, giving his name to her and the play. The qualities of the father passed to the daughter, they rode side by side and shared guns, but doomed with a female life, Hedda's only adulthood can be marrying a useless bore. She can say of her pending family, "it is killing me," but in the end that's just not accurate enough.

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